TUPELO • After being delayed due to COVID-19, the sixth annual 10 for Tupelo community service event will occur Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
This year, the event will feature a drive through service at City Hall. Volunteers can pull up in their cars, where they will be provided bags with masks, gloves, trash bags, t-shirts, hand sanitizer, bottles of water and other donated items. There will be no gathering at Fairpark or free lunches.
"Due to COVID and the restrictions on event gatherings even outside, we didn't want to limit the event at all in saying only the first so-odd people being here would be able to participate, so we decided that we could open it up totally and let everybody be involved if we didn't center it at Fairpark,” said 10 for Tupelo founder Jesse Bandre.
For the last three years, Director of Keep Tupelo Beautiful Kathryn Rhea has co-chaired the event. The Rotary Club of Tupelo and Keep Tupelo Beautiful are the biggest sponsors, and cover the additional costs of organizing the event. The goal of the event is to show people how bad litter is and also to educate.
The 10 for Tupelo stands for one day, 10 continuous hours of service for Tupelo. Traditionally, volunteers are encouraged to volunteer for however long they want to, whether that is 30 minutes, an hour, several hours or the whole day. This year’s event is also part of Tupelo’s 150th birthday celebration, where volunteers can volunteer 150 minutes in honor of the sesquicentennial year. The goal of the event is to show people how bad litter is and also to educate.
The event sees over 1000 people, and Bandre said the event helps garner excitement for volunteering and cleaning up their city.
“We really wanted to keep that momentum, but we just had to, due to COVID, back it down to a drive-thru service. We still feel it is just as important to keep the neighborhoods and our city clean,” Bandre said. “That is what the event was created for, to clean up the city, but our number one priority is safety of anybody that's involved with any of our events.”
People will be encouraged to go to their designated areas, such as volunteering in their own neighborhoods. There are also 10 listed service projects, including a few parks, schools and a local nonprofit, which require volunteers to sign up in advance. The limit is 10 people to a project site. While projects may increase to 12-15, Bandre said they are trying to limit the number of projects for safety.
“We're really not trying to create projects where people are gathering,” Bandre said. “We're really trying to separate it out so people can be in their own individual area, so we're doing our best to cancel projects and really get people to go out on their own, or get their family members that they've been quarantined with or staying at home with. That way, we're not spreading anything to anybody else.”
The project was created during Bandre’s time as president of the Tupelo Rotary Club in 2014. The organization was looking for a service project and approached the mayor about any clean up opportunities within the community. That year, 10 for Tupelo had a little less than 200 volunteers. The project started out just picking up litter around public schools and tourist areas such as the Elvis Presley Birthplace and parks.
Now, 10 for Tupelo is able to work within all neighborhoods and complete multiple projects. Volunteers also now do beautification efforts, such as helping Regional Rehab with their garden.
Since starting the event, there has been a decrease in the weight levels of trash volunteers have to pick up each year. In 2019, volunteers picked up 5,320 pounds of trash from 38 sites including streets, parks and neighborhoods and completed six beautification projects, according to a Tupelo 150 grant application.
Last year, 10 for Tupelo had over 1200 volunteers and roughty $2,800 volunteer hours valuing $71,204 as well as sponosrships and in-kind donations of over $22,447, according to their Tupelo 150 grant application.
The event sees volunteers from various organizations and backgrounds. With the pandemic, Bandre hopes this event encourages people to continue giving back to the community.
“Tupelo needs us to pick up litter around the city. We have such a beautiful and wonderful city, and...this is an opportunity for us all to get out and fix those small issues throughout our town, to help it look nicer and more welcoming for our guests that visit here,” Bandre said. “We're so proud of being the All-America City, so I feel we should really encompass that by (being) the All-America City that's clean.”
Sign up is available at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080f49a4af2ca0f94-10fortupelo2. More information can be found by visiting 10 for Tupelo Facebook page, contacting Kathryn Rhea at ktb@tupeloms.gov or 901-871-3353 or Jesse Bandre at 662-871-5515.
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