Crowds volunteer to make a difference for a day in North Las Vegas

By Aida Ahmed

Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011 | 4 p.m.

Volunteers arrived Saturday morning at Sandstone Ridge Park in North Las Vegas, many dressed in yellow vests from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ready to help clean the area for Make a Difference Day.

“I love doing service,” said Judi Morrison, a North Las Vegas resident who, along with her family, helped remove graffiti from a bridge in the park. “It brings such a warm feeling to yourself and you forget about your own troubles and you just immerse in other things.”

Make a Difference Day is an annual event celebrated on the third Saturday in October. Dating back more than 20 years, the holiday was created by USA Weekend magazine as a day for neighbors to help neighbors.

Hundreds of volunteers spent Saturday picking up trash, removing graffiti and repainting playgrounds at nine locations.

UNLV student Amber Barney spent a few hours in an empty lot near Clayton Street picking up trash and pulling weeds so that homes can be built on the land. The 28-year-old joined the cleanup crew, “just to help someone else and serve others.”

“It’s nice to do things for other people,” said Barney.

Councilwoman Anita Wood helped clean the playground at Sandstone Ridge Park. The city estimated that more than 2,000 volunteers participated in Make a Difference Day, she said.

“We’re doing everything from cleaning up the playground equipment — a lot of it’s graffiti, a lot of graffiti removal, so we’re spray painting to make it look nicer,” said Wood. “Other people have trash bags and gloves — (they’re) out pulling weeds.”

“It’s just a day that’s devoted to encouraging community service and getting communities together and getting them to take park in various neighborhood projects.”

The park, like many North Las Vegas parks, is not in the best condition. Spray-painted words line the purple and blue slides of the playground, paint on several white poles is chipped and trash sits between rocks near the sidewalk.

The city has undergone substantial reductions to park staff in the last year and it shows. But Wood said the day of service isn’t about making up for what the city lacks.

“Make a Difference Day is something we do every year, no matter what,” said Wood.

Brett Miller, who works in the city’s parks department, said most of the cleaning supplies and paint were donated from local stores and vendors. He said the work volunteers do for just a short amount of time may seem small, but will help tremendously.

“(Graffiti) is an everyday issue. It’s nonstop” said Miller. “This (volunteering) is fantastic. The guys I’ve got left on staff will come in Monday and they will be ecstatic.”