The Foundation for Portland Public Schools (FPPS) is helping to organize Portland Picks Up, a citywide cleanup and celebration on Saturday, May 18. FPPS invite Portland residents to join friends and neighbors to pick up litter in their neighborhoods from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Some of our PTOs and other community partners are staffing tables with gloves, litter bags, and safety instructions to help families and neighbors tidy up their neighborhoods.

From noon to three, we’ll celebrate our civic efforts with a free family festival at Payson Park with food, games, activities, and music from the Maine Academy of Modern Music. Please join us for any part of Portland Picks Up!

FPPS is collaborating with the City of Portland Office of Sustainability, Saltwater Classroom, MAMM, the Portland Park Conservancy, Friends of Congress Square Park, and many of our Parent Teacher Organizations in our 18 district schools. We encourage anyone else to contact us for supplies and information for that day (or just organize their own cleanup that morning but still join the festival).

So far, we have groups meeting in the morning at:

• Talbot Community School

• Longfellow Elementary

• Peaks Island Elementary

• Lyman Moore Middle School

• Reiche Community School

• East End Community School

• Rowe Elementary School

• Deering Oaks Park with the Portland Parks Conservancy

• Westgate Shaws with the Friends of Allen's Corner

• Friends of Congress Square Park

Learn more about the May 18th Cleanup and Family Festival at Portlandfoundation.info or by calling 207-842-4668.