Berg Park is part of the Farmington Riverine Trail System. It is located at 400 Scott Avenue (near the intersection of San Juan Boulevard and Scott Avenue). Berg Park, and the adjoining Animas Park, are the location of the annual Farmington Riverfest Celebration on Memorial Day Weekend. Berg Park is a Farmington favorite locale for walking, running and bike riding because of the trees and the extensive trail system. Mornings and evenings at the Park are magical with wildlife along the Animas River. Berg Park is heavily used in the summer months.
The trash clean-up project on September 7, 2024, will start at 9:00 am and will be along the various trails in Berg Park, areas adjacent to the parking lots and along the river. Please come to the Gazebo to check in and receive an assignment. The Park has been broken into zones and a captain will lead the work in each zone. Work gloves, hats and sunscreen should be brought and used. Water and trash bags will be provided. Full trash bags and large items should be transported to the roll off dumpster in the Berg Park parking lot.
Parking will be in the Berg Park parking lot or as directed by city employees.
Farmington Lake is the city’s municipal water storage reservoir and is located at 8120 East Main (northside of the street) in Farmington. The lake has recreational facilities and picnic areas. It has quickly become a city favorite once the lake was opened to swimming and boating. Farmington Lake is heavily used between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
The trash clean-up project on September 7, 2024, will start at 9:00 am and will be in and around the lake. Please come to the Farmington Police department Mobile Command center to check in and receive an assignment. The Park has been broken into 5 zones and a captain will lead the work in each zone. Work gloves, hats and sunscreen should be brought and used. Water and trash bags will be provided. Full trash bags and large items should be transported to the roll off dumpster near the Mobile Command Post.
Parking will be on Lake Farmington Road or as directed by city employees.
Family Crisis Center (FCC) operates a shelter for the victims of domestic violence. The Shelter (or “Marge’s Place” as it has become affectionately known) is a secure location with a cinder block wall perimeter with controlled access to protect the residents and employees. In 2023, a second building (the former Payless Grocery store), at the corner of Apache and Wall Streets was remodeled and added to the shelter compound. When the building was purchased by FCC, it had to be rezoned. One of the requirements for the City’s approval of the new zoning was that the exterior of the building, which had been the parking lot of the old grocery store, be landscaped.
The following Farmington businesses have partnered on this project:
The Family Crisis Center Landscaping Project on September 7, 2024, will start at 9:00 am will be the final installation of landscape fabric and plants and the spreading of gravel and placement of cobblestone to complete the landscaping project. Please come to the main Family Crisis Center building parking lot at 208 East Apache to check in and receive an assignment. The landscape project has been broken into separate tasks and a captain will lead the work for each task. Shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, work gloves, hats and sunscreen should be brought and used. Water will be provided.
Parking will be in the main FCC parking lot at 208 East Apache, at Lions Pool across from the shelter, on Wall Street south of the FCC shelter or at the CATE school parking lot at the corner of Apache and North Court Ave. PLEASE DO NOT PARK ON WALL STREET NEXT TO THE SHELTER ITSELF AS THAT IS PART OF THE LANDSCAPING PROJECT.
No additional volunteers are needed at this time.
The Motto of The Salvation Army is “Doing the Most Good”. In addition to its ministerial efforts, the Army provides disaster services, emergency financial assistance, food and nutrition programs and an emergency shelter. Until the end of October of 2021, the Salvation Army operated a Thrift Store in Farmington at 316 West Animas Street. When the store closed, the clothing from the store was put into bales and the bales were then placed in a storage trailer in hopes of finding somewhere for the clothes to go and help others. An Albuquerque non-profit, Clothes Helping Kids, is willing to take the children’s clothes from the old Thrift Store.
The Salvation Army Kids Clothes project on September 7, 2024, will start at 9:00 am and consists of breaking the bales of children’s clothing apart and placing the clothes into bags for transportation to Albuquerque. Please come to the Farmington Salvation Army Community Center at 316 West Broadway to check in and receive instructions and an assignment..
Parking will be on Broadway, on Locke Avenue or on West Animas Street or as directed by Salvation Army employees.
The Stair Climb is a fundraiser for fallen New York City firefighters and their families and helps support local fallen firefighters. This project is at Ricketts Park (1101 Fairgrounds Road in Farmington) and participants climb the stairs to match the number of stairs in the World Trade Conter towers. The volunteers will be helping pass out water and do other tasks to support the participants and the event. The Stair Climb web site is nfff.akaraisin.com.
- Registration / Packet Pickup starts at 4:30 pm
- Opening Ceremony starts at 5:30 pm
- Stair climb begins at 6:00 pm
25 volunteers are being requested for this event, 10 for registration and 15 for water handouts. Registration volunteers should be at Ricketts Park at 4:00 pm, and water volunteers should be at Rickets Park at 5:00 pm. Parking for volunteers will be at Rickett Park or at the Farmington Aquatics Center.
Local charities who serve the homeless have requested hygiene kits for individuals that come into them for assistance. Local Senior Living Facilities (The Bridge, St. Michaels Namaste, Three Rivers Estates and The Beehive Houses) have agreed to have their residents make up these kits as a way to participate and volunteer for the 9/11 Day of Service. Supplies for the kits has been donated by area businesses (Thank you to the Courtyard by Marriott, area dentists, Delta Dental of New Mexico, St. Michaels Namaste, Target Stores, Sam’s Club and East and West Main Walmart Stores). No additional volunteers are currently needed for this project.
* Photographs may be taken of project volunteers
The September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance or 9/11 Day is a federally-recognized National Day of Service that happens in the United States on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
On September 11, 2001, terrorists associated with al Qaeda terrorist organization based in Afghanistan, highjacked four commercial airliners to use the planes as weapons against targets in the United States. Two planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, another was flown into the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and a fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania when the airplane’s passengers battled with the hijackers for control of the plane.
In response to the planes striking the twin towers and the Pentagon, first responders-firefighters, police officers, emergency workers, military service men and women and civilians rushed into action to save lives of the people in those buildings. As the buildings were burning and people were fleeing, first responders bravely ran into those buildings, climbed stairs and started helping people to evacuate. They risked and gave their lives to serve and save others. The passengers on United Flight 93, after learning that the other three planes had been used as weapons, determined that they would not let the fourth plane be used to hit the United States Capital, which was the fourth target. They fought the hijackers to thwart their plans. 2977 innocent people lost their lives as a result of these terrorist attacks.
The idea of turning September 11 into an annual day of service was originally conceived in early 2002 by David Paine, a public relations executive who had grown up in New York City. He was joined by his friend, Jay Winuk to form the nonprofit group One Day's Pay, which asked volunteers to give up one day’s pay and do service on September 11th to honor those who had sacrificed their lives serving others in 2001. Jay's younger brother, Glenn J. Winuk, who was an attorney and worked in the twin towers and was also a volunteer firefighter, had been killed in the line of duty while participating in the rescue efforts. He was killed when the World Trade Center South Tower Collapsed. Glenn's remains were found approximately six months later, in what remained of the South Tower Lobby area, alongside other first responders, with a medical kit he had borrowed on the scene.
In 2007, the name of the organization was changed to MyGoodDeed. In 2011, in observance of the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, MyGoodDeed joined with other national service organizations in helping to organize what was then considered to be the largest day of charitable service in U.S. history, with more than 30 million Americans participating.
By a joint resolution of Congress, approved on December 18, 2001 (Public Law 107-89), Congress designated September 11 of each year as “Patriot Day,” On April 21, 2009 through Public Law 111-13, the Congress, in bipartisan action, approved and has requested the observance of September 11 as an annually recognized “National Day of Service and Remembrance.”
According to its founders, the purpose of the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance is to transform the anniversary of 9/11 from a day of tragedy into a day of doing good. "We wanted to make sure the terrorists didn't have the last word in forever defining for generations to how America would remember and observe 9/11. We wanted instead to honor the victims and those who rose in service by keeping alive the spirit of unity and service that arose in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks”.
Activities by volunteers on this federally recognized National Day of Service and Remembrance have traditionally happened largely on a grassroots level across the nation, through service projects organized by local nonprofits, employers, and faith groups and others. Approximately 35 million Americans observe 9/11 Day by engaging in some form of charitable service, making the 9/11 Day of Service the largest annual day of charitable service in the United States.
In September 2023, the 9/11 Day of service took place on September 9th and the Memorial Flag walk was on September 10th. There were five different projects.
The Firefighters on the 9/11 Day of Service Committee, who were also involved with the Stair Climb, asked if the 9/11 Committee could supply ten volunteers to hand out water to support the Stair Climb participants.
Farmington Lake is 250 acres in size and the shoreline is over 2 miles in length. The Lake shore was divided up into five zones for cleanup. The city provided a trash dumpster, trash bags, pick up tongs and the Farmington Police Department's Mobile Headquarters Unit was supplied as the project's Headquarters. Community volunteers worked for 2 hours and included church groups, the Farmington High School Girls JV and Varsity Soccer Teams and area families and individuals. The volunteers and city employees working on this project totaled approximately 150 individuals. The total hours of service provided was 300.
Childhaven asked if the grounds around its five buildings could be cleaned and if all of the vehicles it uses in serving children could be thoroughly cleaned. The City of Farmington supplied trash bags and a trash dumpster that was shared with the Brookhaven Park Clean-up project. 10 Volunteers worked on this project and provided 20 hours of service.
Brookhaven East Park is located next to Childhaven, includes approximately five acres of unimproved park land which is connected to Brookhaven Park West via a paved trail. The Brookhaven Park project included both the improved parks, the unimproved park lands, the trail system between the two parks, Airport Drive between the two parks and West Apache down to Navajo Prep Academy. The project was divided up into eight zones. When volunteers filled their trash bags, they left the bag on Airport Drive or on Apache Street where it was picked up and taken back the Brookhaven Park East. 200 Volunteers worked for 2 hours and they provided 400 hours of service.
The 9/11 Day of Service Committee strongly believed that seniors who couldn't go out and do physical work in service or participate in the Memorial Flag Walk, should still be given an opportunity to serve their community. A service project with senior citizens living at a local senior living facilities making hygiene kits for Catholic Charities, People Assisting the Homeless (PATH), New Beginnings and Family Crisis Center was approved. 400 hygiene kits were assembled during the week of September 4 th by the residents of St. Michael's Namaste, the Bridge, Three Rivers Estates and the Beehive Homes. In addition to the Courtyard by Marriott, donations for the kits came from both Farmington Walmart Stores, Target, Sam's Club, Desert Hills Dental, Clark Family Dentistry, Delta Dental of New Mexico, and St. Michael's Namaste. 67 residents, staff and volunteers worked on the kits, and 74 hours of service was provided.
The Memorial Flag Walk took place on Sunday, September 10th . The location of the Flag Walk moved from Berg Park to the Farmington Civic Center and a flag walk route that went down Main Street in downtown Farmington. The City of Farmington supplied First Responder vehicles and the large U.S. flag stretched between 2 ladder trucks. Participants were given a small U.S. flag if they didn't bring their own flag. After a short program that included an opening prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, 2 songs and a short address by the Chaplain at San Juan Regional Medical Center, the Memorial Flag Walk then took place. Along the walking route were QR posters that participants could scan and learn more details about various aspects of the 9/11 story. At Orchard Park, students from Mesa Verde Elementary School performed 3 songs. The participants and City of Farmington Police, Fire and Civic Center employees supporting the event totaled approximately 280 persons.
The first 9/11 National Day of Service took place in Farmington on September 10th and 11th, 2022. There were three service projects that took place on September 10th. On September 11th, there was a Memorial Flag Walk, to honor First Responders and community military veterans.
The San Juan Mission Cemetery is located in far southwest Farmington. The cemetery is essentially unimproved and is owned by the Episcopal Church in Navajoland. It was utilized almost exclusively to provide a no cost place for burial of members of the Navajo Nation. The cemetery is full. Burials are marked with simple wooden crosses, some having names and many without any name on the cross. The Cemetery was overgrown with weeds and the wooden crosses were weathered. The service project was to remove weeds and trash and then to repair and paint the crosses with a coat of white paint to recognize and honor the persons who are buried there.
Volunteers were asked to mobilize at the parking lot of Citizens Bank and do trash pickup in the central part of downtown using trash bags provided by the City of Farmington. On arrival, small groups were formed and were given street assignments. Volunteers were asked to walk the sidewalks, streets, and areas in front of buildings and pick up trash. Full bags of trash were then collected by the city for disposal at three different trash dumpster locations in the downtown area.
Animas Park is part of Farmington Riverine Park System. The Park has nature trails, walking and bicycling trails, a white-water rafting feature and numerous educational areas. The park receives heavy use throughout the summer and is the location of the City's annual Riverfest celebration over Memorial Day Weekend. Because of that heavy use, the City of Farmington was very interested in partnering with the 9/11 Day of Service Committee to support a general cleanup of the park.
For the Memorial Flag Walk, community members gathered at the pavilion at Berg Park where handheld flags were distributed to participants. There was a short program with an opening prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and the sharing of a 9/11 experience. Participants then walked a loop along one of the walking paths to the City of Farmington's Veteran's Memorial and back to the pavilion. Along the path of the Memorial Walk, there were patriotic musical performances, and 6 QR codes that linked to audio recordings that provided information about the 9/11 tragedy. The motto of the Memorial Flag Walk is "It's a walk to honor and an honor to walk".
The Farmington 9/11 Day of Service Committee strives to promote unity though volunteer service in our community in honor of those who were lost or valiantly served or sacrificed on September 11, 2001.