Mountain Valley High School students, from left, Cameron Gallant, Kylee Pelletier, Kierstyn Lyons, Emily Davis and Mackenzie Arsenault, collect debris during a former River Valley Community Clean Up in the Rumford Information Center parking lot. Rumford Falls Times file photo
RUMFORD — The River Valley Community Clean Up is back and organizers are asking for volunteers to go block by block and neighborhood by neighborhood in Rumford and Mexico this month.
The cleanup will be held from 7 to 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, April 24-25. The event is organized close to Earth Day, April 22, by an informal group of River Valley residents. The cleanup committee includes Lisa Arsenault, Tom Bourret, Glenn Gordon and Gary Dolloff.
Gordon said they are not going to be gathering people together except to pick up bags.
“People will sign up online,” he said. “After all the signups online are done, we’re going to have to figure what we’ve got left for gaps to cover. Primarily, we’re looking to cover from the Dixfield bridge over to McDonald’s (in Rumford) through that Route 2 corridor.”
Other cleanup areas, Arsenault said, are from Circle K in Mexico up Route 17, Highland Terrace to the middle school in Mexico, Mountain Valley Variety in Rumford to the turn to Black Mountain, Route 2 up Falls Hill in Rumford, and all of downtown Rumford up to Smith Crossing.
Organizations/businesses are asked to encourage their employees to volunteer, or make a monetary donation.
Volunteers can sign up online at https://www.volunteersignup.org/TMTQD by April 17 to select a designated work area. The first 100 volunteers to sign up will receive an event T-shirt.
For those who want to sign up the day of the cleanup, additional areas will be assigned at the Mexico Town Hall, 134 Main St., starting at 7 a.m. April 24.
Because organizers are an ad hoc committee, they have arranged with Envision Rumford, a nonprofit dedicated to betterment of the community, to accept financial donations. Organizations who choose to support the cleanup may make a tax-deductible donation to Envision Rumford with a memo line “River Valley Community Clean Up,” and mail it to Envision Rumford, PO Drawer L, Rumford, ME 04276. Envision Rumford will provide a receipt.
The cleanup comes during Rumford’s annual spring cleanup April 20-30, and Mexico’s is the first two weeks in May.
Bourret said a dump truck and trailer will be available at Hosmer Field, and the highway department will provide road signs and police will monitor safety.
He said a lot of supplies have been donated by the town of Rumford, Maine Department of Transportation, Med-Care Ambulance, Archie’s waste collection company, Naples and McDonald’s. Gloves, trash bags and supplies will be available:’
• April 24 and 25 at the Mexico Town Hall.
• April 24 at the Snack Shack at Three Fields on Falmouth Street, Rumford.
• April 25 at Aubuchon Hardware, 65 Falmouth St., Rumford.
Trash drop-off sites include:
• Mexico Town Office and the Rumford Information Center.
Those unable to get trash to one of the sites may call Glenn Gordon at (207) 418-2946 for pickup.
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