Help keep Jacksonville parks clean, earn service hours in self-guided volunteer program

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Timucuan Parks Foundation is offering a way for students and community members to not only help clean up but also earn service hours while doing so. All you have to do is bring proper clothes, trash bags, and document your work.

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From now through the end of June, the Spring Self-Guided Volunteer Cleanup Program is being held to help keep Jacksonville parks free of litter. Two hours of community service can be earned.

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To participate, visit timucuanparks.org/parks to choose one of the many parks around Jacksonville to clean up. If there’s a park or preserve that’s not on the list you can fill it in on a form supplied by the program.

Volunteers are encouraged to ask friends and family to join. They should dress appropriately in breathable clothes that can get dirty, closed-toe shoes, and a hat for protection from the sun. Insect spray is highly recommended, some water and a snack, trash bags, protective gloves, and a camera to document the work.

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The Timucuan Park Foundation has these guidelines and instructions to follow:

“Students and other participants are required to pick up litter for one and a half or more hours and the work must be documented through photographs. Do not pick up anything sharp or pointy or any dead animals and the trash bags should be filled about half or three-quarters of the way to allow for easy lifting and tying. Participants should take before and after selfies, pictures of those working alongside them, and a final snapshot with the trash bags. Place the trash bags in or around a park trash receptacle or take them to throw away in a trash receptacle if none are available at the park.”

—  Timucuan Parks Foundation

Email the photographs to volunteer@timucuanparks.org or share the photos and park location on social media using #tpfcleanup or @timucuanparks. Students and community members are required to fill out the parks cleanup form to earn community service hours which can be found at https://www.timucuanparks.org/self-guided/. An email confirmation of the two hours of community service hours will be sent to participants.

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