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Volunteers to plant flowers at 27 city parks this spring

Michigan Cares for Tourism is spearheading an effort to plant flower beds at more than two dozen city parks.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. A tourism group -- working with Grand Valley State University -- is on a mission to beautify the city of Grand Rapids.

Michigan Cares for Tourism is spearheading an effort to plant flower beds at more than two dozen city parks. Ten of the parks are in the downtown area.

Volunteers this week worked at two city parks, including Riverside Park along the Grand River, in preparation of the early May planting.

Organizers of the Adopt-A-Bed program say flower beds have been neglected due to low staffing and funding.

Once planted, the beds will be maintained by area youth through a training program grant.

Patty Janes is a GVSU professor who is helping run the program.

"You know, 74 parks in Grand Rapids; 27 of those have flower beds that are relatively untouched," she said. "And so the hospitality community is charged with donating and providing all those flowers to those beds.

"Unless the community comes together to help and support each other, we will never be the best we can be.''

The beds will be planted during National Tourism Week, which runs May 6-13. You can find more information by clicking here.

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