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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

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Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. announced the city’s Make a Difference Day this morning during a press conference at the Jackson Zoo’s Livingston Park.

On Saturday Oct. 23, AmeriCorps, the Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Service, Keep Jackson Beautiful, neighborhood associations and volunteers throughout the city will join several city departments for a citywide cleanup.

Currently, more than 400 volunteers have signed up for light debris removal, painting, and building and planting flowerbeds.

“Make A Difference Day is the perfect opportunity to unite the various organizations, governmental departments and citizens with the common goal of making a positive impact on our community,” Johnson said in a statement. “This year’s beautification project focuses on Livingston Park at the Jackson Zoo, which is truly a jewel for our city. We strongly encourage everyone to participate and to remember that the City of Jackson strives to make a difference every day.”

For more information, call 601-960-1084.

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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.