Love was in the air this past Saturday during the annual Love Hughson event. The event held yearly focuses on giving back to the Hughson community.

The event started off different than in previous years with the opening focusing on the commemoration of Kelly Clawson, an avid participant of Love Hughson and Love Hughson’s Chairman. Clawson at age 45 passed away unexpectedly September 11, 2018, when she suffered a heart attack.

Despite the absence of Clawson, new Love Hughson Chairman Karen Genzoli remarked on Clawson’s efforts at the end of the event stating, “It was a very emotional day for us because we lost Kelly so young and she did such a fabulous job in all her activities. It was very difficult this morning talking about her loss, but we hope we did her proud and we were thinking about her all day.”

Projects were broken up into six distinct categories; Beautification, Encouragement, Neighborhood, Parks, People in Need and Schools.

“I love Hughson because we love reaching outside of ourselves and helping with whatever needs to be done,” said Hughson community member Debbie Mininger. “We love the fact that we can get out and do projects as a team.”

Projects ranged from simply picking up trash to beautifying gardens in Hughson.

“It’s great to see the community come out and spend time together in an effort to make our community better,” said Hughson Mayor Jeramy Young. “Volunteering is a powerful gift and today we saw all ages out together working to make our town better and stronger.”