ARLINGTON — The doors at the Arlington Windermere office were closed for the day. But if you needed an agent, you could find them sprucing up Centennial Park on Friday, June 17.

A handful of agents, including the owner of the Arlington branch, Gene Bryson, worked diligently on the quaint little park, pulling weeds, trimming hedges and picking up leaves in appreciation of the 19th annual Windermere Community Service Day. The event, which takes place during the third week in June, isn’t exclusive to Arlington. Offices in Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho also spent the third Friday in June participating in some sort of community clean-up project.

“It is set up so we can give back to the community,” said Bryson, who traded in his suit and tie for jeans and work gloves. “The community supports us and we feel like it is our responsibility to make the park look nicer and show people we care about the community.”

The beautification of park meant a little bit more to the team at the Windermere. After adopting the park this past year the group will clean up the city’s centerpiece twice a year, once during the summer and once in September.

“We clean up the park twice during the year,” Bryson said. “The park really only needs to be kept up twice a year. In September, to gear up for winter, we do an informal clean-up. We started doing this last year.”

Over the years, Bryson and crew have performed a variety of projects to celebrate Community Service Day. Three years ago the team painted the Veterans Memorial building at Legion Park. They’ve walked along SR 530, picking up litter and they’ve helped senior citizens paint and perform other chores around the house.

“Each year we typically do something different, but we adopted Centennial Park this year so we are focusing our attention on it,” said event organizer and employee Elly Cyr. “Each Windermere office determines its own clean-up project. We have done a lot of different things. We cleaned up the bathrooms at Haller Park. And we’ve planted trees and landscaped Legion Park.”

“We take great pride in our work and our community,” Cyr said. “It’s a good time and everyone here is very dedicated in keeping Arlington beautiful.