Over 200 Melaleuca volunteers clean up Idaho Falls Greenbelt

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI)- More than 200 volunteers from Melaleuca partnered with the City of Idaho Falls Parks and Recreation Department on Thursday for the fourth annual cleanup project along the Idaho Falls greenbelt. Volunteers cleared trash, overgrown brush and invasive trees along the Riverwalk to improve community safety and restore riverfront sightlines.

The single-day effort is expected to remove approximately 300 yards of debris from the banks of the river at Freeman Park and surrounding areas. The large volunteer force allows the city to complete major maintenance tasks along the Riverwalk that would otherwise require weeks of labor from municipal park crews.

PJ Holm, Idaho Falls Parks and Recreation director, emphasized the community impact that the volunteer workforce provides to city operations. The parks department typically maintains a staff of about 35 full-time employees and roughly 100 seasonal workers, with daily work crews usually consisting of five to eight people.

“It's just amazing to be able to see so many people come out from their organization and give back to the community, give back to, the, Riverwalk here in Freeman Park,” Holm said. He noted the efficiency of having more than 200 volunteers working simultaneously, adding, “You know, 20 days worth of work these guys can get done in, in one afternoon.”

The annual initiative originated through direct outreach between company leadership and municipal staff. “Melaleuca reached out to the city a handful of years ago and just said, hey, we want to we want to put together something that can be a team building effort, for their organization and, working with them and and then working with our, our volunteer coordinator,” Holm said.

Jamie Reynolds, chief human resource officer at Melaleuca, explained that the company opens participation to all team members across the organization, adjusting shift schedules and workloads so interested employees can join.

“Our mission is to enhance lives. And we see this as one of many ways that we can give back to our community and enhance lives. The greenbelt here, the Riverwalk is a gem and it is treasure to our families here,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds noted that participation has grown as staff members share their experiences. “The great thing about it is our team members are really excited to be part of it. And so how we do it is we give the opportunity to all of our team members. So we send out an email communication and all of our supervisors make sure that every single team member has the opportunity to receive the communication,” Reynolds said.

“One of the things that I love is the growth in those who are participating. Right. So we may have had some at first who are a little timid to try and come out and do something a little bit different, but then the team members come back and they hear the stories and they want to be part of it.”

McKay Shippen, a Melaleuca employee, reflected on the physical nature of the project and the shared effort among co-workers along the riverbanks. “It's fun to get out. It's a change of pace from, you know, our everyday work. But it's fun to be in the community and help, you know, clear up trash and and take the twigs and make it beautiful,” Shippen said.

“I mean, there's a lot of us, so it's kind of fun to see how quickly we can make a big impact. And that's evident. I mean, we've got huge piles. There's tons of work that gets done, but it's pretty fun to see how well we work together, especially as a big group.”