Clinton-Sampson Rotary Club members Jason Walters, left, and Dr. Wesley Johnson working together to lay down the new soil at the side entrance to the Clinton Police Department Monday.
Clinton-Sampson Rotary members use Earth Day to provide service project at PD
Clinton-Sampson Rotary Club president Georgina Zeng planting the first flower.
Clinton-Sampson Rotary Club president Georgina Zeng and Rotary club member the Rev. Clay Carter working together to plant the flowers at the Clinton Police Department.
Dr. Wesley Johnson, left, and Jason Walters dig holes so the bright, colorful flowers can be spaced evenly.
Rotary Club member Wendy Dorman sweeps the excess soil off the barrier of the flower bed.
With less than an hour’s worth of manual labor, the Clinton-Sampson Rotary Club has brought new life into the community that will be around for years to come.
And it all started with a request from the Clinton Police Department at one of the noon-day club’s meetings a few weeks ago. The request? To plant new flowers in the dormant flower bed that runs along the outside wall of the department.
It was apropos that the club members opted to strike out with shovels, spades and a little potting soil on Monday, officially marked as Earth Day.
According to Eileen Coite, a member of the Rotary Club, the club members were ready and willing to do this project. It only took a couple more meetings after the initial proposal for the final plan to come together. And, by the time Monday rolled around, the club had over five bags of potting soil and just over 10 colorful flowers to be planted, flowers donated by the Bloom N’ Thyme Nursery in Clinton.
The only thing left for the club members to do was decide the order of the flowers, which changed only once during the planting process, and mix the new soil with the old.
Soon, the bottom of one of the tall windows was framed in colors of pink and green, breaking up the monotony of the bricks and glass.
But the Rotary Club members said that doing something like this project was par for the course for them, and something they hope to be able to keep doing.
“With the Rotary Club, we focus on service, so this gives us an opportunity to give back,” Coite said.
The president of the club, Georgina Zeng, had similar sentiments.
“The Rotary Club is all about service above self. This is a way to show that we don’t do it for us, we do it to help people,” Zeng said. “This is one very small project that we do.”
The flowers are on display for everyone to see as they drive by on West John Street. And the Clinton-Sampson Rotary Club members said that this is not the last project they plan to do to bring some extra life into the community.