Citizens show city pride

Citizens of Amherst took to the streets of downtown to beautify their city, May 19, during Lorain County Pride Day.

“The event is something that is available for all the cities in the county to work on landscaping and make things beautiful for when people are walking around downtown in the summertime,” said Teresa Gilles, executive director of Main Street Amherst. “This will be done by mulching the Main Street Building and the San Spring Building, trimming bushes, picking up trash and pulling weeds where needed. It’s essentially anything you might think that improves the look of downtown’s landscaping.”

Gilles said volunteers were given different responsibilities.

“We had a good turnout this year,” she said. “The community and organizations were willing to volunteer and allow us to get the most out of this day. We have the Marion L. Steele High School Women’s Soccer Team pulling weeds on the wall on Tenney Avenue, and the football team mulching the Old Spring. It is basically a combination of the schools, churches, businesses and citizens out their working hard to improve their downtown.”

Gilles said the event was sponsored by the Lorain

County Commissioners.

“They sent a Clean and Beautiful(CAB), which is basically a U-Haul style storage truck filled with shovels, wheel barrels, weed whackers, a lawn mower, and any other landscaping tool you might need,” she said. “I feel we were able to make the most of the time we had with the equipment given. We also received water and trash bags from local businesses, so it was a well supported effort.”

Katelyn Hazelgrove, 14, a Steele freshman and women’s soccer team member, said the volunteer work was the least she could do.

“The city is very supportive of us and I’m glad we have the opportunity to come out here and help out,” she said. “I feel this sort of landscaping work falls on the young people, it’s not glamorous but it needs to be done.”

Alden Steele, 15, a Marion L. Steele freshman football player, said Amherst is more than deserving of the volunteer work.

“The city comes out and supports us every game day in the fall,” he said. “It feels good to do the work and I take pride in improving downtown.”

“I feel this sort of landscaping work falls on the young people, it’s not glamorous but it needs to be done.”

— Katelyn Hazelgrove, 14, a Marion L. Steele High School freshman

Ainsley Steele, 16, a Junior at Marion L. Steele and member of the school’s women’s soccer team, pulls weeds near the wall on Tenney Ave. for Pride Day.