SHAMOKIN - With brooms, shovels and community pride, volunteers from a local church worked together to beautify one part of the community.
Members of Mountainside Assembly of God Church, Coal Township, congregated in Shamokin's downtown Saturday morning to clean up part of Independence Street. They were hard at work, picking up garbage and sweeping up dirt.
"We are coal crackers, and it's time we take care of what we have been given by God," said member Irene Schminkey, as she and her husband, Tim, cleared away debris and leaves from a tree grate in the sidewalk.
About 10 Mountainside church members joined with their pastor, the Rev. Richard Earl, for the cleanup.
"We wanted to do this ourselves and not impose on anyone else. Churches are busy nowadays," Earl said.
Volunteers cleaned up Independence Street from Orange to Shamokin streets Saturday. Today, members of the community service group run by Magisterial District Judge John Gembic will clean up rest of the street.
"I got a call from Sol Bidding of the community service group. He asked us if we wanted to help him with this project on Sunday," the pastor said. "We are normally a little busy on that day, so that's why we are here today."
Earl said his interest in undertaking projects like this came about some years ago when he first arrived in town.
"When I lived on Diamond Street, one of my neighbors was complaining about a snow pile, saying the city wasn't doing its job. So I got out there with my shovel and worked on it," he said. "This is our community, and we have to take ownership of it. That breeds pride. It has to start somewhere."
Two Mountainside families own businesses on Independence Street, so volunteers also wanted to help them. The volunteers hope their efforts will encourage others to undertake similar cleanup efforts.
"The city workers take care of potholes and plow our streets," Earl explained, "but this is our community. We must also take care of it."