Midtown Day of Service
In Spring 2008, Midtown Indianapolis, Inc, (formerly HARMONI) was approached by Eli Lilly and Company and Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. Lilly generously made the decision to choose Midtown as an area of emphasis for the 2009 Lilly Global Day of Service with the understanding that Midtown would organize a team to help define and plan projects to be completed on May 20, 2009.
Throughout 2008 and 2009, this proved to be an outstanding cooperative effort among many groups. The Midtown team included representatives from the four large neighborhood associations, residents, and some businesses. Together with KIB, Lilly, and Indy Parks, the team defined and helped plan 19 projects at schools, parks, local businesses, and community centers. It resulted in 900+ Lilly volunteers and dozens of Midtown residents and business people planting more than 500 trees and thousands of shrubs and flowers, painting parks furniture and equipment, mulching playgrounds, painting murals, landscaping along the canal in Broad Ripple, landscaping at six schools, landscaping at the Governor's Residence, landscaping at the Martin Luther King Center, and more. Following the Day of Service, the Midtown team helped to arrange and provide maintenance for the plantings throughout the summer.
Meetings have already begun to define Midtown projects for the next Midtown Day of Service, which is scheduled for the first weekend of October, 2010.