With a song to inspire, the clean up was on.
Though winter is officially behind us, the mess under that was under mounds of snow is still very present. People by the thousands turned out to throw out as much trash as could be picked up.
"Hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash will be picked up, and recycling," announced Mayor Michael Nutter.
Mayor Nutter kicked off the 4th annual Philly Spring Cleanup at Cobb's Creek Park in West Philadelphia, just one of 250 locations across the city getting a face lift from some 10,000 volunteers.
Jed McKee and Dina Solomon were among them, picking up litter strewn by the sidewalk.
"Well there was definitely something to do here, definitely things to pick up," said Jed McKee.
Urged on by a pep band, Georgia Darby and her group of friends told us they wouldn't be anywhere else today.
"I actually saw it online, and saw the whole city-wide initiative, and thought that we should really be a part of it," said Georgia Darby.
Like these people, Darby planned to plant trees to help *green up the newly *cleaned up park. Down the street, Holly Harris-Seidle got her neighbors in on the action.
"Pulling up weeds or sweeping and helping our fellow neighbors who are elderly and can't do it," explained Holly Harris-Seidle.
The theme of this year's event is "Keep Up the Sweep Up," a way to encourage participants that cleaning up isn't just a once a year event, but an everyday effort.
The Philadelphia effort is part of a national movement called Keep America beautiful.
With an eye toward keeping Philadelphia beautiful, the mayor said the benefit is more than skin deep.
"A clean city is a safe city. A clean city is a city that cares about itself, that has pride in who it is and what it's all about," said Mayor Nutter.
