Volunteer efforts to improve Macon are taking place Friday and Saturday through an organized gathering at the Edgar H. Wilson Convention Center and a less formal neighborhood cleanup led by City Councilman Frank Tompkins.

The city and numerous local nonprofit groups, religious and secular, are holding a community service fair in the convention center’s exhibit hall, called “Macon A Difference: Celebrating and Connecting those that Care and those that Need Care.”

During the day on Friday, nonprofit and community groups will hold workshops on how to organize and manage themselves.

“The goal is to increase volunteer service and volunteer awareness in the community,” said Keith Moffett, assistant to the city chief administrative officer.

The city wants to help nonprofit groups form the best partnerships they can, seeking to eliminate duplication of their services. They also hope to reveal any gaps in those services, he said.

From 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., the public is asked to come out and find an organization that needs volunteers, Moffett said. That open house will be followed by an interfaith service.

At 10 a.m. Saturday the doors will open again for the public to see what local nonprofits do, and find groups for which they’d like to volunteer, he said.

Tompkins, getting an early start, was out Thursday afternoon on Edwards Avenue with a group of other men from the Unionville neighborhood, cleaning up some vacant properties.

They’ll continue work on Friday and Saturday, and plan to keep working elsewhere in the area, he said.

“What I’m going to do is try to do it on a weekly basis,” Tompkins said.

While city workers can clean up road rights of way, they’re legally barred from working on private property.

To contact writer Jim Gaines call 744-4489.