Nature-lovers were up early Saturday morning working to cleanup a once-neglected Dallas park.
Hines Park is 15 acres of water and green space hidden in plain sight, right off busy Harry Hines Boulevard.
"Good morning everyone," said Megan Davis, Development and Outreach Coordinator for Groundwork Dallas. "The projects for today are going to be litter cleanup both in the park area and on the water," she said.
Over the past six years, Groundwork Dallas has been like a proud, adoptive parent of Hines Park.
"There's a lot of Styrofoam out here," Megan said while she walked along a trail picking up trash. "We've gotten a lot of the big stuff, so it's all this micro-trash, all this little stuff."
During the non-profit's Saturday Volunteer Days, they rally people to help them clean up.
"It's just so satisfying to be able to do a project where you can see the impact immediately," Megan said.
That impact is also seen on the water, where volunteers Zack and Dominique are fishing out plastics and aluminum. Their efforts, and the efforts of volunteers like them, are crucial to the organization.
"They really have a big impact on helping us to do that work and to ensure that these spaces remain accessible and beautiful for people to visit," Megan said.
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To improve the visitor experience, Groundwork Dallas added benches to create an outdoor amphitheater, built a viewing platform for people to get a better look at wildlife on the water, and installed a fence surrounding the park.
"So we've done a lot of work here to restore it and make it into an area that people can come and enjoy," Megan said.
Groundwork Dallas has restored this natural sanctuary and it's now patiently waiting for new visitors. The organization is hosting a grand re-opening for Hines Park on Friday from 9 to 11 a.m.
If you'd like to join one of Groundwork Dallas' Saturday volunteer days, click here.
