On June 27, 2021, at 10 a.m., 60 volunteers of the International WeLoveU Foundation cleaned Lafayette Park in Norfolk, Virginia, in partnership with Keep Norfolk Beautiful.  Volunteers picked up everything from car tires to pieces of plank wood. In total, the WeLoveU Foundation volunteers collected around 390 pounds of litter. Many park visitors stopped by and expressed their gratitude to the volunteers throughout the day.

In honor of the United Nations declaration of the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, WeLoveU is carrying out cleanups between June and July across the U.S. to restore various ecosystems neglected and damaged due to COVID-19.

Virginia’s Popular Landmark: Lafayette Park

Lafayette Park is a well-known community space in Virginia where family, friends, and neighbors gather for outdoor activities. It stretches over 32 acres and is a neighbor to the Norfolk Zoo, a popular state landmark of Virginia. Before COVID-19,  various volunteer groups helped maintain the park’s cleanliness.  

However, social distancing restrictions caused by the pandemic canceled or postponed cleanups. Moreover, COVID-19 forced many recycling centers to close temporarily, making community landmarks like Lafayette Park environmentally unsafe and unsanitary.

Councilwoman Johnson Welcomes the WeLoveU Foundation to Norfolk

From 10 a. m., Norfolk City Councilwoman Mamie B. Johnson joined the cleanup and shared encouraging remarks with the volunteers.

“The overall mission of the WeLoveU Foundation says a lot about the young people. No matter what your economic or social background is, it means that you’ve invested in the world.” Councilwoman Johnson continued, “Cleaning up means not just picking up litter, but it says that you’re invested.”

Councilwoman Johnson also shared a message to the Foundation’s Chairwoman, “You are now part of the City of Norfolk’s lifelong learning project, something that we just launched a year ago. So I would say to you to continue, and if there is any way the City of Norfolk or myself can help you and this great group of scholars behind me, we will be more than happy to help you.”

Keep Norfolk Beautiful Joins the WeLoveU Volunteers in the Cleanup Effort

Also in attendance was the City of Norfolk’s Project Coordinator Fleta Jackson of Keep Norfolk Beautiful. She participated in the Clean WORLD Movement cleanup and shared her experience with the volunteers.

 “This group has been phenomenal.  You’ve shown up today on a pretty muggy summer day to clean up Lafayette Park, which is one of our most used parks in the city. We have everything from basketball courts and tennis courts to fields for soccer and various other sports and children’s playground, and we have disk golf here. It is a busy park, and that means that litter seems to become more of a problem. So you coming out today and helping with the litter issue in this park is phenomenal. It means it’s not going to go into the waterways. So that’s another plus for groups like you coming out and volunteering your time and energy and your skills to make this work logistically, which is a big undertaking to organize a project of this caliber. I mean, look behind us at all these smiling faces.”

The WeLoveU volunteers will continue striving to meet our community’s needs for a brighter and cleaner world.