Every community needs the people who live there and utilize its resources to help do their part in keeping it nice and that's why Jackson's Parks and Recreation Department has formed a new group to do just that!

"People for the Parks and Trails of Jackson, Michigan"

That is the name of a new group interested residents can join in order to help keep the parks and trails in Jackson cleaned up and enjoyable by all.

The reason for the group?

According to FOX 47 News, there are only four full-time employees at the parks department who have 28 city parks and trails to keep up with.

While the community is supporting the group in its early stages, Coordinator Aaron Dimick told FOX 47 that they already have around 20 people expressing interest, there are still some people who have posed questions of whether or not the city is using this for "free labor.

Dimick assures that is absolutely not the case.

The Group's Responsibilities Around Jackson

"It's not like we'll be expecting people to show up Monday through Friday and volunteer eight hours a day," Dimick told FOX 47. "It'll be more simple projects may be taken hour two hours at most just every couple weeks so it's really doing kind of the more light things that the city staff can’t always get to."

Assistant Parks and Recreation Director Andrew Sargeant, who is working alongside Dimick in the formation of the group, says volunteers would be responsible for completing smaller projects.

They say things like mulching playgrounds, picking up limbs, fixing up landscaping, painting surfaces like picnic tables, cleaning up the putt putt course at Ella Sharp Park, etc...

According to FOX 47, organizers plan to have a meeting with the community and those interested later in July in hopes of "hitting the ground running" and getting the group and its various projects underway in August!

All in all, I think any group dedicated to making sure everyone can get out and enjoy the wonderful parks the City of Jackson has to offer. Also, it would be fulfilling my Leslie Knope dreams to be a member of the Parks Department...even if it is on a volunteer basis!

CLICK HERE to sign up if you are interested!

LOOK: Stunning vintage photos capture the beauty of America's national parks

Today these parks are located throughout the country in 25 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The land encompassing them was either purchased or donated, though much of it had been inhabited by native people for thousands of years before the founding of the United States. These areas are protected and revered as educational resources about the natural world, and as spaces for exploration.

Keep scrolling for 50 vintage photos that show the beauty of America's national parks.

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