Annual Fulton Pride Day draws big crowds despite rain

April 15, 2012 at 6:00 a.m. | Updated April 15, 2012 at 6:00 a.m.

Volunteers from the Optimists Club and Girl Scout Troop 70293 gather up their haul of trash on Fulton Pride Day. The two clubs teamed up to clean the park near Westminster College, where they went above and beyond the call of duty and fished trash out of the lake with sticks.
Volunteers from the Optimists Club and Girl Scout Troop 70293 gather up their haul of trash on Fulton Pride Day. The two clubs teamed up to clean the park near Westminster College, where they went above and beyond the call of duty and fished trash out of the lake with sticks.

The weather couldn't have been much more dreary Saturday, but the people of Fulton didn't let it keep them from participating in the city's 12th annual Fulton Pride Day. While some volunteers chose to wait for better weather to pick up trash in their sections of town, hundreds braved the rainy, muggy morning to show their pride in the city's appearance.

Volunteers from various groups, organizations and churches met at Veteran's Park before 9 a.m., where they got Fulton Pride Day shirts and trash bags before dispursing into their sections of the city to clean up. They headed back to the park around 11 for lunch.

Sharlene McArtor, recreation programer for the City of Fulton Parks and Recreation department, said that about 540 volunteers showed up to claim their t-shirts and bags. While some of those will wait to clean their sections of the city later in the week, most stuck around to help that day. That many hands ensures that Fulton was a far cleaner place by Saturday afternoon.

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.