Thousands enjoy the Fourth Annual Love Your Community Earth Day Celebration

Posted on: Apr 26th, 2025 | Announcements Press Releases Featured News

MOBILE COUNTY, Ala. – The Fourth Annual Love Your Community Earth Day Celebration took place on Saturday, April 26, at Mobile County’s Chickasabogue Park. Over 900 cars and almost 3,000 people came out to enjoy free family fun on an eco-friendly day filled with community spirit.

The Fourth Annual Love Your Community Earth Day Celebration featured live music, native plant giveaways, more than 50 vendors and environmental education booths, park amenities, lawn games, a rock climbing wall, Bookmobile/story time, an electric vehicle car show, Mobile County Animal Shelter pet adoptions, face painting and caricature artists, food trucks, and more.

Created by District 2 Commissioner Connie Hudson, Love Your Community is an award-winning program of the Mobile County Commission in partnership with Keep Mobile Beautiful. Love Your Community rewards teams for litter-reduction or sustainability efforts by allowing time banking of volunteer hours that can be claimed for grant dollars to be used for beautification or sustainability projects.

Since 2021, about 250 Love Your Community teams have earned about $50,000 in beautification grants for time-banked hours.

Mobile County’s Chickasabogue Park is in Commission District 1, represented by Commissioner Merceria Ludgood, who welcomed guests, invited them to fully explore the newly renovated park, and thanked park staff and organizers for their efforts.

Mobile County Commissioners and Love Your Community Coordinator Evelyn DeAngelo presented three teams with grants earned for their time-banked hours spent in litter reduction efforts within Mobile County:

$500 to Barton Academy for Advanced World Studies’ Rotaract Club who will use their grant to beautify the school’s outdoor lunch area.
$500 to Girls Scouts South Alabama Troop 8831 who will use their grant to build a Butterfly Garden at Ben May Library,
$1,000 to Anita Burks’ New Hope Team for a beautification project in front of New Hope Baptist Church in Grand Bay

“Love Your Community really is a win-win for the environment and for the volunteers,” said Hudson, explaining with appreciation that litter picked up by volunteers is litter that does not become marine debris in our local watersheds or the Gulf.

District 3 Commissioner Randall Dueitt, spent much of his time at the Earth Day Celebration thanking the many volunteers and County Parks staff who helped make the day possible.

The Fourth Annual Love Your Community Celebration was sponsored by

Mobile County Commission, Keep Mobile Beautiful, the Sierra Club-Alabama Chapter, Earth Day Mobile Bay, B.E. Brown & Co. Mortuary, Tameron Gulf Coast, Open Water, and 92.1 WZEW.

The Fourth Annual Love Your Community Earth Day Celebration at Chickasabogue Park was THE 2025 Earth Day Celebration for Mobile and Baldwin Counties (Earth Day Mobile Bay joined this event; their usual Fairhope Pier event is on pause due to construction).

To learn more about the Love Your Community program, including how to sign up for a team that can earn beautification and other grants for litter reduction or sustainability volunteerism, please visit www.loveyourcommunity.com. Funding for the Love Your Community program is provided in part by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA).

Love Your Community grant awards
(L-R: Commissioner Merceria Ludgood, Evelyn DeAngelo, Commissioner Connie Hudson)

Native plant giveaway

20-vehicle Electric Car Show (Drive Electric Alabama)

Love Your Community Coordinator Evelyn DeAngelo and Commissioner Randall Dueitt