The city of Poplarville will host a citywide cleanup event on Saturday, April 25 in conjunction with the Keep America Beautiful campaign in hopes of making the city litter free.

Formation of the cleanup event began after Poplarville resident Laurie Lombardino noticed large amounts of litter around the city.

“When I moved here six months ago, I liked the quaintness and cleanliness of the town, but I noticed after a while that the litter problem was increasing so I spoke to the mayor and here we are,” Lombardino said.

Lombardino, along with Poplarville Mayor Brad Necaise, Poplarville Alderwoman Shirley Wiltshire and Alex Shook, who runs the Pearl River County 4-H club, are working together to organize the event.

Friday, they met at Poplarville City Hall to discuss the event’s details.

Keep America Beautiful, the non-profit organization that helps restore communities nationwide, will provide trash bags and gloves on Saturday. Volunteers can pick up the trash collection items at City Hall at 8 a.m., Necaise said. Also, the city is partnering with the Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department to provide volunteers with reflective safety vests and pickup sticks. The trash pickup event will run from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Lombardino encourages everyone to volunteer.

Currently, several organizations across Pearl River County are participating in the event, including schools like Pearl River Community College and community clubs like the Poplarville Rodeo Club.

“Volunteers can clean up their own property or clean up an area that will be assigned to them on Saturday,” Lombardino said.

Afterwards, volunteers will be asked to return their trash collection to City Hall between 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. The trash bags will then be transported via a county truck to Waste Management in Millard, Necaise said.

While this is the first time the city has held a cleanup event like this, Lombardino hopes it won’t be the last.

“This is not something that ends on Saturday. We’re going to try to do this quarterly to keep it going,” Lombardino said.

She also said the event will help the city receive grants for future events around the community.

Interested parties can show up the day of to volunteer, Lombardino said.

For more information, contact Lombardino by joining the Facebook group, Keep Poplarville Beautiful or through e-mail at keeppoplarvillebeautiful@gmail.com.