Adopt-A-Sites 2008

2008—A great year for Adopt-A-Sites!

2008 proved to be a successful season for our Adopt-A-Site (AAS) program. Spring and summer yielded just the right amount of rain and sunshine to produce beautiful, healthy and colorful flowers all around Akron at Keep Akron Beautiful’s 79 AAS locations. The success of our AAS program was not based solely on the chance of good weather and a good season, though—we have our wonderful volunteers to thank for the time, effort and dedication they contributed to each site maintained this season under the direction of Polly Kaczmarek, Keep Akron Beautiful’s Flowerscape Foreman.

2008 became a special season with so many interested and enthusiastic individuals willing to beautify their communities and neighborhoods. Along with many return volunteers came six new sites and groups: Tom Buschko headed Bella Dora Management and created a site at the corner of Carroll and Fountain Streets; the McCartney/Johnson family created a new site at the top of the Glendale Steps on Walnut Street; Ken Ditlevson headed the Dodge/Payne Avenue Block Club and placed several pots and plants in front of the corner convenience store; Kim Hurray led a group of volunteers who created a site at Hadden Circle; Ann Raber and the Mineola Block Club created a site in front of Forest Lodge near the Mull/Hawkins Avenue circle; and Melissa Paul and the West Akron Kiwanis created a site at Braewick Circle on Sand Run Road. New signs were installed for these sites on July 30.

From top left to right: Fountain & Carroll Street, Glendale Steps, Dodge & Payne Avenue, Hadden Circle, Forest Lodge Park and Braewick Circle.

With 79 sites and approximately 400 total volunteers maintaining these sites, Keep Akron Beautiful is beyond happy with this year’s turnout and everyone’s dedication to these sites. Keep Akron Beautiful hopes everyone enjoyed viewing these AAS sites around Akron. The AAS program is funded annually with donations given by the public; without your annual help and generosity, this program would not be possible. To make a donation for KAB’s 2009 AAS season, please visit our site at http://www.keepakronbeautiful.org/donations.htm or mail donations to Keep Akron Beautiful at 850 E. Market St., Akron, OH 44305.

Keep Akron Beautiful thanks you for your time, effort and interest in planting and maintaining flower beds across Akron—if it were not for the effort and interest of such wonderful volunteers, we would have no flower sites to show off to the public! We thank everybody who dedicated their time and effort toward beautifying your neighborhoods and making them even better places to live!

The Adopt-A-Site program is a beautification project that involves volunteers who plant and maintain public lands in Akron on an ongoing basis. KAB assists the groups by advising them on site choice and landscape plans, first-year site preparation, wholesale purchase of plant materials and free hydrant connections for watering. KAB provides bags for cleanups and trash removal at the end of the season. This year, the Adopt-A-Site clinic was held on April 9, 7:00 p.m., at the KAB office at 850 E. Market St.

New volunteers, seasoned volunteers and the support team all attended this informational meeting on how to plant and maintain Adopt-A-Site locations for the 2008 growing season. It was a fun evening, filled with door prizes, refreshments and a presentation given by Flowerscape Director, Polly Kaczmarek.

If you are interested in starting an Adopt-A-Site in your neighborhood for the 2009 growing season call KAB in February, 2009, to discuss your ideas. We would be delighted to welcome your volunteer group into the program!