Albert Lea citizens volunteered their Saturday morning to help prepare downtown for the summer as part of the fourth annual downtown cleanup.

“Your downtown is the face of your city,” said Mary Ellen Johnson, who helped organize the event. “If you had a visitor come to Albert Lea, and they went home, and you said to them, ‘Well what do you think about Albert Lea?’ The first thing that comes to mind is what they saw downtown.”

It didn’t feel like summer was just around the corner, as temperatures in the mid-40s and 20 mph winds with gusts as high as 30 led many of the volunteers to wear thick coats and gloves.

“It makes me think of when I was a little girl and went through Albert Lea, and I thought, ‘This is the tundra,’” Johnson said.

But volunteers, many from local churches, still felt it was important to come out and prepare downtown for the summer tourism.

One team of volunteers, which included confirmation students from First Lutheran Church, began at the cement planter in front of Tiger City Sports. The team shoveled the old dirt and mulch from the cement planters and refilled the planter with new dirt from a city truck.

Gary Hillman, owner of Tiger City Sports and a member of the downtown association, was happy to see people from the community coming together to help maintain the city.

“Downtown is important to more than just us merchants, it’s the heart of the city,” Hillman said. “People come in and judge Albert Lea by their downtown, not by their malls or things like that. The maintenance of the downtown is a big reflection.”

“We’re entering the tourist season,” he added. “People coming into your downtown, their first impression is, ‘Wow, this is well taken care of.’ And it makes you want to go into their shops.”

Unlike previous years, the city will not provide plants. The businesses downtown agreed to purchase the plants, mostly geraniums, to go in the planters. With frost projected for Saturday evening, Johnson said some of the businesses were going to wait to plant the geraniums.

Johnson said Kim Meyer, a landscaping teacher at Albert Lea High School, suggested they wait to plant the geraniums.

Not everyone volunteering was with a group. Marilyn Rasmussen said she enjoys gardening, and she thinks it’s important for people to help.

“I think it takes a lot of people to make things happen,” Rasmussen said. “It’s important to have a sense of community.”

Early in the day, Rasmussen took a group of teenagers from a confirmation class at First Lutheran Church to one of their homes to get coats and gloves, because of the cool temperatures.

Mary Ellen Johnson’s husband, Don Johnson, and a group that included volunteers from Trinity Lutheran Church started in the alley near the Aragon Bar and worked their way north all the way to the back of the Marion Ross Performing Arts Center. They picked up bottles, remnants, magazines, newspapers, plywood and other trash, including a stereo.

Don Johnson said they only filled one truck with garbage this year; they filled two last year.

“I like downtown to look nice. This is the first view people have to our city,” Don Johnson said.

Another group, which included volunteers from ShineFest, cleaned the alleys from Main Street and to Clark Street. ShineFest is a group of volunteers from 16 area churches dedicated to service, and ShineFest volunteer Mark Whillock said it’s important for the community to see ShineFest giving back to the community.

Other teams worked to clean the trash that had accumulated in the stairwells.

The downtown businesses were glad to have citizens volunteering.

“They feel pretty grateful that this is all happening. And it’s like when you do something alone it’s not as much fun, but when you do something together it’s a lot more fun. I think that’s the way they feel,” Mary Ellen Johnson said.