On Saturday November 14th Mountain Park Health Center hosted the Love Your Block/Grand Canal Clean-Up at our Gateway Clinic. Mountain Park’s Community Ambassadors led the charge, with around 200 of the 300 volunteers being Mountain Park staff and their families. The volunteers showed up bright and early to beautify and revitalize the canal that runs behind our Gateway Clinic. Several projects were completed including a clean-up of the space along the canal from 40th Street to 34th Street, extending Mountain Park’s existing mural, weeding and removing trash, painting over graffiti as well as creating a ribbon mural and resurfacing the baseball diamond at our partner, David Crockett Elementary School.

This isn’t the first time Mountain Park is hosting a beautification event in the area. In 2014 we worked with ASU’s School of Sustainability and several community partners to create a beautiful mural behind our Gateway Clinic (see: https://www.adaptsustain.net/.

A big thank you our muralist Angela Cazeljahn and to our partners from Keep Phoenix Beautiful, Somali American United Council, David Crockett Elementary School and the Girl Scouts for being a part of the Clean-Up, and to our sponsors who helped make the day possible: Office Depot, Hilton Garden Inn, Behr Paint, Sherwin-Williams, International Union of Painters & Allied Trades, Home Depot, Oasis Hospital, Mesa Airlines, City of Phoenix Neighborhood Services Department, Justserve, Sea Life AZ and Stand for Children!

The Love Your Block project is laying the foundation for Canalscape, which beginning next fall, will add lighting, paved walkways and art installations to the canal running behind our Gateway clinic. The plan is to make this space a safe, clean and useable area for our patients and staff. The revitalized canal and the path along it will contribute to a more urban and accessible community and Mountain Park couldn’t be more proud to help make this happen.