PRESS RELEASE: Volunteers Clean and Green on Mayor’s Day of Service - 1/9/16

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 9, 2016

Contact:
Joey Kahn, San Francisco Recreation and Park Department
(415) 629-2559, joey.kahn@sfgov.org
Mindy Linetzky, San Francisco Public Works
(415) 554-4829

SAN FRANCISCO, CA –  The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, San Francisco Public Works, and the San Francisco Housing Authority, joined Mayor Ed Lee in cleaning, greening, serving, and beautifying San Francisco on the Mayor’s Day of Service today. The Day of Service ran from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturday, January 9 with a kickoff at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center near the Buchanan Street Mall and Plaza East Apartments where over 100 volunteers planted trees, picked up trash in the playground and surrounding streets, as well as mulched tree basins and planted areas to support water conservation. Mayor Ed Lee joined the volunteers, helping to plant an olive tree in front of the community center.

Other projects included dozens of volunteers cleaning up the playground and mulching at Adams Rogers Park in Bayview in addition to crews working with Public Works to pick up litter and weed the areas around Alemany Blvd near Highway 280 and Congdon. More volunteer projects are scheduled throughout the month – see www.sfmayor.org for locations and details.

“There’s always work to be done in our parks – they would not be what they are without the unbelievable support from our stewards and volunteers ,” said Phil Ginsburg, General Manager of SF Rec & Park. “We’re proud to join the Mayor and other agencies on this Day of Service.”

In addition to the Mayor’s Day of Service, the SF Rec & Park volunteer division supports 187,000 hours of annual stewardship towards our 220 parks and recreation centers citywide. Volunteers provide an equivalent of a $4.9 million donation each year. Additionally, the volunteer division supports almost 20 park projects weekly and over 100 park projects monthly with our “Friends of” groups. The department encourages youth volunteering and commitment to service, both through our Youth Stewardship and Greenagers Program and through regular drop-in youth projects around the city.

“What a great way to start the New Year with the City family working side by side with community volunteers to take care of our neighborhoods,” said Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru.

Later this month, Community Clean Team, San Francisco Public Works longest-running and largest volunteer program, kicks off on January 23, 2016. Since 2000, the program has logged more than 148,000 volunteer hours, added more than 30,000 plants to public spaces, and painted over more than 3 million square feet of graffiti. Community Clean Team volunteers focus on one supervisorial district each month. Information about dates and locations, and how to sign up, can be found here.

To learn more about SF Rec & Parks volunteer division, please visit: http://sfrecpark.org/support-your-parks/volunteer-program/