There are things to be done and something for everyone during the annual Serve Jeff City.
Volunteers' efforts to clean up and beautify the Jefferson City area and assist local nonprofit organizations does make a difference, according to people involved Saturday.
"I don't have employees to do the extra work - like the planting of the flowers, and the scrubbing of the tables and chairs, and cleaning up the playgrounds, hanging awnings and doing all the heavy work - because our employees are so busy helping the children; that's what we do. So, we get a lot of things done on a day like today that we would not normally get done during the week," Little Explorers Discovery Center's Executive Director Donna Scheidt said.
Serve Jeff City was is in its eighth year. The annual event was started as a partnership in 2012 among the United Way of Central Missouri; Jefferson City Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department; Jefferson City YMCA; and other community organizations and groups.
"This is giving back to our
community. If everybody pitches in just a little bit to mitigate a problem, in this case litter and trash along the shorelines and in the lake, it makes the community better for all of us," volunteer Jim Lundsted said as he stood along the northeastern shore of Binder Lake.
Lundsted added that cleaning up the lake also "improves the quality of the water for wildlife, fish and other dependents that have to live in this basin."
He said he came to the lake Saturday with his wife, Julie, to pick up trash along the shore.
He and Julie have been cleaning up the lake for 20 years, but this was the fourth year they had combined their efforts with Serve Jeff City.
"We're an unconventional stream team," he said of them being one of two stream team leaders; yes, Binder Lake is a lake, but he said it is fed by a stream.
Lundsted said normally he and the other volunteers would have put a boat into the lake to help them clean up, but they were worried about lightning on Saturday morning, as storms moved out of the area.
"Well over 2,000 pounds," he estimated of the weight of the items he's retrieved from the water over the years - but things are improving.
"When we first started, we would have 75-100 bags of trash, every time, along with a half dozen to 10 tires. That has gone down significantly in the last several years. We think that we've started to make a difference with what we've picked up," he said of the clean ups encouraging more people not to litter in the first place.
He said volunteers try to pick up tires, plastics, treated wood - "anything that can be generally ingested by wildlife."
At Little Explorers later in the morning, Kurt Mueller said that with all the trees around the building, there's always a lot of leaves that have to be picked up.
Kurt's brother Mark Mueller - Treasurer on Little Explorers' Board of Directors - was mowing the grass around the building.
Kurt said he's been coming to volunteer for about five or six years after Mark got him involved.
"I'm more the handyman person," Kurt said, but they both do yard work. Kurt was in the middle of fixing the edges of one of the playgrounds.
Kurt said he enjoys the physical activity, "and the way it looks when it's done."
Scheidt said about a dozen people had helped Saturday at Little Explorers for Serve Jeff City, including a Girl Scout troop and parents with their children.
Other scheduled work sites for volunteers had included the Central Missouri Foster Care & Adoption Association, Cole County Extension Center, Council for Drug Free Youth, River City Habitat for Humanity, the Salvation Army Prayer Garden and Wear's Creek cleanup locations.
Volunteers were also scheduled to start the day with a pancake breakfast provided by Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and Sen. Mike Bernskoetter at McClung Park.
City Councilman Ken Hussey, who helps coordinate Serve Jeff City, estimated more than 350 people had come out to help.