Community members participate in Mulch Madness despite rain
Jon Strifler, red jacket, and Jade Leaureaux, burgundy hoodie, rake new mulch onto Timber Town playground on May 19.
Despite the rainy weather, nine dedicated Mount Pleasant residents gathered on May 19 to begin spreading new mulch at Island park.
Every year, approximately 500 cubic yards of mulch is distributed to all Mount Pleasant parks. However, due to the immense flooding that occurred last summer, 640 cubic yards of mulch needs to be spread this year, thus the creation of Mulch Madness.
Director of Parks and Public Spaces, Chris Bundy, wanted to create a program that could better the community, while also involving the community.
“[Mulch Madness] is the perfect program that gives people the opportunity to get involved in a community wide activity,” Bundy said.
Even though the weather was not ideal, several members of Thrive Church gathered at Timber Town at about 11 a.m. to begin spreading the mountains of mulch. After they spread mulch for two and a half hours, Little Caesars donated four pizzas to the volunteers.
Assistant pastor and worship leader, Matt Moore, joked about the weather while confirming plans to return.
“It is definitely spring now,” said Moore. “But we’ll have teams back out during the week to help finish up the other parks. Hopefully then, the weather will be nicer.”
What started out as a one-day event, has now turned into a week-long gathering.
The event was originally meant to be broken into two sessions, during which community members would work alongside the city's parks and recreation department to spread as much mulch as possible. However, due to the weather, that was not the case.
The parks and recreation department invites all of Mount Pleasant to visit their local playground to help distribute mulch throughout the week.
As of right now, Timber Town is mostly completed, but the rest of the parks have yet to be touched. The other parks include:
• Chipp-A-Waters – 1403 W. High St.
• Horizon – 1535 Sweeney St.
• Island Park Slide land – 331 N. Main St.
• Mill Pond – 607 S. Adams St.
• Pickens – 309 W. Pickard St.
• Sunnyside – 1511 Elm St.
• Yost Park – 206 S. Henry St.
For more information on Mulch Madness and how to help, call the division of parks and public spaces at 989-779-5331.
