Millis Beautification Day, April 8

The Millis Garden Club and the Millis Lions Club, co-sponsors of the 13th Annual Millis Beautification Day, are once again calling on residents to show pride in Millis by supporting the April 8th town-wide cleanup. This year’s event, being chaired by Bill Lawton and Cathy MacInnes, will start an hour later than usual.
As Lawton explains, “Last year, all the good people who came out to clean up the public areas of Millis showed that with enough help it could be done in just three hours, so this year we’ve moved the start time an hour later to 9 a.m. with registration at 8:30 a.m.”
You too can make a difference—volunteers of all ages are needed to help beautify the Millis landscape by raking leaves, weeding, and removing litter and brush at designated landmark town sites such as the Veterans Memorial Building, Clyde Brown School, and Richardson’s Pond as well as along main roads. “The final number of sites will depend on how many volunteers sign up. The more people who register the more sites can be assigned. We hope to have over 200 people,” comments Lawton, “and with private citizens volunteering, we free up a lot of Department of Public Works money for other purposes, like repairing roads.”
If you are part of a troop (scouts, military) or a group (book, Friends, sports, church, civic), consider volunteering and working as a clean-up team at one particular site. Many students from the Millis public schools – athletic teams, the student honor society, the Millis High School Leos, students working on community projects and those who just care about their community—along with their teachers and parents—make a huge impact.
“We’re pleased to have scouts, church groups, town board and commission members, junior ROTC members and other supporters,” says Lawton. We are also thankful to have volunteers from Franklin and other surrounding towns joining us.” In past years, community volunteers have made a big difference in just a couple of hours, cleaning up over 100 cubic yards of brush and trash, which translate to 200 leaf bags, 140 bags of trash, and 5 small dump truck loads of brush and dead trees. Residents and businesses who are not able to participate on April 8 are encouraged to support the civic pride day by cleaning and beautifying around their own areas.
“This is a great opportunity to make the town shine,” adds Lawton, “and we all benefit when we save tax money. All it takes is an investment of a few hours of time on a Saturday morning. And it’s a nice way to meet other civic-minded people in the community. So please, everyone, if you care to keep Millis in good shape, join your friends and neighbors and give us just three hours of your time on April 8th. You’ll be proud you did!
Registration on Millis Beautification Day begins at 8:30 a.m. at the registration tent on the grounds of Veterans Memorial Building—Rain or Shine. For more information or to pre-register, contact Bill Lawson at (781) 781-3342 or Lawsonmillis@gmail.com.