Carefest at Dell Holmes Park
Photo courtesy of city of St. Petersburg/photo by Greg Clark
St. Petersburg-Since 2002, the city of St. Petersburg has been encouraging its residents to “Bee Caretagious.”
Carefest, an event that helps bring awareness to the needs of the community, will take place Saturday at Dell Holmes Park.
From one human to another, Carefest hopes to create carriers of caring in order to develop a caretagious community.
Among those who participate are church groups, businesses, fraternities, sororities and other community organizations. Projects that can be completed in four to six hours are adopted by groups. The groups aim to complete all projects by 2 p.m. on Saturday.
“There are still several projects open,” said Teketa Marshall, volunteer coordinator for Carefest 2009.
Most projects are completed by groups, but it’s not too late to register as an individual, she said.
To help the elderly, disabled and families in need, project ideas are submitted by members of the community.
“People work on projects from painting to mentoring to feeding the homeless,” said Philip Harris of the St. Petersburg Neighborhood Partnership.
Other projects include gardening, landscaping, trash pick-up and home repairs.
Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. at the park. Volunteers will take off throughout the city to complete each individual project. Lunch, light snacks and drinks will be provided for all volunteers. The day will end with a celebration of the community’s hard work and accomplishment with free food and entertainment at the park.
Carefest 2009 is an opportunity for “the arms of the community to come together to beautify the city,” Harris said.
Last year St. Petersburg received the “2008 City of Compassion Award” for organizing the most Carefest volunteers. Thousands of people contributed to more than $2 million in goods and services to the Tampa Bay area.
