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Earth Day volunteers clean up the downtown

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Ashley Lawrence and Zion Lawrence, both of Farmington, pick up litter in Meetinghouse Park Tuesday afternoon.
Ashley Lawrence and Zion Lawrence, both of Farmington, pick up litter in Meetinghouse Park Tuesday afternoon.

FARMINGTON – Volunteers were out combing the streets and green spaces around the downtown Tuesday, hauling of bags of garbage in the first annual Earth Day Clean Up event.

Organizer Jo-Anne Bean Palmer of Farmington came up with the idea to hold an Earth Day clean up on Tuesday from 1 to 3 p.m., approaching the Farmington Downtown Association, whose members embraced the idea and donated $50 towards the purchase of gloves and bags for participating volunteers.

Other groups and organizations pledged their support and involvement. Reny’s is donating gloves and lollipops for the younger volunteers. A local Girl Scout troop, a team from Franklin Savings Bank, the public library, members of the University of Maine at Farmington’s Sustainable Campus Coalition, and the town’s Highway Department have promised their help.

“We’re trying to hit the most littered areas,” Jo-Anne Bean Palmer said Tuesday afternoon, as volunteers dropped of bags of trash in front of the organizer’s table on Main Street. “We want people to come and see the town as looking good as it can.”

Residents of other towns had contacted her, Bean Palmer said, and told her that they were undertaking similar efforts in their own towns.

The first Earth Day was held in 1970, is observed globally with activities traditionally centered on environmental protections. The March 22 date relates to the northern hemisphere’s spring equinox and the southern Hemisphere’s fall equinox.

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Organizer Jo-Anne Bean Palmer, left, with granddaughter Emela, speak to volunteers on Main Street, Tuesday afternoon. At right is volunteer Erik Lochmann.
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2 Comments

  1. Wonderful to see so many out picking up litter in Farmington. One suggestion is to make sure the gloves are worn. Observed a group of young people picking up trash with their bare hands. Not good.

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