Braintree Beautification Day Returns

BRAINTREE, MA — Do you have a spare Saturday morning to help make Braintree an even more beautiful place to live?

On Saturday May 8, the town will hold its annual Braintree Beautification Day. Mayor Charles Kokoros said he's excited to see the clean-up event return after it had to be canceled last year amid the coronavirus pandemic. This will also be the first year Braintree holds its beautification day since the death of Recreation Director Nelson Chin.

"This year will be bittersweet as it will be the first Beautification Day without Nelson Chin, who not only coordinated this event each year but was also truly the heart and soul of all of our community programs," Mayor Charles Kokoros said. "Beautification Day gives our residents the opportunity to come together and play a part in beautifying our town. I look forward to seeing everyone on May 8 and together showing our support for a more beautiful Braintree."

Kokoros asked residents to gather at Braintree Town Hall at 8:00 a.m. for location clean-up suggestions and to collect rakes, bags, work gloves and other tools. Target areas for this year's clean-up include the Town Hall Memorial Mall, the grounds of the Braintree Historical Society, the beach and park at Sunset Lake, Penniman Park on Cleveland Avenue, Smith Beach and the Braintree High School access road.

This year's event will be held in honor of Chin, who was a driving force behind this event, first as a member of the Braintree Rotary Club and for the past nine years as recreation director.

"The Braintree Rotary Club started a clean-up day as a community service project over 15 years ago,” said Braintree Rotarian Joanne Tully. "Joining forces with the Town of Braintree after a few years was the boost we needed to engage more members of the community to volunteer on the day now known as Braintree Beautification Day. We were fortunate to have Nelson Chin in our club and organizing this amazing project for our great town. Today we pay tribute to Nelson, a dedicated rotarian and town employee who embodied our motto, ‘Service above self.'"

In the event of inclement weather Beatification Day will be moved to Saturday, May 15, 2021. Residents with questions are welcome to call the mayor’s office at 781-794-8100 or the recreation department at 781-794-8901.