Our View: Volunteer for Green River

It’s difficult to overstate how important a sense of community is to a city like Green River.

A community is what makes a location warm and inviting while providing a feeling of safety. A community is, after all, a place where people look our for one another. It’s a place where people feel comfortable speaking with their neighbors and genuinely want to see their city thrive.

One of most important aspects promoting community in Green River is volunteerism. Volunteers are the reason we have summertime events like Flaming Gorge Days and the Overland Stage Stampede Rodeo. Beyond that, volunteers also help beautify and enhance the city. Those people who picked up a few tons of garbage throughout Green River in May? They weren’t paid. They wanted to help tidy up the city’s streets.

Without volunteers, our weekends would be a bit more dull and we’d see more plastic bags and paper cups blowing around the city. We wouldn’t be able to look forward to River Festival, Santa’s Arrival or the myriad of other events on our yearly calendars nor would we have a chance to admire the flowers planted along Flaming Gorge Way every year.

We want to encourage our readers to stand up and help improve Green River in their own small way. We encourage people to sign up to serve on a volunteer board, helping with a community event like the Overland Stage Stampede Rodeo or a cause like promotions for Green River Main Street or the city’s tree board. It doesn’t even have to be an official capacity either. A person can simply grab a garbage bag and a reflective vest, then go out and pick up some garbage throughout their neighborhood.

For residents who want to help their community under some of the most extreme circumstances, we would suggest becoming a volunteer firefighter through the city’s fire department. Being a firefighter means more than just putting out fires and can involve responding to serious vehicle crashes or river rescues.

We agree with the oft-said statement of volunteers being the lifeblood of a community. Without volunteers, we wouldn’t have a lot of the things making Green River the vibrant community it is.

Improve the city and join a board or simply do something that will enhance the neighborhood. It may be a thankless task, but those who step up ultimately improve Green River, regardless of how small the task is.