“Beautiful day, beautiful weather, beautification”

“Beautiful day, beautiful weather, beautification,” said Jennifer Fielder, landscape architect and volunteer for Beautification Days in Thompson Falls on Friday while she helped clear out the old hedge roses along the railroad tracks on Main Street.

Volunteers gathered for a three-day cleanup of Thompson Falls this past Thursday, Friday and Saturday and took on various projects as part of the annual Beautification Days.

“Beautiful day, beautiful weather, beautification,” said Jennifer Fielder, landscape architect and volunteer for Beautification Days in Thompson Falls on Friday while she helped clear out the old hedge roses along the railroad tracks on Main Street.

Volunteers gathered for a three-day cleanup of Thompson Falls this past Thursday, Friday and Saturday and took on various projects as part of the annual Beautification Days.

Volunteers consisted of high school students and kids from Turning D Ranch, who have been extremely helpful in the past few years according to Beautification Days co-chair Rita Lundgren. Thompson Falls mayor Carla Parks and local residents also gave manpower and fuel to the large projects that made up the three days.

“We have an amazing amount of volunteers, this is a fabulous community. When they see a need, they just come to the forefront,” said Lundgren.

Planning for Beautification Days begins in January with a poster contest for kindergarten to sixth grade students.  The chosen artwork is used for the flyers placed throughout the town to spread the word on the cleanup days.  Lundgren said the contest is a way to raise awareness in kids to teach them to pick up their litter and recycle.

This year Beautification Days consisted of nine separate projects.  One of the larger projects was assistance with the elderly and handicapped residents in town.  This project lasts around a day and a half with volunteers helping either elderly or handicapped residents with their spring cleaning renovations if these residents do not have the physical capability or manpower to do things such as raking, pruning or moving old furniture.

“It’s very, very gratifying to know that you are helping people do what they want to do to make their place more beautified and more welcoming,” said Lundgren.

Fielder has been guiding Lundgren in ways to beautify the local landscape since she moved in next door to Lundgren, who played a crucial role in beginning Beautification Days back in 2002.

This year Fielder headed the trimming and cleanup of Rose Garden Park and Ainsworth Field and organized weed work done on Maiden Lane.  On Friday, Fielder along with a handful of volunteers spent the majority of the day cleaning up the old hedge roses along the Main Street railroad tracks.

“This one (hedge roses) is pretty significant. The roses just never got off to a real good start with all the competition of the weeds and we did a more thorough assessment of what they need in order to thrive and we’re trying to implement that this year,” said Fielder.

The Main Street roses was the most expensive project on the agenda for Beautification Days as it cost around $510 for the purchasing of bark mulch.  The city contributed the funds for this particular project.

In addition to getting city funding, Lundgren is grateful for the financial support given by Valley Bank, Whitefish Credit Union, First Security Bank and the Elks Club, who came on board for the project this year.

Additional projects also included the cleanup of Wild Goose Landing, museum sign ground work, litter removal of school areas such as Highway 200, Cherry Creek, Blue Side Road and Ashley Creek Road, care of the David Thompson monument and mule pasture trail maintenance and grooming.

Beautification Days has evolved from a simple idea to a town-wide volunteer effort.

“It seems to be growing in momentum and the people stepping forward and the businesses stepping forward and getting involved and it seems we have a really good team in place now. It’s an amazing amount of energy and time and resources being put into this particular volunteer project,” said Fielder.

In 2002, at a Friends of the Library meeting, there was a request to put a garbage can outside of the library.  Following this initial thought, Lundgren took a look at the garbage situation throughout town.

“It really was terrible, there were garbage cans that had been put out ten years prior to 2002, so we found out they had been funded by First Security Bank so we went there and told them we wanted to add to it or redo it and they supported taking them out and they helped pay for two new ones,” said Lundgren.

Lundgren along with Linda Rocheleau took this idea to the Chamber of Commerce after Valley Bank also agreed to pay for a garbage can.  All together there were 13 new garbage cans placed around town.

Following this meeting, a public meeting was held to discuss further options of improving the town, which a surprising 18 people showed up for.  In the fall of 2002, a group of volunteers got together to fix up the restroom at Wild Goose Landing.  Since then, Beautification Days moved to the spring season and has grown in momentum and involves a plethora of community members who gather for three days to beautify their town.