FULLERTON : Adopting a Park Helps All-Around

Minh Nguyen was a young man with a mission as he worked one afternoon picking up beer cans, candy wrappers and other junk at Richman Park in Fullerton.

“We pick up trash and then we play,” said Minh, 9, as he and his fourth-grade classmates from Richman Elementary School scattered over the park. “If you just pick up trash, you can’t do anything fun.”

The afternoon outing was intended to be both fun and productive. Fifteen such weekly outings will earn Minh’s school $500.

The program, called Adopt-a-Park, has worked successfully since the city started it several years ago, program coordinator Nancy L. Guider said. Up to 20 nonprofit city groups, including schools, adopt a city park each fall and spring and agree to pick up litter and report hazards or problems to city officials.

“It’s wonderful,” Guider said. “The residents get clean parks, the participating groups get $500 to help toward their worthy causes and the city--heck, we get a bargain in the fact that it costs less to send these groups out than one senior maintenance worker.”

Keeping their parks and schools clean teaches the students to respect their neighborhoods and gives them a feeling of accomplishment and pride, teacher San Roman said as Minh and his classmates finished their work.

“We hope the lesson carries through and to their home life also,” Roman said. “It’s fun, but it’s also a learning experience.”

The afternoon assignment began with students lugging five-gallon buckets to the park and carrying long black claws to help keep trash at arm’s length and then some.

Picking up trash is not a clean job. “It’s gooshy and it’s yucky,” 9-year-old Steve Hoskins said as he deposited grimy papers into a bucket.

In 10 minutes, the students half-filled two buckets. They spent the rest of their time collecting their rewards: banana Popsicles and the remaining class period to play in the park.

Adopt-a-Park does not replace city maintenance workers, Guider said, but augments them. City crews still visit the parks to clean and remove large trash, such as old couches and mattresses.