Dear 5th Bridge Pledgers,

School is out and summer is here. Life becomes a little less structured and it’s great to be outdoors. What a wonderful time to participate in outdoor volunteer activities.

Do you enjoy gardening and love this community? Get involved and help Northfield prepare for the America in Bloom competition. Time is short; in late July two respected judges will arrive to evaluate our community on floral displays, tidiness, environmental effort, landscaped areas, heritage, urban forestry, turf/groundcovers and community. Members from the Northfield Garden Club have been working very hard to organize this monumental effort and they could really use your help.

• Volunteers have planted flowers in beds and hanging baskets throughout the downtown area and along the riverfront. Help is needed to weed and water these plantings so that they will look spectacular by late July. Contact Judy Code for details at codeo@ll.net.
• Pick up trash.
• Pull weeds in any public garden. E-mail northfieldinbloom@yahoo.com with questions.
• Report any vandalism immediately. Graffiti is a problem in the downtown and surrounding area. It is very important that graffiti is removed as soon as possible because graffiti encourages more graffiti. If you are interested in helping to cleanup graffiti, please contact the Northfield Police Department at 507-645-4475.
• Plant flowers and maintain your yard.
• Offer to help elderly or disabled neighbors with lawn and flower care.
• Gather neighbors or friends together and adopt a park to care for. Neighbors around Central Park have been gathering for years. They have a spring and fall work day, then take turns weeding and watering. The work brings the neighbors closer together and the whole community benefits from their collective labor and love of the park, not to mention the fact that they have a lot of fun. For guidance contact northfieldinbloom@yahoo.com or contact Pat Allen at 507-645-9298.

5th Bridge salutes the Northfield Garden Club members for their vision and leadership; City of Northfield employees for their support of this citizen-driven initiative; the Northfield Area Foundation donors, HCI, and Police Department for their financial support of this project; students from the Mayor’s Youth Council, The Key, and NHS Service Learning class for their volunteer labor; and all the other volunteers that have helped so far to make Northfield a beautiful place. Many, many more people are needed, and there is still a lot of work ahead if Northfield wants a chance to win the competition. Get involved in the America in Bloom initiative, join the fun and take pride in our wonderful community. 5th Bridge will help keep you informed of what help is needed. Visit www.5thbridge.org for updates.

The proceeds have been tallied! The first annual 5th Bridge Goods for Good, The Great Northfield Rummage Raid for Charity, was a huge success, raising over $9,600 for area charities. 5th Bridge thanks all the volunteers at the sale sites for their efforts and donations; Tim Jackson for website support; College City Beverage for printing our signs; the Northfield News for hosting our success celebration; and the Goods for Good volunteer committee (Sara Route, Jodi Mousel, Renee Huckle Mittelstaedt, Mark Taylor, Suzette Taylor, & Jennifer Sawyer). Congratulations on a job well done; next year will be even bigger!

If you missed out on participating in the first Goods for Good city-wide rummage sale, plan on it for next year. Also keep in mind that you can host a rummage sale and donate all or a portion of the proceeds to charity anytime that is convenient for you.

For more summer volunteer ideas visit www.5thbridge.org and make the most of your summer… volunteer.

Sincerely,

Candy Taylor and your friends at 5th Bridge