Peabody Families Help Clean Up School Grounds For Start Of New Year

PEABODY, MA — A group of Peabody families, including several Aggregate Industries employees and their families, tried to do their part to make sure school grounds were ready for students to return this fall.

The families volunteered to clean up the property around the Burke Elementary School and Peabody Veterans Memorial High School last week and planted flowers at the high school's Sept. 11 Memorial ahead of the upcoming 21st year anniversary.

Ward 6 Peabody City Councilor Mark O'Neil and several volunteers and their children brought their own tools and supplies to help get the schools ready. Aggregate Industries donated mulch and flowers.

This is the third year of the volunteer effort that included the children donating one of the last Saturdays of their summer vacation to help out.

This is the third year a team of volunteers came together to get the schools ready for the new school year. The kids spent one of their last Saturdays of the summer helping out.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached @Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)