Volunteers landscape Hemming Plaza

Around 100 people planted shrubs and plants in preparation for Spring events

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Saturday morning around 100 community volunteers planted shrubs and flowering plans in the renovated beds of Hemming Plaza to transform the historic park into a beautiful urban core focal point.

Public and private partners came together to be the driving force in making positive change Downtown.

Wells Fargo provided a grant of $35,000 as part of their NeighborhoodLIFT program with funds going to enhancements in and around Hemming Plaza.

100 community volunteers and Wells Fargo team members installed the new plan while McDonald's provided free breakfast and Beau and the Burners provided LIVE entertainment for volunteers.

Valerie Feinberg with Downtown Vision said they couldn't have done it without the volunteers.

"Hours and hours and hours of donated time really, so like I said, we've been working on this for seven or eight months," Feinberg said. "To really get it ready, so it's great."

One thing in particular they want Hemming Plaza to look great for is One Spark. The crowd funding festival is back for the second year and thousands will come through Hemming Plaza April 9th through April 15th.

"We wanted to really make the city look very pretty for One Spark," Feinberg said. "I mean that was out of our motivations. We had a drop dead date, which was today. But it worked out really well."