MANSFIELD — The back of Kim Hildreth’s shirt late Tuesday afternoon explained her dedication to the City of Mansfield — along with that of all the volunteers she has motivated for nearly three decades.
It’s a shirt she first wore in 1997 — the same year Hildreth helped launch “Operation Clean Sweep” in the city, an event designed to reduce litter in downtown Mansfield.
It came just a few hours after the annual beautification effort led to as many as 3,000 new flowers planted in the downtown area.
Hildreth and her volunteers gathered in Central Park and elsewhere for the 28th anniversary of the annual event, now a partnership during Earth Stewardship Month between the City of Mansfield and Downtown Mansfield Inc.
A woman who has worn many hats during her career, Hildreth is now a project planner for the City of Mansfield.
Unofficially, she is the Pied Piper of local environmental issues, from Operation Clean Sweep to Arbor Day to Operation Save Our Streams to Earth Day — and all points in between.
Regardless of her volunteer team, Hildreth said every effort helps, recalling the origins of the work with former Mayor Lydia Reid and Karen Sawyer, then the executive director of Main Street Mansfield.
“They got their heads together and wanted to do something to spruce up the downtown,” Hildreth said Tuesday.
(Below are photos from Operation Clean Sweep on Tuesday afternoon in downtown Mansfield. The story continues below the photos.)
Nearly three decades later, the goal is the same.
“If we have a very good turnout, what we expect to do, and I’ve already got people, we hope to get from Diamond Street to Main Street down to Fifth Street and all the alleys in-between,” she said.
“If we have a really good turnout, we’ll go as far as we can toward the Imagination District,” Hildreth said.
After the event, volunteers were entered into a drawing to potentially win prizes at the upcoming Earth Stewardship Awards ceremony.
One of the volunteers in attendance was Mansfield Mayor Jodie Perry, whose administration provided collection bags, gloves and disposal of the litter collected.
“This has been a very successful partnership with Downtown Mansfield, Inc. for nearly three decades and I appreciate all of their leadership,” said Perry, who headed out on “litter patrol” with city engineer Bob Bianchi and 6th Ward Councilwoman Deborah Mount.
Hildreth has seen several mayors during her tenure.
She said she appreciates the new administration, including Perry and Public Works Director Louis Andres, who began his 40-year career parks and recreation career in 1978 with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources as a park naturalist.
‘This current administration reminds me very much of when I began,” Hildreth said. “One of the things that people many times might not realize if they weren’t here, there was not a neighborhood cleanup that Lydia Reid didn’t show up … or you didn’t periodically have council members show up … county commissioners showed up.
“It was just amazing in terms of leadership that happened,” she said.
“It’s nice again to see that resurgence, that energy, of we want Mansfield to be a great place to be,” Hildreth said.