Hundreds help downtown cleanup effort
BY JULIE BENAMATI
The Tribune-Democrat
More than 250 volunteers rolled up their sleeves in downtown Johnstown on Sunday morning to participate in Downtown Proud Cleanup Day.
Despite a light rain that began after lunch, church youth groups, city employees, officials and other volunteers replaced 65 benches, planted flowers in 10 planters, trimmed trees and painted curbs and parking-meter poles.
Starbucks and Discover Downtown Johnstown Partnership sponsored the event, which cost about $15,000 – not including the value of donated labor and materials.
Jeff Philibin, president of the downtown partnership, estimated that about 60 percent of the volunteers were younger than 30.
“We had a lot of church and youth groups, and a lot of enthusiasm here,” Philibin said.
“The city’s involvement has been unreal.”
He said members of City Council were on hand to help out, along with public works employees.
Lauren Lazzari, a partnership board member, deemed the project a success.
“This is a huge improvement in revitalizing downtown Johnstown,” Lazzari said.
“We’ve given the city a head start, and we hope to make this an annual event.”
Philibin said the entire project was funded by private moneys.
“The fact that this was all done with private funds, not grants, shows people care about downtown Johnstown,” Philibin said. “Everyone did what they could, and it was enough.”
Numerous businesses and individuals donated $100 to adopt a park bench, which will bear a plaque in the donor’s name.
Frank Scott, manager of Starbucks in Richland Township, said his company’s involvement began with a simple request for coffee.
“We went to a visioning session to see what this was about, and to see if we could do more than just donate coffee to the volunteers,” Scott said.
A Starbucks corporate grant program, “Make Your Mark,” matches volunteer hours up to $10 per hour up to $1,000 per project.
“I actually got six stores to donate, for up to $6,000,” Scott said.
Scott’s employees all volunteered for the event, while employees from other stores manned the Richland location for the day.
Lazzari said most of the projects were completed, although some will need minor touch-ups because of the rain. One project that will be completed later is repainting the Central Park gazebo. She said Elias Painting offered to paint the gazebo as a donation.