Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful is an environmental non-profit, and its members recently planted 10,000 flower bulbs in downtown Reno. Our student contributor Frankie Wenson visited the crews and had this audio postcard.
More than 80 people came out early on a chilly, Saturday morning to beautify the city’s Riverwalk. I talked to program manager Matthew Salazar, volunteer Jeff Bidwell and director Lindsay Panton on why they came.
“We do work with parks and land areas to improve the quality of the land that’s already there. Whether that be through tree planting or landscaping just general clean up and do a lot of flower planting and stuff like that to boost the beautification,” said Program Manager Matthew Salazar.
Volunteer Jeff Bidwell said, "It has to do with how much we love the river to begin with, it’s spirit, it’s healing, and it’s a perfect little river. And it does a lot more then just show up and pass us by it gives life around us. You don’t even think about getting up early you just get up put your dirty clothes on, have your cup of coffee and walk out the door and that’s it.”
“And we want to involve the community, we feel like the more people that come down here find out how awesome it is the more they are going to care for the river. The river is so important to the town it’s the heart of Reno, it runs through the heart and this is where our drinking water comes from not everybody knows that. We should enjoy it and take care of it,” said KTMB Program Director Lindsey Panton.
By next spring all 10,000 bulbs will have bloomed. This is the first year Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful has taken on this type of project and its members will continue planting in the new year.
Frankie Wenson is part of the Reynolds Media Lab at the Reynolds School of Journalism.
