Santa Maria volunteers come together to clean up parks, neighborhoods, churches

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Volunteers came together in Santa Maria on Saturday in an effort to clean up their community.

Serve Santa Maria teams were hard at work through the morning and afternoon.

The event took on seven cleanup and beautification projects across the city including backyard cleanups, landscaping, tree planting and trash pickup.

"It's basically contagious. It's sort of like moving from one spot to another. As we progressed, we have more joining the team. Years ago we couldn't have done this project, and with the skill sets they have," said Serve Santa Maria leader Greg Nims.

Serve Santa Maria was started in 2009 by Pastor Carl Nielsen after he took a group of young people to New Orleans to help restore the community after Hurricane Katrina.

Upon returning to Santa Maria, Nielson asked himself, "Why can't we do something like that right here in our own community?"

Serve Santa Maria meets several times per year.

During their June 2021 cleanup day, nearly 200 volunteers joined together to clean up churches and neighborhoods.

For more information or to sign up for future projects, visit www.servesantamaria.com.