Painting rainbows and making a difference

Led by Hallie Taylor, the Public Art Committee Chair of Niagara Beautification Commission, Niagara Beautification Commission (NBC) board members and the students from Bloneva Bond Primary School in painting hopscotch, a giant rainbow, and an activity path.

Hallie says “this is for the kids, by the kids”.

Paint for the project was donated by Sherwin Williams and Home Depot.

NBC is a non-profit run by volunteers. On Saturday, May 9 Jen Hull, Chair of the Beautify Niagara Committee, organized over 1,000 volunteers for the 19th annual citywide cleanup even – this doesn’t count the community schools or the Niagara Falls Housing Authority, who took time to clean up the Friday before the event.

NBC Chair, Laura Chenault, is dedicated to making Niagara Falls a better place to live. She loves to say “Let’s keep our city pretty” and “we’re stronger together”. In addition to public art, NBC supports eight community gardens, four of which they partner with Grassroots Gardens to maintain, with their newest one starting next Wednesday at 936 Depot Avenue. They also plant flowers in our city parks, and work to maintain and reimagine the historic rose garden in Hyde Park.

“Our board and our volunteers work hard to ‘Keep Niagara Beautiful’ and we always need more hands” Chenault said.

“What we need are volunteers and members to support our work; people like Mike and Tony Poletti.”

The Polettis of Marketside Restaurant donated the food fed to volunteers at the Beautify Niagara after party at the Niagara Falls Aquarium.

If you would like to volunteer, learn more, or make a donation, please visit www.keepniagarabeautiful.org.