With October comes cooler weather, fall colors, Halloween and… Walnut Creek’s Community Service Day! Saturday, October 14th is the thirteenth annual Community Service Day, which brings thousands of volunteers to help on dozens of projects throughout the city. We all love our city, and this is everyone’s chance to give back to the community that we love. The motto for this year is “Get Out. Give Back. Feel Great.”
There are projects for everyone, including parks, gardens, community centers and schools. Here are just a few in our Northgate community that people can sign up for:
Arbolado Park Spruce up: Help us spruce up the landscaping at Arbolado Park. We will do a little pruning, remove some weeds, spread bark and pick-up litter.
Northgate High School Beautification Clean-up: Join the NHS students and help to clean the campus of trash, prune roses and other bushes, add plantings and clear weeds, and possibly do some painting. All are welcome!
Pine Creek Clean-up: Volunteers will work along the creek that parallels Oak Grove Road picking up trash that degrades the wildlife habitat along the creek.
Pine Creek Habitat Restoration: Volunteers will work to remove an invasive plant, dittrichia (stinkwort), to improve the wildlife habitat.
Walnut Acres School Spiff-Up: Join friends and neighbors and help us spiff-up Walnut Acres for the school year. We will clean lunch tables and play structures, sweep, dust, wash windows, pick up trash and freshen up the landscape. There’s plenty of work for everyone!
YV Library Gardening: Join other library lovers as we spruce-up the foliage and do general clean-up at the YV Library.
Volunteers of all ages can sign up here: wcserviceday.volunteerhub.com
Note that minors will need a parent or guardian to sign their waiver form.
By Kevin Wilk, Walnut Creek City Councilmember, Northgate resident since 1996