WILL Press Room
Volunteer for Clean Up Day at Kickapoo!
Thursday, April 02, 2009
8 am-1 pm Saturday, April 25
Help clean up Kickapoo State Park in preparation for spring and summer visitors! Contact Jason Toellner at 217-443-6803 or Lynn Wolgamot at 217-431-2662. WILL is co-sponsoring the project as part of its Kickapoo Kids initiative.
If you enjoy Kickapoo State Park and are happy that it’s still open for everyone to visit, consider joining volunteers from 8 am-1 pm Saturday, April 25, to clean up the park in preparation for spring, summer and fall visitors.
Last year, 140 volunteers came to help with the first cleanup day and more are needed this year. Those who volunteer for the Keep Vermilion County Beautiful and WILL Public Media Cleanup Day will pick up litter, clear ponds and rivers of large items, and cut back walking trails, said Lynn Wolgamot, director of Keep Vermilion County Beautiful.
To sign up to help with land cleanup, call Jason Toellner of Carmack Car Capitol at 217-443-6803 or Lynn Wolgamot at 217-431-2662. Volunteers who are over age 19 and want to help collect debris in the water, call Tracy Satterthwaite of Kickapoo Landing at 217-446-8399. Lunch will be provided for all volunteers.
The cleanup is part of the national Great American Cleanup headed by Keep America Beautiful. Keep Vermilion County Beautiful, an affiliate of the national group, chose Kickapoo this year and last year as its cleanup project.
“Illinois State Parks budgets have been neglected in past years and the staff at Kickapoo is small,” said Wolgamot. “Last year, it was cold and rainy, but it was such great experience. Our volunteers accomplished so much.”
WILL Public Media is partnering with Keep Vermilion County Beautiful on the cleanup as part of WILL’s Kickapoo Kids project. WILL, along with other community and University of Illinois groups including the Department of Advertising, will introduce the teens from the Danville Boys and Girls Club and their families to Kickapoo State Park, and increase awareness among African Americans about the value of Kickapoo. The Kickapoo Kids project was untaken in conjunction with the PBS series by Ken Burns, National Parks: America’s Best Idea, which airs on WILL-TV this fall.
Local sponsors of the Kickapoo cleanup are Carmack Car Capitol, which is serving lunch donated by North Logan Health Care in Danville, and Kickapoo Landing, which is providing the canoes for water cleanup.
National sponsors of the Great American Cleanup 2009 are Honda, Arm & Hammer, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Dow, Glad, Pepsi, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Solo, Waste Management, Wrigley, University of Phoenix and TROY-BILT.
Keep Vermilion County Beautiful is one of more than 650 affiliates of Keep America Beautiful that encourage the KAB philosophy of individual commitment for the community environments through litter prevention, beautification and recycling.