There will be daffodils in the spring!

Our playgroup, made up of kids born in 2002 and their families, had an "Adventure Day" today. We planted daffodil bulbs as part of a citywide beautification project. The bulbs are donated -- the only requirement is that they be in a public space to be enjoyed by everyone.

We planted ours around a park sign. The park was named for a police officer who was killed in the line of duty several years ago. There will be a candlelight vigil for him this week, and we thought the flowers (even though they won't be blooming) would be a nice touch.

The really cool thing about the whole event was that it started small (a bunch of 3 year olds planting flowers) and turned into a community event, complete with media and the local city councilmember in attendance. One of the playgroup daddies is a police officer, and he got the department involved. They prepped the soil Friday night (when it got too dark they called the fire truck to come and shine a spotlight off the bucket truck). A local nursery donated a bunch of pansies and a couple of shrubs so there will be color at the site for the vigil and throughout most of the winter.

They planted a border of purple pansies with a center of yellow pansies spelling out his badge number. Each child got to plant 5 bulbs. It was quite a scene, with over 50 people on site, including the mother of the slain officer.

The kids had a great time (kids + mud = FUN), the grown-ups all felt like they had made a small difference in the world, and the family of the officer was so grateful. I really do LOVE the feeling you can get from volunteering. It's a win-win situation, every time.

Okay, now it's your turn..... what are YOU doing to make your community a better place? I promise ... you get more out of it than you'd ever expect.