Starkville will hold its annual city cleanup day, Get Swept Up!, on Wednesday for 529 volunteers to beautify the city in preparation for Mississippi State University’s upcoming football season.
The Greater Starkville Development Partnership holds Get Swept Up! on the Wednesday before MSU’s first home football game, which was originally scheduled for Saturday before the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced schedule changes throughout the NCAA. The home opener is now Oct. 3, but Special Events and Projects Coordinator Paige Watson said GSDP wanted to hold Get Swept Up! when it was originally scheduled.
The cleanup is “the ideal social distancing activity,” Watson said, with small groups stationed throughout the city “from the Cotton District to Old West Point Road” pruning bushes, picking up litter and raking leaves, among other things. The annual project draws more than 500 volunteers every year, and the pandemic did not have an impact on signups this year, Watson said.
Volunteers will not necessarily have to wear protective face masks while working outdoors, but they will all pick up tools and supplies from the GSDP office on Main Street at different times to avoid large groups in the same place, Watson said.
While the window to volunteer has closed, the GSDP website encourages Starkville residents to “spruce up their homes and yards” during Get Swept Up! as well.
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