Hundreds of Service Learning volunteers picked up trash, raked leaves and spread mulch in Baltimore's parks yesterday as part of "Operation Green Thunder," a daylong campaign to scour the city's sometimes shabby parks. 

"Clean up brigade!" Mayor Martin O'Malley shouted, drill-sergeant style, to rows of fatigue-wearing, rake-wielding Junior ROTC students from Harbor City High School who assembled on a sunny morning in Druid Hill Park. 
 

Harbor City High School  Junior ROTC  members Tyrone Carter (left),  Danielle Davis  and MalikCaldwell are among volunteers who helped  clean up Druid Hill Park.  (Sun photo by Kim Hairston)

"Hup! Hup! Hup!" the teens shouted back. 

With a wave of his hand, the mayor led the charge. The Service Learning volunteers seized shovels and spread wood chips on a playground. Others wielded rakes and hauled away bags of leaves. Still other volunteers hacked down dead tree branches or picked up litter. 

"We came out here today because we believe in our parks and we want our kids to have a cleaner and safer place to play," said Green. "The children are our future, and we want to instill in them the idea that everyone should do their part." 

Similar groups of volunteers fanned out across Patterson Park, Clifton Park, Gwynns Falls Park and Carroll Park. The city departments of recreation and parks, public works and other agencies opened up booths in the parks to take complaints and suggestions from the public. 

The event was O'Malley's most recent attempt to turn around conditions in the city's 6,500 acres of parkland. The parks were so trashy and overgrown in July that O'Malley removed parks Director Marvin F. Billups Jr. and pledged drastic changes. 

Acting parks Director Kimberley Amprey, who replaced Billups, said yesterday that the city plans to increasingly rely on neighborhood organizations and volunteers to help clean up the parks, because the government's resources are limited. "We'd like to create more friends of the parks organizations and get an Adopt-a-Park program up and running," said Amprey. "We'd like to form more partnerships so citizens can help us maintain the parks as a regular activity." 

Tyrone Carter, a 15-year-old from East Baltimore who participates in the Harbor City High School JROTC program, was one of the volunteers yesterday, raking the bright red leaves of a maple tree into a paper bag. "I think it's a great idea to have people help clean up the parks, because the kids deserve a nice clean place to play," said Carter.