Saturday's Community Cleanup of Shepherd Park in Congress Heights was a HUGE success! A lot of people don't know that Congress Heights has a lot of National Parkland. Today a lot of concerned citizens and Congress Heights supporters came out today to help clean up the park at the  corner of MLK and Malcolm X Avenue and  the parkland down Malcolm X Avenue on both sides of the street.

Black and white, new arrivals and long-term residents, homeowners and renters, working and unemployed, kids and adults,  volunteers and those doing court-ordered community service came out today from 10am - 2pm and gave some of their time and a lot of their elbow grease to "give back" to the community.  Everyone had a great time and not one single "crab" was spotted during the entire community clean-up. Hmmm...I wonder if this was a coincidence? This is the type of community spirit and togetherness I have been talking about. The "G" word of the day was "giving" and everyone did that.

 I had the opportunity to speak with the National Park supervisor for our area and he told me that the horseshoe players group should be relocated to their new space in Anacostia park within the week.  After their move has been finalized new mulch and sod will be added to the park to cover up the bald patches and he confirmed that the park is indeed getting it's new jungle gym!

Things are definetly looking  up for Shepherd Park. Now if we can only find someplace more appropriate and better suited for the homeless turned out of Saint Elizabeths during the day.  The park just is not sufficient nor appropriate. Hopefully someone from Saint Elizabeths or the Department of Human Services reads this post (and the many on subject) and can help us find some long term solutions to this problem.

Including some pictures of today's community cleanup. Many thanks to the groups that organized today's cleanup.  It was a huge success!

To coordinate your own clean up call 311 ask to be connected to the Department of Public Works "Helping Hands" program.  The Helping Hands program will provide you will all the clean-up supplies (bags, rakes, shovels, gloves) and will even pick up the trash bags after the event. The cost is F-R-E-E. You can also visit the DPW website.





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