SHAMOKIN - Volunteers are "desperately needed" to ensure all is in order ahead of next week's massive volunteer work camp in the greater Shamokin area.
Group Cares, a non-profit organization based in Loveland, Colo., will bring together 340 volunteers, mostly youth, from across the nation for a Christian mission locally. They'll be tasked to make varied repairs - light carpentry, painting and the like - to 56 homes accepted into the program in Shamokin, Coal Township, Mount Carmel, Kulpmont and Trevorton. The work will be performed all next work week.
Large supplies like wood and drywall have been delivered to the project work sites. Smaller materials like paint, gloves and screws were delivered in bulk to Shamokin Area Middle/High School, Coal Township, where the volunteers will be staying. Those items already have been separated and bundled. They must now be delivered to the work sites and inventoried ahead of the arrival of volunteers. Group Cares is hopeful that local volunteers can step up and help out.
"They're in desperate need of volunteers in order to pull off this work camp next week," Gale Zalar, community action director for Central Susquehanna Opportunities, said Tuesday.
She said between eight and 10 volunteers are needed daily between today and Friday "because they've had no assistance whatsoever."
Anyone interested in volunteering need simply go to the loading dock area at the middle/high school between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. between today and Friday and speak with a Group Cares representative.