Jerry and Paula Christensen, both 72, adopted the Blair Street Park a couple years ago with their family.

They applied with the city through the Adopt a Park program. They are in contact with the city to talk about what they need and want for the park. In the fall they summarize what they’ve accomplished, Jerry said.

“And we communicate by email,” Paula said. “So we keep in touch.”

Both Paula and Jerry agree that they’ve had a lot of fun since adopting the park.

Courtesy Photo Jerry Christensen kneels down next to a row of plants at Blair Street Park.

“For a lot of reasons,” Jerry said. “Number one is we like the park to look well and number two is that we enjoy being outside and doing that kind of work.”

Jerry and Paula do things such as laying down mulch, picking up trash such as cigarette butts, picking up branches, and planting different types of plants.

They planted perennials and annuals — the perennials came from their own garden and the city provided annuals, Paula said.

Plants that were already at the park included a plant called milkweed. Milkweed is what is required for monarch butterflies to lay their eggs, Jerry said. He said there is an organization that encourages pollinators and there is a sign indicating that. The sign was gifted to Jerry by one of his children.

Milkweed can also be found throughout Alpena. Jerry said it’s been successful so far.

Courtesy Photo Jerry Christensen plants around a small tree at Blair Street Park.

Some of the things are left to the city to do, such as mowing the grounds.

Paula said they notify the city of things such as graffiti and the theft of a life preserver.

“At this entrance to the pier is a life preserver ring,” Paula said. “And that’s there every year, but somebody had stolen it — we have no idea who — and we let the city know and they let us know we can get it from the health department. And so we did the legwork to make sure there was a life preserver there. That was important to us, that a safety thing like that was still there.”

Paula also explained how someone had painted graffiti on the pier and some of the things at the park, and they painted over it.

She said the city has also done an excellent job at keeping up the park by mowing the grass and cleaning up the beach.

Courtesy Photo Paula Christensen plants different species of plants at Blair Street Park.

Since the park was adopted by the whole family, their children and grandchildren also help with maintaining the park.

When asked if it makes for good bonding time, Paula said yes.

“It depends who you ask,” Jerry joked. “If you ask the grandkids, they’d probably say grandpa’s a boss he tells us what to do.”

“No, the grandchildren enjoy it,” Paula said. “And we think that we’re fostering civic responsibility with our grandchildren to do something like this.”

Jerry said getting the family involved is probably the most important part of it.

They both always walk their dog down to the pier, helping to keep them active. Paula said gardening also helps with that because it’s a good physical activity for them, as well.

Jerry said they are just doing their thing,

“We really don’t do that much,” Jerry said. “We’re just citizens that want to have a nice place.”

They have more projects planned for the future including their current project fixing and replacing benches that were destroyed by high water levels in recent years.

Alyssa Ochss can be reached at 989-358-5680 or aochss@thealpenanews.com.