MEMORIAL TREE PROGRAM -A Living Honorarium

If you’re thinking of gifts, why not give something that helps beautify the City of Martinsville and Henry County, is environmentally friendly, and is a long-standing gift? Honor your friend, a loved one or an occasion with a tree in Uptown Martinsville and starting in the fall of 2009, Jordan Creek Park in Fieldale.   You may sponsor a tree to establish a lasting reminder of friends and family members who have passed away. 
For more information about the Gateway Streetscape Memorial/Honor Tree Program contact us at 276-634-4674.

October 2009 Smith River Clean Up Yields 4.80 Tons of Debris
The 2009 fall Smith River Clean Up successfully resulted in 4.80 tons of trash being removed from our beautiful river, area streams and nearby roads. Groups and individuals were asked to work on area roads for the week preceding the main event on October 3rd. More than sixty volunteers helped to pick up and pull out debris. Our wonderful helpers included neighborhood groups, VDOT, Henry County PSA staff, Gateway Staff, Henry County Sheriff’s Department, Martinsville Sheriff’s Department, City of Martinsville Public Works and individuals. This year Gateway partnered with the Community Pride group that is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and they helped to get our business community involved in the clean up as well.
Gateway has been very successful with taking inventory of areas and targeting them for our fall and winter clean ups. We will continue to do this since we can accomplish a great deal with the equipment and manpower that is assembled for these events. We will soon be scouting the areas to target for our February Smith River Clean Up. We will once again ask groups to work on the roads and stream banks for the week leading up to the main event. Mark your calendars for February 6, 2010 for the Winter Smith River Clean Up.

Fall 2009 Hazardous
Waste Day
The annual fall Household Hazardous Waste Day event was held on October 10, 2009 at our new location, the Henry County Service Center on Fairystone Park Highway in Bassett, Virginia. Unfortunately, it was listed on our calendar of events and our web site as October 17, 2009. We had to push the date back due to our vendor being unavailable for the scheduled date. We apologize for any inconvenience that this might have caused our local citizens. We will be scheduling the spring day for April and the tentative date is April 17, 2010.

This event allows area residents from the City of Martinsville and Henry County to properly dispose of solvents, paints, fuels, automobile fluids, batteries, computer components, office equipment, ink jet cartridges and old cell phones. One hundred eighteen cars came to drop off their hazardous waste and twenty-eight people worked to make this event possible at no cost to area citizens. Special thanks to the Virginia Litter and Recycling Fund Board for providing a grant to cover the
costs of this fall event. 

Gateway has been working with the local Boys and Girls Clubs since they started in Martinsville and Henry County. The students helped plan and design the amenities that you see along the Uptown Rail Trail. As a matter of fact they built and painted the bird houses that are along the trail. The teen group was conveniently housed on Franklin Street when the work began on the rail trail so were in easy walking distance of the trail.

The teen group has been moved, but their program director, Laurie Waddell, has arranged for the children to be bussed once a month to the trail to work on the trail. Every month a different group of children gets to come and work on environmental issues along the trail and to learn gardening skills. They may clear debris and trash from the trail, help plant flowers or just weed the flower beds. The group recently helped to plant chrysanthemums and pansies along the trail with the Gateway Director. They also picked up trash and helped to cut the canna lilies back in the tropical garden. Winter events will include tree and shrub pruning as well.

Gateway also conducts environmental programs at the Boys and Girls Club centers located at Patrick Henry Elementary School, Albert Harris Middle School, Sanville Elementary School and at Irisburg Elementary School.  The children always enjoy our visits and are enthusiastic participants.  The programs offered help the children in so many ways and it is a joy to see them grow in the program.