A crew of LDS church members cooked a hearty lunch for the volunteers, featuring half-pound hamburgers that astounded. Photo courtesy of Libby Tolman

GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) – Butte County Fairgrounds hosted a successful Volunteer Day on Saturday, April 18, with a strong turnout of service-minded individuals, groups and clubs.

Volunteer Day is an opportunity for the Gridley community to show its support and lend a hand in maintaining the Butte County Fairgrounds and some of its satellite facilities such as Veterans Memorial Hall.

Multiple facets of the community and its organizations came out for the event, including the Gridley Rotary Club, Gridley High School Interact Club, Palermo Grange and 4-H clubs, West Gridley 4-H Club, nearly 30 LDS missionaries and locals from youth to adults.

Gridley’s Quota Club acted as host of the event, welcoming and checking in volunteers as they arrived at the fairgrounds.

Helping hands at Butte County Fairgrounds Volunteer Day assisted in refreshing flower containers, weeding and replanting new flowers where needed. Photo courtesy of Libby Tolman

“We had guides to show people where their projects were,” said Quota President Maggie Hepworth, as a variety of projects were scattered across the grounds.

Hepworth said that she and Peggy Harshbarger were on the planning committee for Volunteer Day, learning how Quota could assist with the cleanup efforts.

“We helped manage all the workers throughout the projects,” said Hepworth. “Groverlee Dahl oversaw the flower planting, and Lucila Johnson guided garden cleanup.”

Tasks for volunteers included, but were not limited to, weeding gardens, trimming existing bushes and shrubs, planting new flowers, power-washing areas and painting building frames and tree trunks.

The American Legion helped work on the grounds and similar tasks at Memorial Hall, which is owned by Butte County and managed by the fairgrounds.

Other sites included in Volunteer Day cleanup efforts were the Gridley Post Office, which had its flower beds weeded, and the community garden at St. Timothy’s Church, which received the beautifying touch of the Miss Butte County Scholarship Program royalty.

Butte County Fairgrounds CEO Matt Reed noted that volunteers even came from across Butte County to assist.

These guys know how to roll – paint that is, as they work to restore the exterior of the fairground’s restrooms at Volunteer Day. Photo courtesy of Libby Tolman

“We were fortunate enough to have the Sheriff’s Crew from the county come out,” said Reed, recognizing the 12 crew members who trimmed trees in the arena area and helped mow.

Reed appeared pleased with the turnout and grateful for those who pitched in, especially after a one-year hiatus from the event.

“The fact that we took a year off allowed us to kind of build up some projects,” said Reed, which allowed for better project planning.

“When we came back, people still wanted to show up,” said Reed, thankful for the continued community support.

The committed volunteers play a significant role in preparing the fairgrounds for their upcoming busy season, as the fairgrounds have only a few maintenance crew members on hand.

“It’s hard for them to do by themselves, because there are only four of them,” said Reed. “So this makes it a lot easier to get things prepped. The rest of the year we’re just taking care of it and making sure it stays maintained.”

After hours of hard work, the fairgrounds fed the volunteers a meal cooked by Kathy Sannar and crew, with Pono Nako on the barbecue, cooking half-pound burgers and hot dogs for workers to refuel.

“The burgers were so thick,” said Vanessa Wilson of the Butte County Fairgrounds. “They did an amazing job.”