More than 100 volunteers clean Naperville's Riverwalk

The original plan was for Jeff Hass to drop off his 13-year-old daughter Saturday morning in front of the Riverwalk so she could fulfill a few hours for her religious education class.

But the Naperville resident ended up tooling around with his rake not far from the Naperville Park District offices making sure the lawn was free from debris.

"I had the rake in my car and I just thought, 'Why not,'" Hass said. "It's a nice day. As long as I'm here, I thought I'd help out."

More than 100 volunteers, from area church groups to Girl Scout troops, joined Hass Saturday to sweep up sections of the Riverwalk near downtown Naperville.

George Paparos, the park district's Riverwalk operations manager, said the warm spring weather allowed the park district to host its first volunteer cleanup in three years.

"We try to find a day that works around baseball games and school activities and all the other stuff people do in this town," he said. "This is actually a very good turnout."

Among the cleanup crew was Brian Marroquin and about 30 members of Harvest Bible Chapel. The parishioners all donned T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Compassion Day." Marroquin said about 300 people spent Saturday volunteering at several sites in the DuPage County area as part of a twice-yearly event organized by the church.

"Instead of being cooped up inside a church praying, we wanted to get out and serve our community," Marroquin said. "That was the ultimate motivation."