On Saturday, Oct. 23, Five River MetroParks hosted an event called Make a Difference Day where they invited volunteers to help assist with the MetroParks and keep them clean, but most students may not know much about the event.
‘‘Make a Difference Day is one of our annual service events where we invite the public to volunteer in our MetroParks across the county. There are opportunities for every age group and lots of different ways people can get involved and support their parks, including college students,’’ said Jenny Haymans, human resources and volunteer manager for the event.
Many come to volunteer and learn some key lessons from the event.
‘‘I think what a lot of people will take away is that one day can make a difference, and one day with a lot of people with a lot of hands can really make a big difference,’’ said Haymans. ‘‘People from all over the county are going to be coming out to support the MetroParks and support other volunteer opportunities available in the community, which just spreads that message that it takes everybody to build and maintain a community, including our parks.’’
For Haymans, the event is important to have.
‘‘For us [Five Rivers MetroParks], we really understand that we need the community’s support in maintaining our parks,’’ said Haymans. ‘‘We have over 16,000 acres that we maintain.’’
When it comes to what the parks have to offer, there are a lot of fun activities to do at Dayton’s MetroParks.
‘‘There are so many things in MetroParks that people like. Probably our favorite amenity that’s reported by users is our trails, so we have hiking, biking, mountain biking, and horseback riding trails,’’ said Haymans. ‘‘People can come down and ice skate under the Pavilion. We also look for volunteers to support the ice rink.”
Make a Difference Day is an annual event and this year the event went from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. For more information on how people can help the MetroParks or just learn more about them, visit their website https://www.metroparks.org.
Jamario Brown-Tolliver
Intern