State grant to allow for Lynn clean up

LYNN – The Massachusetts Service Alliance (MSA) has awarded $7,500 to the Highlands Coalition and Lynn Investing in Neighborhoods Corp. (LINC) to help fund a variety of community service efforts in the Highlands neighborhood during National Volunteer Week, April 19-25.The money will help fund, among other things, a clean up at the recently constructed International Garden at the Ford School.Constructed last summer as a way to bring the diverse community together by planting and harvesting a plethora of international produce items, the organic vegetable garden won six prizes at the Topsfield Fair last summer but is showing the effects of its first harsh New England winter.The garden is managed by a Garden Committee made up of teachers, lunch aides and neighbors.They will be guided by Jeanne Baranek from UMass Extension and Bob Burns from The Food Project. The clean-up will be conducted by students from the Ford School Annex during their spring vacation.The Garden Committee has set the week of April 27-May 1 to begin planting for the summer harvest. In addition to domestic crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, lettuce, collared greens, eggplant, carrots, radish and basil they will plant crops reflecting the heritage of newer Highlands residents, such as batata (potato), yucca, bok choy, maize, cassava and cilantro.The entire school staff and student body is expected to participate in re-learning the ways of families who once lived off the land. To counter obesity levels that are double the average, the students will munch on organic veggies and learn of the health risks of junk food and the value of healthy foods.The coalition will also sponsor a neighborhood-wide clean-up on Saturday, April 25 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Residents and volunteers from the school will join community activists and students in beautifying the Highlands with the help of the Department of Public Works. Volunteers will clean up their streets, sidewalks and pocket parks such as at the corner of Grover and Hamilton streets.Elder residents will also be offered help with yardwork.”Spring clean-up is a tradition harkening back to the founding of Lynn, but largely ignored,” said David Gass of the Highlands Coalition. “However, civic engagement and pride, encouraged by Gov. Deval Patrick and President Barack Obama, is making a comeback and so is spring-clean up, which the Coalition has organized the past two years.”Following Volunteer Week, LINC and the Coalition will continue to mobilize volunteers to keep the neighborhood in order.The Coalition and the Essex County Community Organization (ECCO) are working with Henry Avenue residents and City Councilor William Trahant to restore a playground on that road that has been dominated by gangs in recent months. On Saturday, May 2 the Playground Committee are calling on youth, including gang members, to clean-up and prepare for restoration.LINC is a community development organization that plans to purchase bank-owned multi-families in the Highlands. It was formed in 2000 by four activists, later joined by nine others.The group’s mission, according to Gass, is to expand opportunities for residents to obtain affordable housing; alleviate poverty and blight through neighborhood revitalization; expand opportunities for residents to own and operate businesses; celebrate the diversity of cultures and to develop and promote live/work artist communities in the city.The Highlands Coalition, comprising 13 groups, is also working with Neighbor to Neighbor on the housing crisis with foreclosure counseling and fight-back strategies. The Coalition has hosted a Peace-in-the-City vigil and march, planted trees and held a Resource Fair.Created in 1974, National Volunteer Week honors those who dedicate themselves to taking action and bettering their communities. It’s also about inspiring, recognizing and encouraging people to “seek out imaginative ways to engage in their communities and to put themselves at the center of social chan