Gazette file photo Volunteers help to clean up Hancock's Porvoo Park during the 2025 Pitch in for Parks effort. The event, which will take place May 6, is looking for volunteers.

HANCOCK — The City of Hancock is looking for volunteers to help clean up its parks and popular recreational spots. It is hosting its annual Pitch in for Parks on 4 p.m. Friday, May 6, starting at Quincy Green.

The event is a community-based clean-up activity, taking volunteers around to local parks in Hancock to pick up dead leaves, trash and to tidy up popular recreational spots.

Community Development for the City of Hancock, Todd Gast, said the city needs about five to ten volunteers for the smaller, neighborhood parks within the city. He said for the bigger recreational areas, the city needs around 20 volunteers.

There are 11 parks and one beach within the City of Hancock.

Gast said Hancock High School, Superior National Bank, OHM and the Hancock Beautification Committee do their part with the city’s spring cleaning efforts, but additional resident volunteers are needed.

“We really want to have our neighbors and all of the people that use the parks, be involved with the cleanup,” he said. “After the snow melts, things don’t look very good, right?”

Volunteers in previous years have picked up trash and dead leaves in parks. After the cleanup, they will be treated to hotdogs, chips and pop from the City of Hancock Fire Department.

Gast said the event brings the city’s residents and neighbors together by contributing to maintaining public land.

“It’s truly a community event where, you know, we’ll have businesses that come out, the high school comes out, and then we’re asking for community members,” he said. It really does help when the public helps… because it’s owned by the public and the ownership is the residents.”

According to a March press release from Visit Keweenaw, snowfall for the Keweenaw Peninsula had surpassed over 300 inches for the season. Spring has definitively arrived in the Keweenaw, with temperatures reaching a high of 66 degrees, last Thursday.

Gast said he is hopeful the warm weather is an indicator of residents getting fresh air and soaking in the sunshine after one of the snowiest winters on record.

“After a really long winter, it’s gonna [feel] good to be outside,” he said. “And, you know, smell the earth and help us clean up our parks so that we have a really wonderful step into the summer season.”

Those interested in volunteering for Pitch in for Parks, can contact the City of Hancock at (906) 482-2270 or by email at city@cityofhancock.com.