It’s that time of year again – Seattle’s annual Spring Clean event is coming up in April and May. And as part of the preparations for the citywide clean-up, the city is looking for community organizations and members to set-up community service events in their neighborhoods.

From the Spring Clean website.

Spring Clean provides opportunities for citizens to clean up Seattle’s public open spaces of their choice with city support, including planning assistance, gloves, safety vests, disposal bags, transfer station passes, and waste disposal. Typical volunteer projects include litter pick ups, invasive plant removal, storm drain stenciling, graffiti removal, and general area beautification.

To find out about participating events, or start your own, contact Gretchen Muller at gretchen.muller@seattle.gov. If you’d like to register your own event with the city, fill out this sign-up form (.pdf) and send it to Gretchen. More information here.

Volunteers from Seattle Country Day School will be repairing the tagged mural under the Aurora Bridge this Saturday, May 15, according to Head of School Michael G. Murphy. The mural, which has been tagged and repaired countless times, was repainted just last fall. Unfortunately the site seems to be a frequent target for vandals.

“Let’s hope it remains in good shape and not hit again by graffiti!” Murphy wrote. Murphy also emphasized Seattle Country Day School’s commitment to contributing to the Queen Anne community. He wrote:

Besides the mural and Adopt-a-Street clean-up, SCDS has hopefully been a positive influence in the neighborhood in other ways.  Several of our students have made multiple visits to the nearby Queen Anne Care Center bringing Valentine’s Day gifts, sharing music, and interviewing some residents as part of their history classes.  Also, for several years, our students have regularly been sprucing –up designated areas in Rogers and Mayfair Park under the guidance of the city’s Parks Department.

Vandalism around the neighborhood is nothing new. Read up on the most recent occurrences here.

Volunteers will be celebrating Earth Day (Thursday, April 22), by clearing out invasive plants at Lower Kinnear Park this Saturday, April 24. For those interested in participating, volunteers will be meeting at the Roy Street entrance to the park and working from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. The clean-up is being spearheaded by the Scientology Environmental Task Force, which has been an active supporter of community group FOLKpark‘s efforts to redevelop and revive Lower Kinnear Park.

Volunteers got together over the weekend at Counterbalance Park, at the corner of Queen Anne Ave N and Roy St, to work to better protect the park against vandalism.

Counterbalance Park was vandalized overnight back in February, when both concrete walls of the “urban park” were covered with red lettering almost 15 feet high. Alex Braun, the manager of The Willis condos that border the north wall of the park and the Barclay Court business building to the east, was able to remove the majority of the tags the next day.

However, because the park walls were only sealed up to 11 feet, it took another three weeks and a graffiti specialist to remove the final traces.

On Saturday morning a handful of volunteers brought paint, rollers, ladders and snacks to the park, where they painted the top half of both walls with a protective seal and then another coat of matching gray paint on top of that, in the hopes of protecting the park against future acts of vandalism.

FOLKpark has been working to redesign and revitalize Queen Anne’s Lower Kinnear Park with the support of a $15,000 Department of Neighborhoods grant and many community volunteers who have dedicated weekends to cleaning up the park.

Over the past few months the organization has enlisted the help of HBB Landscape Architecture to develop four concept designs for the enhancement of the park, built from community feedback at a series of public meetings. In order to finance Phase II of the project–design development and construction drawings–the group is applying for Department of Neighborhoods Large Project Fund, and is asking for community support in winning it. In an email sent out last week FOLKpark Volunteer Coordinator Phil Prahst wrote,

FOLKpark is applying for funding through the City’s Department of Neighborhoods Large and Simple Fund to take the conceptual design for Lower Kinnear Park into the next phase of design development and construction drawings.

Part of the application asks that we list individuals by name, address, phone and email that are willing to volunteer time or donate money to the project during the time frame of this grant, which is August, 2010 through January, 2011. I know we have asked you before, but we need your permission to use your name, etc.

FOLKpark is asking those planning on volunteering time or making a donation in the next year to fill out this short survey, which will be provided to the Department of Neighborhoods for grant consideration. For more information visit folkpark.org.

On Thursday, April 8, FOLKpark will be presenting the final conceptual plan for Lower Kinnear Park to the community at a public meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Bayview Retirement Community, located at 11 W. Aloha St.

And on Sunday, April 24 FOLKpark will be leading a clean up in Lower Kinnear Park in honor of Earth Day. Volunteers are invited to come celebrate nature and clean up the park by clearing out invasive (ivy, holly and blackberries) from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. The Department of Park and Recreation will be providing tools.

FOLKpark will be hosting an Upper Kinnear Park Clean-up from 9 a.m. to noon tomorrow, Saturday, March 20.

Volunteers interested in helping with some planting west of the comfort station should meet at 9 a.m. in the gravel area. Parks and Recreation will be supplying plants and tools. Everyone is welcome.

This event is being organized by the Church of Scientology Environmental Task Force. For more information contact Dave at davidscattergood@gmail.com.