The Youth Group at Sound Side Free Will Baptist Church on March 5 requested and received permission from the Columbia Board of Aldermen to clean the town’s parks and playgrounds.

Athena Cooper, spokeswoman for the group, asked for authority to clean the parks twice a year, during March and at the “end of summer.”

Cooper was accompanied by Jake Brickhouse, Mackaen Coltrain and Carson Roughton.

The project areas include the Children’s Playground on Fonsoe Street, Kiddy Park on Ludington Drive, the new basketball court on North Road Street, plus the county-owned playground at Tyrrell Hall and Tyrrell County Park on the west bank of Scuppernong River.