The third annual ‘Beautify Bonney Lake' community event was a rousing success Saturday.
About 500 residents joined together at 9 a.m. and dispersed around the area to clean up, spruce up and generally do whatever was necessary to make the town look snappy and happy.
The attendance was the largest since the event started in 2004, with about 100 people from local churches and community volunteers.
This year Bonney Lake High School football players, girls' soccer team members, athletes from the golf team, swim team, fastpitch team and other students and athletes joined Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops, business leaders, community members and church groups in an effort to make a difference in the Bonney Lake community.
The work ranged from Ascent Park to clean-up activity along Fennel Creek behind the Willowbrook development. Lake Bonney had noxious weeds removed including poison hemlock, Japanese knotweed and yellow iris. Play toys and a basketball hoop were installed at Madrona Park with picnic tabletops and a barbecue grill.
Another group cleaned up and weeded the area between City Hall and the Bonney Lake Senior Center.
High school students started working at the Pierce County Park and Ride at 184th Avenue East and state Route 410 behind the Chevron station and made their way to the Bonney Lake Library, City Hall Annex, Public Safety building and post office.
Another team of workers helped senior citizens spruce up around their houses and pressure wash their homes.
“It is amazing the sense of spirit that is being created by this event,” said Gary Leaf, director of community services. “The most important part of this was not the work, but the sense of community and connection.”
Along with volunteer work, many businesses contributed material and funds to the day's activities including Target, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Columbia Bank, Harborstone Credit Union, McLendon's Hardware, 410 Rentals and Home Depot.
Trees were planted in the boat parking lot at Allan Yorke Park. Big E Nursery donated $2,000 worth of trees for the project. Woodchips were also put on the trails around the park.
Groups of workers also helped the Creekridge Glen and Grandview homeowners' association with weeding and planting trees.
Laurie Carter, one of the event organizers and a member of the Park Board, drove around the town at the end of the day's work and said, “it was so impressive to see everything that had been done. It was a great event.”
Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@courierherald.com.
