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Date: 3/30/2022
NORTHAMPTON – The Northampton Kiwanis Club is partnering with the Friends of Northampton Trails and Greenway for their spring cleanup on April 2 from 9 to 11 a.m. to help raise money for Ukrainian evacuees across Europe.
According to Mollie Hartford-Chamberland, a club board member and public relations chair for the Kiwanis Club, the organization spoke of putting together a cleanup earlier this year. Instead of conducting their own, however, the club decided to research the community and see who they could partner with for a spring cleanup event.
“I reached out to a bunch of different places,” Hartford-Chamberland told Reminder Publishing. “There’s a river conservation commission group and Friends of the Northampton Trails, and they got back to me and said, ‘Yes we are definitely doing a cleanup of the bike path in the spring.’”
As a result of this partnership, the Kiwanis Club put together a team of volunteers to help with the cleanup from their own organization, volunteers from the high school Key Club, as well as other members that assist the community in different facets.
According to Hartford-Chamberland, school district Superintendent John Provost – who is also a member of the Kiwanis Club – reached out to the Hartford-Chamberland to see if they were doing anything to help Ukraine evacuees since some students in the Northampton Public Schools wanted to get involved with helping the war-torn country. As a result, Hartford-Chamberland and the organization decided that they would raise money through the cleanup.
Prior to the cleanup, people can make a pledge per-pound of trash that is picked up on April 2. When filling out a pledge form, people can pledge whatever dollar amount per pound that they would like to donate, and the Kiwanis Club will notify the donors of the pound amount on April 4, after the cleanup.
“We decided that all of that money is going to go to the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and their work with refugees in Europe, especially with small kids,” said Hartford-Chamberland. “That’s really what our focus is … keeping kids safe.”
People can either fill out the pledge form or message the Kiwanis Club with the amount of money they would like to donate per pound. “We’re just trying to get these funds to Europe as quickly as possible,” Hartford-Chamberland said. People can fill out the form by visiting https://northamptonkiwanis.org/.
The Northampton Kiwanis Club is a part of Kiwanis International, which is a group of local clubs that focus on community service and keeping children safe through myriad of projects that give back. Past initiatives within the club have included assembling Early Childhood Safety Kits for new mothers with Northampton High School Key Club members and providing backpacks and school supplies to Northampton middle and elementary schools.
According to Hartford-Chamberland, the club will be cleaning up between Pleasant Street and Veteran’s Field. The rain date for the cleanup will be April 3 at the same time.