Portia Williams | Daily Times

“Take Back Mound Park” met Saturday to clean up the park

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Portia Williams

PDT Staff Writer

A newly formed group, ‘“Take Back Mound Park,’” met at the park Saturday to launch their first cleanup effort. Though the crowd was small in number, their purpose was a major undertaking.

Randy Blankenship, a parent living near the Mound Park area, decided to formulate the organization when she saw the excessive debris in the park.

Blankenship said that her daughter’’s play time was hindered by garbage, such as beer cans and soda bottles on the ground.

“”My daughter would be so disappointed when we would have to turn back around and go home,”” Blankenship said.

According to Blankenship, various types of drug paraphernalia was discovered at the park at times.

“”It got to the point that I had to tell my daughter that I could not take her to Mound Park anymore,” ”Blankenship said.

That was the turning point for Blankenship, that is when she said decided to take a stand a do something about it.

“”What we are trying to do today is have a big cleanup day,” she said. “We were also hoping to repair some of the wood structures, but was not able to get started in the capacity just yet.”

Blankenship said she decided to utilize social media to spread the word about her intentions to start the “Take Back Mound Park” organization. She said she has at least 240 Facebook friends on the page which she formed to raise awareness.

“I have been getting a lot of feedback from a lot of people who expressed concern and said they wanted to help out. I am a little disappointed that all of them did not come out to help today,”” Blankenship said.

Scott Malone, a local resident said he has strong ties to Mound Park, and wanted to extend a helping hand to Blankenship’’s effort.

“”It’s important to give back to the community,” Malone said. “I was a part of the original builders of Mound Park, I was in Cub Scouts and we helped to construct the park.”

Malone also said that he was instrumental in helping to to coordinate a cleanup for the park as an Eagle Scout.

“”So now having children of my own, it is important to teach them to give back to the community,”” Malone said.

Blankenship said she is appreciative to her mother, Teresa Clark, and her friend, Carie Wallace, and the rest of the community members who come out Saturday to help clean up, despite the cold weather.

Blankenship said she is not going to give up and will continue to host meetings and cleanup efforts for the park.

Portia Williams may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 286 or portiawilliams@heartlandpublications.com