Project Green: 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance

By Chuck MacDonald, Friends of Anne Arundel County Trails

We Americans are a can do, get busy, action-oriented people. What better way to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11 than by a day of service and remembrance?

Some 80 leaders and volunteers chose to put muscle behind the memory and volunteered at the World War II Memorial and Jonas Green Park in Annapolis on Sunday. Among the volunteers were 18 Midshipmen from the Naval Academy who are featured in a on the Historic Annapolis Patch.

Like most parks and backyards in the Annapolis area, the memorial and the park have been deluged by rain. The water has overwhelmed some of the marshes and grassy areas causing runoff into the Chesapeake Bay.

Volunteers pulled weeds that had begun choking rain gardens planted last year, pulled out rocks that had fallen into streambeds and installed a porous membrane in a stream to catch silt and prevent it from migrating into the Chesapeake.

Other activities included picking up trash along the medians and planting native species to hold the soil in place when new rains come. This helps prevent pollutants from being washed into creeks and into the Bay.

One of the volunteers, Burnell Vincent, was almost up to his ankles in mud, Vincent had a wide smile on his face when he said he enjoyed the volunteer work at the park. Vincent is also a volunteer with the Spa Creek Conservancy and said his volunteers have pulled up washing machines and other large appliances that clog and degrade the streams.

The day's work was enhanced by contributions and grants from Hands On Network, Friends of Anne Arundel County Trails, Constellation Energy and Tellabs. 

Maj. Aron Axe, of the United States Marine Corps, captured the spirit of the volunteers when he said during the welcome: "Volunteers help this county work effectively by doing jobs that governments simply don't have the manpower to do. Volunteerism is important because people in this country care and want to make a difference."