Modesto gets a second helping of Love this year as volunteers return to clean city
Volunteers spread out across the city for the second Love Modesto volunteer day this year, giving the area streets and trails an extra dose of care after a year when the pandemic delayed the annual event.
Now in its 13th year, Love Modesto held cleanup days in April and October for the first time. Organizers said the second helping of help for the city on Saturday was an effort to give people another chance to connect with the community after a tough year of shutdowns and closures.
Last year, the citywide beautification project was moved from its traditional April date to October because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The event started in 2009 with a little over 1,200 volunteers participating and has since grown to a massive effort with typically more than 100 projects and 7,000 to 10,000 volunteers each year.
But the ongoing pandemic has muted efforts for the annual cleanup day. Last October some 3,000 volunteers participated. On Saturday a little over 1,000 people signed up for some 30 projects around the city.
COVID-19 again forced the typically boisterous starting rally in downtown Modesto to move online where Love Modesto CEO and Founder Jeff Pishney fired up volunteers virtually with a brief welcome video.
Those who participated felt called to help, including Modesto resident Anita Blueford who has volunteered in the past and came with a group of close to a dozen of her co-workers from Blue Diamond.
“I love it,” she said, while picking up trash from downtown Modesto. “I love cleaning up our city. It’s just a good way to give back.”
Volunteers cleaned the landscaping, sidewalks and back alleys along the Virginia Corridor Trail as well. Jovana Mercado has encouraged her loved ones to come out each year. This year she worked alongside five other members of her family clearing brush and leaves.
This was her second volunteer day with Love Modesto this year, after participating in the April event as well. She said she didn’t realize there were two events this year at first, but didn’t mind doing double duty.
“Honestly I forgot we did it already in April. It’s been a long year,” she said. “But why not go out and do something together again?”
Besides cleanups, other projects this time around included decorating placemats for Meals on Wheels, collecting donations for various local charities and attending workshops on how to safely Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) local feral cat colonies.
Since its inception in 2009, the event has grown beyond Modesto’s borders. Pishney said the event has been replicated in some 90 communities across the United States and attracted more than 200,000 volunteers.
In the virtual rally to kick off the event, Love Stanislaus County Executive Director Bryan Justin Marks encouraged people to keep the day’s volunteer spirit year-round through their offshoot service programs. Those include Love Our Neighbors (launched last year at the start of the pandemic to connect volunteers to projects), Love Our Schools and Love Our Kids.
