WELLS — An idea took seed and began its journey to bloom, as a half-dozen folks weeded, ferried wheelbarrows of mulch and then spread it to ready garden beds for plantings.

It was the inaugural event of Wells Community Cares, a volunteer effort to keep this seaside community looking bandbox pretty.

Next weekend, volunteers and a contracted nursery will tuck bright geraniums and other colorful annuals into garden beds at Wells Town Hall, Wells Library and at Founders Park, an historic site just off Route 1 that was the first settlement in the town when it was founded back in 1643.

As well, there will be plantings at the gazebo and around the harbormaster’s headquarters at Harbor Park. Flower beds were prepared for planting by volunteers from the Thatcher Brook Center in Biddeford during the week.

“This is a town need. We figured this was a wonderful way to start it,” said Wells volunteer coordinator Cindy Adamsky. She said everyone will enjoy the plantings – permanent residents as well as seasonal residents and tourists.

Town Manager Jon Carter, who was wheeling a barrow full of mulch to the garden beds outside Town Hall, said the garden bed prep came about as the town looked at how it could establish volunteer days in the community.

“It will take more than a year to get going,” he said of the long-term effort. At some point, perhaps in the fall when schedules permit, Wells schoolchildren can take part, Carter said.

Ken Lowell, the town’s facilities director, said Wells has benefited from the work of women housed at the Southern Maine Re-entry Center in Alfred. The women, who are in the custody of the state Department of Corrections, move to the center toward the end of their prison sentences, as a means to help them readjust to life on the outside. Lowell said the women have built lifeguard stands, painted, poured a concrete floor and more. The town in the past has also benefited from the toil of inmates in the Community Works program at York County Jail, he said. That program is on hiatus at the moment because of jail funding issues.

Michele Stivaletta- Noble was among the volunteers who turned out, weeding out unwanted growth. Weeding is hot work, but it was a perfect Maine day – sun shining, not too hot and not too cold.

“It’s fun to make it look nice,” Stivaletta-Noble said as she bent to her task.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.