BATON ROUGE — Volunteers, community partners and local supporters gathered along Government Street on Saturday to participate in the Government Street Median Beautification project.

The project, supported by funding from Councilwomen Laurie Adams and Jen Racca, focused on transforming the median into a vibrant landscape to help enhance one of Baton Rouge's most important commercial corridors.

Saturday's beautification served as the first phase of a larger effort to revitalize medians along Government Street stretching from Lobdell Avenue to I-110. The project is part of Clean Pelican's Adopt-a-Median program, which allows businesses, organizations and residents to sponsor and help maintain the median throughout the corridor.

"This project is about more than landscaping," said Matt Adler, Executive Director of Clean Pelican. "We're creating a model for community stewardship that brings residents, businesses, and volunteers together to improve public spaces and build pride in our city. The demonstration median will show what's possible when citizens take ownership of their community."

Volunteers planted native landscaping, including decorative river rocks and a mix of Gulf Coast native plants and wildflowers.