NATCHEZ — On April 2, volunteers — including the First Lady of Mississippi — will roll up their sleeves to make Natchez greener and cleaner.

Keep Mississippi Beautiful, the state affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, has chosen Natchez to kickoff the annual Great American Cleanup across the state.

The Great American Cleanup is the country’s largest community improvement program that starts in more than 20,000 communities each spring, Keep Mississippi Beautiful Executive Director Sarah Kountouris said.

Keep Natchez-Adams County Beautiful submitted a proposal to host the cleanup kickoff this year and was chosen among the state’s 36 affiliate communities.

“It’s a huge honor for us,” Natchez businesswoman and Keep Mississippi Beautiful board chair Stephanie Hutchins said. “They could have gone to any of their other affiliates, but they chose Natchez. It’s a great way to honor our tricentennial.”

Volunteers will plant Knock Out roses at the toll booth colonnades on the bluff, as well as landscaping work at the Rotary welcome signs and the overlook deck below the bluff.

A group of volunteers will also walk from the Forks of the Road to the bluff picking up litter along the way. For those who wish to pick up litter on their own, Keep Natchez-Adams County Beautiful will supply trash bags, which the group asks be returned to the bluff for a litter weigh-in at the end of the day.

First Lady of Mississippi Deborah Bryant will also join volunteers in the cleanup and landscaping efforts.

The Great American Cleanup is an important annual project, Kountouris said, because it illustrates the importance of volunteerism as well as spruces up cities across the nation.

“Any community that is clean and green makes it a better place to live, work and play,” she said.

Anyone wishing to participate in the Great American Cleanup is asked to register ahead of time at gacmississippi.eventbrite.com.

The kickoff will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the gazebo bandstand on the bluff.

A picnic lunch sponsored by the Community Alliance will take place at approximately noon on the bluff.

At the end of the day, Kountouris said, volunteers will see the difference a few hours of work can make.

“I think they will be amazed to see the transformation that will take place in a matter of about three hours,” she said.