A crowd of at least 60 volunteers is expected to descend on downtown Cape Girardeau Saturday morning and clean up the area.

Four groups will each be assigned a street to concentrate on Saturday morning, said Tim Arbeiter, director of the downtown development group Old Town Cape. In the afternoon, he said, volunteers will clean up the riverfront. The effort will continue until 3 p.m.

The Cape Girardeau Public Works Department will provide trash bags and will pick them up Monday morning at designated pickup points for disposal.

Participation in the effort includes safety vests donated by the Missouri Department of Transportation. Southeast Missouri Hospital has provided latex gloves, and Meyer Supply Co. has donated trash bags, Arbeiter said.

Old Town Cape encompasses the area from the river to West End Boulevard, and from Highway 74 to North Street. Saturday's effort will focus on the downtown area.

Four groups have volunteered to pick up on the four major streets. The Sigma Nu fraternity of Southeast Missouri State University has been assigned to pick up litter on Broadway. The Zonta International organization of professional women will clean up Independence Street. Students from Central High School will work on William Street, and the South Side Optimists will be working in the vicinity of Good Hope and Morgan Oak streets.

"We are ecstatic about the level of community pride pouring into the downtown," Arbeiter said. "We hope all the surrounding neighborhoods, businesses, and pedestrians in the Old Town Cape district assist us in the effort of keeping Cape clean by gathering up all the trash they see and disposing of it properly."

Individuals and other groups can still join in the effort by coming at 10 a.m. Saturday to the Old Town Cape office at 111 Independence St. Volunteers will be sent out in teams with a captain to an assigned area.

Arbeiter told a group of community leaders Wednesday that he plans to meet personally with the managers of restaurants and bars in the downtown area.

"The key to keeping our district clean will be to encourage all residents, businesses and patrons to keep the area free of litter," Arbeiter said. "We extend a friendly challenge to all business, property and homeowners to step outside and clean up their front stoops, porches and yards."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160