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Keebler Park STORY BY BRITTANY SMITH PHOTOS BY BRITTANY SMITH & COURTESY OF DADEVILL BEAUTIFICATION BOARD
he Dadeville Beautification Board is on a mission to revitalize the beautiful town of Dadeville. The DBB actively works on projects around the city. They are always looking for volunteers to help clean up, beautify and rejuvenate areas of the community that have been affected by weather or lack of upkeep. This past April 22 was Earth Day. In honor of Mother Nature, the DBB and Hellas, a Dadeville manufacturing business, partnered to take on the revitalization of Keebler Park on April 22 and 23. The park had been heavily damaged during recent storms and was tremendously overgrown. “A couple of us go to Keebler Park at lunch and walk. We’d just had some really big storms come through, and there were branches down. So we talked and decided cleaning this up would Revitalize the Land be easy. It would just Top Left: Members of DBB be time. It doesn’t and Hellas employees gather require some amazing around to get a game plan for the park clean-up; Middle: skill, and we can make an impact by Forbus donated equipment just showing up and for the crews to use in order to help move debris; Top doing the work,” said Right: Volunteers replace Jordan Drummond, rotten wood from pergolas HR manager at Hellas in the back of the park. Construction in
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Dadeville. “We were out here about six weeks ago on the weekend with the Key Club and Beta Club picking up debris from the storms. Then on Monday, Jordan called and said that she and the crew at Hellas wanted to give back to the community by cleaning up Keebler Park,” said Mickey Forbus, president of the DBB. “It has taken about four to six weeks to get everything organized. But yesterday and today, they have been here graciously and have been a wonderful help with supplies and manpower.” Forbus said that there is a lot of hand labor involved with this project. He said that if he had to pencil in an evaluation for the project’s cost, it would cost anywhere from $10,000 to $12,000 or maybe even more for just the two-day project. “That’s a realistic number,” he said. “We’ve had two days worth of time donated by numerous employees of Hellas, plus tools. We’ve had mulch donated; river rock donated; machinery donated. The county has donated employees̓ time. First Baptist Church, Kurt Pfitzner and his wife and Wayne Smith and his wife have all graciously donated food. It has been a major push and a major effort, and the park is really looking good.” A major push it most certainly has been, and both the DBB and Hellas are confident that this will not be the last time they partner for a cleaning project. “We are far from finished,” said Forbus. “But this is a
