Manassas Rocks Big Day with Grant!

Big Day of Serving in Manassas has been awarded a $500 grant in the Beautification and Community Greening Category.  The Keep Virginia Beautiful 30 in 30 grant program focuses greater resources and attention on organizations and individual localities throughout the Commonwealth and how they are addressing the issues of litter prevention, recycling, waste reduction, beautification and education.

Keep Virginia Beautiful  provided the opportunity for government, non-profit and/or service organizations in Virginia to apply for one of thirty grants ranging from $500 to $1,000 in three different categories: Beautification, Litter Prevention, and Recycling.  These grants are made possible by our partners – Capital One, Waste Management and Lowe’s.

On May 5, the City of Manassas Neighborhood Services and its community partners (Habitat for Humanity, Bristow Station Homeowners Association, Mike Garcia Construction and Evergreen Community Church) rallied an estimated 700 youth and adult volunteers to transform the Bristow Station neighborhood in the Big Day of Serving Manassas (formerly 1 By Youth).  After a 7 a.m. rally, Habitat for Humanity coordinated home repairs. Teams of volunteers  dispersed to rake, mulch, landscape, pick up litter, remove graffiti, paint signs and install new playground equipment, benches, picnic tables and trash cans.  To further “green” the community, they hauled out e-waste (TVs, computers, etc.), household hazardous waste (old paint, chemicals, etc.) and excess trash and recycling.  As a finale, they ended the day with a Cinco de Mayo block party, complete with food and live music.  The goal was to engage as many residents as possible in taking responsibility for cleaning up and maintaining their neighborhood of 500 homes.  The point of this, and the former 1 By Youth projects was a big one-day, one-neighborhood, one-impact project that would spark neighbors to get to know neighbors, help build community and encourage residents to sponsor more block parties, cleanups and community yard sales or other neighborhood friendly activities.  They also got teams of volunteers to be crews and crew leaders from local businesses like Lowes, Lockheed Martin, & Kohls.

The mission at Keep Virginia Beautiful is to engage and unite Virginians to improve our natural and scenic environment through 5 impact areas: Litter Prevention, Waste Reduction, Recycling, Beautification, and Environmental Education.