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Day Of Service Offers Projects For Outdoor Lovers

DENVER (CBS4) - If you love being outside, then Xcel Energy's Day of Service has several projects that are perfect for you. Denver Parks & Recreation needs 135 volunteers to do maintenance work at Swansea Park.

LINK: Register for the Denver Parks & Rec. Project

"It's a great project and one that's just really about going out to make the parks a lot safer and cleaner for the communities, so it's a lot of hard labor work," said Daniel Brown, program director for Xcel Energy.

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(credit Daniel Brown)

Brown worked on the Denver Parks & Rec project last year. The parks project consists of mulching, clearing debris, and painting park facilities. Brown said that it's a lot of hard work but he enjoyed the comradery

"I think it's just a really, really good thing as an employee of Xcel Energy. I just feel really good that we really care about the community, that we really serve. And then, it's just a really good thing that we're able to bring our families out there, we bring our friends and neighbors, and we're there working side-by-side with our other co-workers. It's just enjoyable. It's very, very fulfilling with the work we're doing," Brown told CBS4.

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(credit Daniel Brown)

Brown brought his high school mentoring program to last year's project. Kappa League is an organization that actually mentors African-American males in the community. He said the teens got a real sense of accomplishment at the end of the project.

"I think they really learned a lot about what it takes to really keep a park up in a clean way. And they had to put effort into it, and they could see the accomplishment at the end," Brown explained.

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(credit Daniel Brown)

In addition to the Denver Parks & Rec project, there are several outdoor projects across the state:

--Wildlands Restoration in Boulder

--Sand Creek Regional Greenway in Commerce City

--Bluff Lake Nature Center in Denver

--The Urban Farm in Denver

--Riverside Educational Center in Grand Junction

--Cal-Wood Education Center in Jamestown

--Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield in Littleton

--FiSSH in Fort Collins

All of these organizations could use some help on Xcel Energy's Day of Service, which is Saturday, September 9th from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.

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