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As the snow melts in my driveway, it would appear that the earliest blooms of spring are from seedlings of trash, candy wrappers and music equipment components I haven’t seen since Halloween. If I water and care for these newly revealed treasures that seem to multiply as the snow keeps melting, perhaps the wrappers will fill with candy and the now-rusty musical components will mature into fully-functional instruments… or maybe I’ll just have to do some outdoor tidying up.

Which brings to mind the spring cleanup event in Thompson Falls known as “Beautification Days.” The all-volunteer effort has been going strong for years, but I’ll let you in on a little secret. the number of volunteers who are actually Thompson Falls residents has been dwindling in recent years. In fact, the many helpful students from surrounding private residential boarding schools handily outnumber registered citizen volunteers.

Now, that doesn’t account for the many who do their part to take care of their own property, take advantage of the county transfer site’s acceptance of hard-to-dispose of items, and move along to assist neighbors who may need help. But, if the event is to stay strong, there must be a presence of willing Falls volunteers to show that the program is valuable to them.

I confess, I have never volunteered. There, now I’m not just wagging my finger at anyone. My excuse was always that it was too early in the morning – even though I always managed to get out and take pictures at the various cleanup sites and get quotes from people with dirty hands while mine remained clean. I’m going to change that this year. I’ll lead by example and make myself useful. And, hopefully, that is enough to inspire, guilt, convince or otherwise recruit a few more hands to get on deck and help the unpaid organizers continue the only event that outwardly improves the curb appeal of our scenic community.

Stay tuned for upcoming information about the Beautifi-cation Committee’s planning meetings and opportunities.

As for the budding items in my driveway revealed by melting snow, I think I’ll give them another week or two to grow into something useful, or multiply as more snow disappears.

Justin Harris, Reporter