Dallas-area Texas Instruments (TI) Incorporated employees celebrated Earth Day this year by participating in the 15^th-annual Cottonwood Park Cleanup. CottonwoodPark, 8500 Midpark Road, is a valuable asset for TI's neighboring Dallas and Richardson communities -- particularly for the hundreds who visit it for after-school and summertime programs designed especially for underprivileged and at-risk kids.

Nearly 40 TI employees, family and friends, along with residents and community leaders, took part in the cleanup, which was hosted by Keep Dallas Beautiful (KDB) and sponsored by TI. Volunteers removed grocery carts from the park’s creek as well as many bags of debris. Volunteers also filled bags with recyclable items, including glass bottles and paper.

Alex Aguilar, an environmental specialist at TI and KDB board member who helped coordinate the event, said the clean up event is critical to the neighborhood because “it helps provide a safe green space for everyone in our community and it helps reduce crime.”

Dallas City Councilmember Linda Koop stopped by the event to express her appreciation to the volunteers.

“Thank you for making this important work possible once again,” Koop said. “Because of you, hundreds of young children in this neighborhood have a safer place to play.”

In the past, dense vegetation and trash along the park's shaded creek made the area unsafe. In 1994, through the cooperation of TI, the neighborhood and local governments, the park was cleaned up and enhanced with a nature trail.