Escondido Shines event takes to the streets to clean up the city

Escondido Shines Day, which sup­ports and promotes the city, is assem­bling teams to do some cleaning, paint­ing and gardening of the city’s parks on Saturday, Nov. 14 from 10:30 to 4:30 p.m.

“We need to get those volunteers reg­istered online so we can form teams for each and every park,” said David Zuma­ya of the Escondido Chamber of Com­merce.

With the help of the Rotary Clubs of Escondido and supervision by the city’s public works department, this, the sec­ond Escondido Shines cleanup event hopes to draw 1,000 participants who will give two hours painting out graffiti, planting or picking up trash.

The Rotary Club has purchased and printed 30,000 large plastic trash bags for the cleanup.

“But it’s not just for that one day,” Zumaya said. “The initiative is encour­aging people who can’t make it to use the bags to donate clothes or to donate things to other charities.”

Escondido Shines is also supported by the Escondido Union High School District, Escondido Union School Dis­trict, Escondido Charitable Foundation, Grande Laundry Place and Encuentros Leadership.

Escondido Shines’ motto is: Serve, put service above self; Salute, greet oth­ers with respect; and Celebrate, join in the spirit of achievement.

Participants are invited to join a proj­ect or start one of their own. The orga­nizers said they are already doing 39 projects in 13 locations.

After their work they will be invited to join other volunteers at the Tamale Festival being put on by the Downtown Business Association in Grape Day Park.