Spring cleaning is a ritual many people are familiar with, but how about a fall cleaning?

Washington’s Tourism Development Authority and Sound Rivers want help with a fall cleaning — Community Cleanup Day set for Oct. 8 from 8 a.m. to noon. The cleanup project will focus on the entire city, not just certain areas in the city, according to Lynn Wingate, the city’s tourism-development director.

“October is a really busy month in Washington for a number of reasons. We have a lot of visitors coming to our community — football, because of Smoke on the Water, for a number of reasons. So, we just wanted to work with Sound Rivers, who’s planning their river cleanup for that day. So, we are going to participate in conjunction with their efforts. We’re recruiting volunteers, but we’re also, rather than just focusing on one area of town, we’re putting the call out to citizens all around Washington,” Lewis told the City Council during its meeting Monday. “If you have neighbors on your street that you can encourage to, say, ‘Hey, let’s pick up the trash. Let’s clean up our little neighborhood.’ If we can get everybody throughout the community working on their on backyard, so to speak, then we can have a much more positive impact on cleaning up our community.”

Project volunteers will meet at 8 a.m. on the day of the project at the west end of Stewart Parkway by the lighthouse replica that houses the dockmaster’s office. Wingate said Scout groups, church groups, nonprofit organizations and other groups are encouraged to participate in the cleanup effort.

“We want to put our best foot forward and clean up our community on Oct. 8,” she said.

Project organizers will provide all supplies and equipment that volunteers will need, Wingate said.

Councilman William Pitt asked how the project is being publicized. Wingate said Sound Rivers is sending out news releases, other project partners are using emails to notify people about the project and fliers about the project are being distributed throughout the city.

“I’d like to see this expanded citywide. If we’re going to make it a citywide event, we need to get out … but this council needs to take some ownership in civic projects. We need to get out and start knocking on doors and handing fliers out ourselves,” Pitt said.

“I’ll gladly supply you with the fliers,” Wingate said.

The cleanup campaign suggests participants do the following:

• re-dress shop windows,
• freshen planter boxes,
• put a fresh coat of paint on doors,
• sweep debris from sidewalks,
• promote Community Cleanup Day by placing posters in windows.