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Residents focusing on ways to keep Bonney Lake beautiful

Avani Nadkarni/of The Herald

Lillian McGinnis wants to show that one day of community beautification can last an entire year.

The Beautify Bonney Lake executive director is encouraging residents from all over the city to join her and hundreds of their neighbors to help with 14 planned projects throughout town.

“It’s amazing to see what 500 or 600 people can do in three hours,” McGinnis said. “The beauty of it is that you do it one day and you get people together on one day and you see how much you can get done with volunteers and manpower.”

For the event’s sixth year, the projects include planting trees to weeding gardens for senior citizens to turning a botched wetlands storm drain into a natural drainage park at Crystal Meadows. There are projects for every size, strength and ability level, McGinnis said. To make it more of a family day, there are some kid-friendly projects available, such as tree planting near the elementary school.

“Children can plant trees, learn about trees and it’s near their school,” she said. “It’s kind of a fun thing we do that day.”

Beautify Bonney Lake is a partnership between the city, the community at large and the town’s business community. It was founded in 2004 by Andrew Lear, who spoke with the Bonney Lake Chamber of Commerce and a few city council members about starting something similar to Auburn’s Clean Sweep project. Lear chose a day, obtained a corporate sponsor, Target, and made up T-shirts and ordered pizza, expecting perhaps 50 volunteers to show up. Instead, they got 200.

“It has just grown since then,” McGinnis said. “Last year was the first year it rained and we still got 500 people.”

The results can be seen every day. Throughout the years, Ascent Park, home of Bonney Lake’s welcome sign, has reaped the benefits of Beautify Bonney Lake, which is now a recognized non-profit organization. It now features a variety of flowers and a waterfall. Even more, a past Beautify Bonney Lake project included a big cleanup of Fennel Creek, which runs along the city. After that first cleanup, it began to stay clean throughout the year.

“After that first year, people who lived along the creek took ownership and kept it clean,” McGinnis said. “Some of these things will be here for years. People can look at them and say, ‘I helped put that up.’”

Volunteers come from all different clubs, organizations and families, including churches, Boy Scouts, Kiwanis and even the Bonney Lake High School football team.

This year’s major sponsors include Sefnco Technologies, which will be providing some of the heavy-duty equipment needed to complete projects, and Cascade Water Alliance. Other local businesses donate shovels and other equipment on a smaller scale. McGinnis is ready for the event’s biggest turnout ever.

“It’s a big deal,” she said. “Our focus is that, even if we have this big event once a year, we try to stress that picking up litter, planting flowers, putting trees up makes (residents have) pride and ownership of (their) city.”

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Beautify Bonney Lake Beautify Bonney Lake 2009 is being held from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 19. Volunteers are asked to meet at 8:39 a.m. at the Bonney Lake Park and Ride, 9101 184th Ave in Bonney Lake. Pizza and beverages are provided after the event. For more information, visit www.BeautifyBonneyLake.org.