CLEARFIELD — Some 400 dedicated volunteers hope to build a new city park in a single day while thousands of others help spruce up other parts of the city as stages the second annual "Pride Day" Saturday.
Jolene Goff, event chairwoman, said she's expecting between 1,200 to 2,000 volunteers to participate in 32 different projects designed to beautify and enhance the city. The park project, taking place on the north side of 200 South at 500 West, is the featured event of the day.
She said Wedgewood Park, a one-acre neighborhood park with a water theme and named for its slice-of-pie shape, is going to be created on some former drainage basin property.
"Our object is to be totally done with the park Saturday," Goff said.
Workers will construct a riverbed, erect a fence, make a path, cut up and move sod, set up playground equipment, tables and a picnic area. She said the park will be a unique Clearfield feature where kids can flip a switch and turn on water streams and play.
Besides the park project, hundreds of other volunteers will clean up the side of the freeway and other roads, paint fire hydrants and park equipment and even the visitor side football bleachers at Clearfield High School.
The massive cleanup effort begins with a free breakfast for all participants, from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. in the Clearfield High School cafeteria, near 900 S. and 1000 East. Goff said the meal will not be mere continental breakfast, but rather the chuckwagon variety with eggs, bacon, pancakes and all the trimmings and juices.
All the city is asking in return is one can of food per person to be donated to the Davis County Food Bank and a morning's worth of work or whatever people are able to do. She said the free breakfast isn't coming from city funds, but has been donated by area businesses.
After breakfast, there will be an assignment table where those volunteers who aren't yet assigned to a project can find one that will suit their time constraints and abilities.
"We've made a concerted effort to invite as many volunteers as we can," Goff said. "We'd like to be over-staffed."
She said children as young as 5 will be able to participate by doing simple jobs such as painting fire hydrants. Those as old as 70 will also find some easier projects they can participate in, such as headstone cleanup at the cemetery.
Goff's committee has been planning the cleanup project for weeks and she's not aware of any other northern Utah city that has a similar event that's so structured or that's such a city-wide project.
Last year's Take Pride Day had 750 participants and for several years prior to that, the city had certain neighborhoods that staged individual cleanup activities.
She said the event is a great activity that sees families working together. She said the city is providing paint and materials and the citizen objective is to provide the manpower.
Goff expects all participants to be done with their projects by noon or before, though she has told the park builders that their special event might take longer. She said the plans are to proceed even in bad weather, though a really bad rainstorm could delay much of the work.