Classic Cocktails For A Cause — Help 'Green Up' Dormont With Your Tips

If you want to make Dormont more beautiful, just grab a cocktail.

DIG Dormont will host a Classic Cocktails fundraiser Saturday night at . Festivities kick off at 8 p.m. with a DJ and dancing at 10 p.m. 

“It should be a really good time,” said Mary Jo Maggio DIG Dormont's secretary.

“We’re going to serve four different cocktails: the Harvey wallbanger, the classic daquiri, the tequila sunrise and the vodka gimlet.”

Formed in 2009, DIG Dormont works with the borough’s recreation and community affairs committee to increase and revitalize Dormont’s green spaces.

Maggio, one of the group’s earliest members, calls the effort “greening up” Dormont. 

Despite the affiliation with the borough, Maggio said the majority of DIG Dormont’s funding comes from donations, and all DIG Dormont members are volunteers. About a dozen Dormont residents make up the core of the group, she said, “But our email list is easily 150 people.” 

Maggio is hopeful that many of them will attend Saturday’s fundraiser.

“There are always lots of people who want to help with the gardening,” she said. “This is another way they can help, too. And it’s fun.” 

Founding member Jim Kraus will be pouring drinks as a guest bartender. The tips collected will help to buy flowers for the group to plant during the 2011 growing season.

“Every little bit helps,” Maggio said. “Flowers aren’t cheap!”

DIG Dormont’s efforts can be seen all over the borough. Shortly after forming, the group rehabilitated the vacant lot at Hillsdale and West Liberty avenues. That space is being turned into a .

Last year, volunteers planted trees at the Dormont Pool to replace landscaping lost in a storm. The group also fills and tends sidewalk planters along Potomac Avenue and flowerpots along West Liberty Avenue.