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Subject: An article from ejmace@hot.rr.com from ValleyStar.com!
Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 04:38:09 -0700

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Valley Morning Star May 22 2005. The group may find this interesting.

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http://www.valleystar.com/cache_localnews.php?id=P58008

<h4>Volunteers beautify city cemetery</h4>Cleanup effort takes place after letter appears in newspaper

HARLINGEN — Alyssa and Adryanna Salinas traded Saturday morning cartoons for some early morning yardwork in one of the city’s greenest areas, the city cemetery.

The young girls ignored the sweat on their brows and tidied local graves with 78 other volunteers.

Working along with Harlingen Proud, an organization that strives to beautify Harlingen, as well as a few city workers, the weekend landscapers spent three hours raking leaves, cleaning graves and trimming bushes and trees at the Harlingen City Cemetery.

"We do this to help the city," said Adryanna, 8, who came with her Girl Scout Troop to help clean the cemetery. "We helped pick up leaves and raked and picked up old flowers."

Harlingen Proud event organizer Mandy Key said the cleanup started after a letter to the editor was published in the Valley Morning Star by a 10-year-old girl, who said the cemetery had into fallen disrepair.

"This is a way to honor those who have come before us," Key said. "This is our fourth cleanup in the past two years, and we plan to do this every year."

Curtis Bonner, Harlingen Proud president, said the turnout of volunteers this year was impressive.

"We put the call out and people came," Bonner said. "It is wonderful to see people with their families out here on a Saturday, just because they care about the city."

Downtown Manager Cheryl LaBerge said since the organization started its initiatives to clean the cemetery, volunteers have had to clean less of the pollution and litter that is left behind at most cemeteries.

"Families leave silk flowers, which get old after a while. And you know some kids leave bottles and trash if they come here," LaBerge said. "But, you know, since we have been cleaning, I have seen less and less to do because I feel people know someone cares so they don’t leave as much around here."

Volunteers worked through the morning to have the cemetery ready for those coming to pay their respects to their loved ones on Memorial Day. Harlingen Proud board member and volunteer Juan Salas said this event, and other similar ones in the city, thrive on volunteers because city workers are needed elsewhere.

"We do this not only because we (volunteers) love our city, but also because we want to help save taxpayers money," Salas said. "We do not have enough city workers to do things like this, so the community has to work together to keep Harlingen beautiful. Many people in the city may not know that, but it is volunteers that help clean and beautify the city along with the (city) workers."

Even though the Salinas girls may not receive a badge as they end their morning making someone’s resting-place neat, they said they still enjoyed their time working.

"We also cleaned the plaques and made them nice," Alyssa said. "I liked cleaning."

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