Fall Clean-Up Grows; Volunteers Outnumber Clients

Urbandale's annual Fall Cleanup Day Saturday may have more volunteers than people who need their yards raked.

One particular church - the Waukee Ward Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is sending quite a few volunteers.

"When she called me and said I have 110 volunteers for you, I almost fell off my chair," said Mary Polson, program coordinator for the Urbandale Community Action Network.

Polson said she called the city's just to make sure they might have things for volunteers to do, should they finish private yards before the morning is finished.

Polson said the cleanup, which was started about 10 years ago, is done every spring and fall. 

In the fall, volunteers rake and bag leaves, trim bushes, pick up sticks, put away lawn furniture and garden hoses, and generally get yards ready for winter. "Nothing that requires being on a ladder," Polson said.

The project has grown in the past year, since the organization created yard signs to advertise the cleanup day.

Once people saw the signs in their friends and neighbors' yards, more signed up for the service.

Polson said there are no specific requirements to be eligible for the volunteers to clean up their yard. "It's pretty much the people who are no longer able to do their own yard any more," she said.

She credited Jill Turner, chairwoman of the fall cleanup.

Although the Caring Corps office would like volunteers to call the office 278-3999 to let them know you want to volunteer, you also can just show up on Saturday.

Come to the shelter house in at 72nd Street and Aurora Avenue at 8 a.m. for a continental breakfast and to get your assignments. Bring rakes, hedge trimmers and gloves.