H Street Main Street residents, merchants and volunteers are invited to help beautify the neighborhood this Saturday as part of the national Great American Clean Up.

The effort, which kicks off at 9 a.m. at the H Street Connection, at 900 H St. NE, with Starbucks coffee and pastries for volunteers helping to pick up trash along the 300 to 1500 blocks of H Street Northeast.

The District’s Clean City Initiative will provide gloves and trash bags and will pick up full trash bags at designated sites on the 300, 900, 1300 blocks of the street.

As part of the effort, H Street Main Street will also plant flowers in front of the R.L. Christian Library and will provide mulch for the tree boxes outside of H Street merchants’ establishments. The first 50 volunteers will receive orange tongs to pick up trash and H Street T-shirts. For more information call Tomika Hughey at (202) 486-0346.

In addition to H Street, a variety of the city’s other Main Street programs will also be taking part in the Great American Clean Up.

Barracks Row Main Street, in conjunction with the Earth Day Partnership of Capitol Hill and the National Cherry Blossom Festival will launch their clean up at World Cuisine, 523 Eighth St. SE, at 9 a.m. Saturday.

In addition to trash removal, volunteers will have the opportunity to help plant cherry trees at the park located at Ninth and L streets Southeast. Three trees will be planted.

Old Naval Hospital Group Gets $5K Grant

The Old Naval Hospital Foundation received a $5,000 grant earlier this month from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The foundation will use the funds to conduct a “financial feasibility” study, to determine if it can raise enough money to restore the building at 921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE.

The group has proposed relocating the Southeast Branch Public Library to the facility, and also using it for a childhood learning center and community center.

Although it has been leased by the District since 1966, the structure is owned by the General Services Administration.

A study by the Urban Land Institute in April 2002 estimated it will cost about $6 million to renovate the hospital, in addition to an endowment of $9 million to $10 million if the building is used in a nonprofit capacity.

— Bree Hocking and Jennifer Yachnin