Rotary Common Clean Up
"Saturday’s spruce-up was a collaborative of individuals and organizations, from Rotary families to members of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua, and to a pair of veteran city Park Department employees whose expertise – and their loaned tools, wheelbarrows and trucks – came in handy."
“I drag her out into the yard a lot,” said her mom, Becky, by way of explanation. “She’s seen this before.”
The Kodak moment came in the middle of Saturday’s large-scale spring clean-up and spruce-up of Rotary Common, one of Nashua’s newest greenspaces born in 2005 behind the concerted efforts – and a sizeable donation – by the Nashua Rotary Club.
The common, on the east side of Main Street just south of Lake, was developed on a portion of the 1.8-acre site formerly occupied by the International Paper Box Machine Company, a leading 20th-century Nashua industry founded by the late Elie Labombarde.
The common is bordered on the south by Salmon Brook and its historic 1848 stone arch bridge, natural aesthetics that Rotarians would showcase should the common be expanded in the future.
Saturday’s spruce-up was a collaborative of individuals and organizations, from Rotary families to members of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua, and to a pair of veteran city Park Department employees whose expertise – and their loaned tools, wheelbarrows and trucks – came in handy.
“The most important thing for us is to come here regularly and to do this spring clean-up every year,” said Rotary president Karen Keegan, speaking of her fellow Rotarians.
What began as a strong connection between the common and Rotarians needs to stay that way, she added.
Looking around the sun-splashed park and its signature labyrinth, which members and guests celebrated later in the day because Saturday happened to be World Labyrinth Day, letting the common fall to the back burner appeared the furthest thing from Rotarians’ minds.
“This space sure turned out beautifully,” said longtime Rotarian Bill Pockl, leaning on his shovel for a brief breather between loads of mulch. Others chimed in, recalling the overgrown, trash-strewn lot they first laid eyes on several years ago.
Up along Bridle Path, the common’s eastern boundary, a handful of long, wooden poles wielded by an ambitious team of young, blue-shirted volunteers crisscrossed every which way.
“It’s sort of work, but it’s a lot of fun,” said Rocio Camacho, an adviser of the local Boys & Girls Club’s Keystone program and one of a half-dozen club volunteers to help out Saturday. Camacho, who was also the club’s 2008 Youth of the Year, wrestled with a large lawn bag as club members Greg Gott and Natasha Rodriguez filled it with waste they raked and swept up.
“We do a lot of beautification projects like this throughout the year. It’s part of what we do in Keystone,” Camacho added.
Down the hill, the Park Department veterans, Bob Beaucher and Steve Walters, helped volunteers move a pile of mulch and load raked-up debris into a city truck for transport to the landfill.
Rotarian Sy Mahfuz, meanwhile swept a paved part of the labyrinth with a gas-powered leaf blower.
Meanwhile, little Isabella’s dad, Bob Boisvert, said he’s particularly pleased to see Rotary Common thriving.
“I’m really glad Rotary got involved in this,” said Boisvert, who, as the club’s president-elect, is looking forward to making good use of the space when he takes over the reins.
“It’s a great place to maybe have a meeting or two. Yep, next year, I think I’ll have a couple here,” he said.
Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 31, or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com. http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/918518-196/volunteers-keep-rotary-common-green.html