While many people choose to sleep in on the weekends, some community members in Greenville were up at 8 a.m. Saturday, ready to beautify their parks after Tropical Storm Helene ravaged the area just four weeks prior.
Lauren West and her two-year-old daughter, Ellie, were among the dozens of volunteers spread throughout seven of the city’s parks who helped clean up damage from the storm as part of Helene Parks Restoration Day. The event was hosted by the city of Greenville in partnership with United Way of Greenville County.
“I think that doing projects like this and helping out in the community is the best way to show people that we can all band together to help and we can recover from this,” West said as she laid down mulch near the Greenville County Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Cleveland Park. “We’re going to be even better after that.”
Like many other parks and outdoor spaces across the Upstate, Cleveland Park was forced to close temporarily after Helene hit Greenville on Sept. 27. Though there were still some downed trees and debris scattered across the grass Saturday, volunteers were eager to restore the 122-acre park, which has since reopened to the public.