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Since 1995, the Monday Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday has been celebrated as a day of
service throughout America, the only federal holiday that’s considered a day on instead
of a day off. Here at home, Pinellas County employees and others gave back to their community
through several volunteer events. 56 volunteers contributed 168 hours along
the Pinellas Trail picking up nearly 1400 pounds of garbage at Keep Pinellas Beautiful’s
Pinellas Trail Trash Bash. I mean it’s a beautiful day out, so we decided
to come out and exercise and spend a little time together and help out the community.
The grossest thing we found was a pregnancy test, very interesting, we definitely used
the little picker-upper, but just bottles, plastic bottles and beer cans…what else…just
a lot of plastic, some glass. Many of the younger volunteers this day had
the added benefit of contributing to their academic futures as they paid service to the
community. A lot of my volunteers in my area are from
Bright Futures through the school system. They’re required to do hands on hours for
their college education. You know, just about everybody, everybody
that’s gone by has said thank you, thank you so much, we really appreciate you, and
that’s really heartwarming for us. The Pinellas Trail Trash Bash was the kick
off event for Pinellas County’s new, Adopt-A-Trail-Mile program in partnership with Keep Pinellas
Beautiful. When you adopt a mile, you’re agreeing to
clean up, every other month, one segment of the trail. It’s about a mile in distance,
and in return you get your name put on a sign placed alongside the trail at two locations
at the beginning and the end. Adopt-a-trail mile participants also get recognition
on the Keep Pinellas Beautiful website. We are thinking about it. And I’m certain
that I have enough people that would help me out with that. It’s disheartening to
be out in our beautiful Florida and see garbage around, so it’s nice to be part of cleaning
it up. Across town, nearly 3 dozen Pinellas County
employees were hard at work at Habitat for Humanity’s Stevens Creek project. 51 homes
are planned for this Clearwater community. On this day, volunteers were working on two
homes, one nearly move-in ready but for the final landscaping.
We’re laying sod, for the family here, and we’ve been doing that this morning. This
time, I brought my two boys and they have brought their four friends with them, so I
think it’s going to become a tradition for us.
We need to continue to reinvest in our community, to give back and participate in the quality
of life in this community. Our employees as public servants really understand that and
appreciate the impact that they have and so they really are eager to go the extra mile.
I think everyone, should give back. It’s a good feeling. You’re contributing to someone’s
home, to someone’s dream. Joining the volunteers on this day were members
of the Burgess family who will be moving in to this new home in just a few days. They
were required to put 350 hours of their own sweat equity into the project, but were amazed
at this outpouring of support from the community. I feel very blessed to have all these people
helping us. It’s just overwhelming. I don’t know how
else to say it. Our organization could not continue to function
and would not be successful if we did not have the level of volunteer commitment we
get from Pinellas County and throughout the community. Our volunteers come from all walks
of life. Hard work, helping hands, smiling faces and
lots of community energy. Volunteers across Pinellas County spent this year’s Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. holiday giving back. I’m Len Ciecieznski…
Inside Pinellas.