Kugel Ball Clean-up Saturday :: Article in The Reporter

The article below ran today in the North Penn Reporter talking about Renew and the Kugel Ball clean-up tomorrow morning.  Join us at 10am!

If you’re looking for a way to get out of the house and do some spring cleaning Saturday, you’ll have no shortage of choices.

Starting at 9 a.m., members of Be The Change — North Penn will meet at the Walnut Meadows development in Towamencin to help beautify the homes of seniors who live there.

And starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, members of the Renew Community will be picking up trash and debris on Lansdale’s Main Street, near the Kugel Ball at Railroad Plaza, and the public is welcome and invited to join either or both groups.

“We’re going to be doing our spring cleanup: it’s mostly weeding, planting, trimming but no mowing, and if people want to bring a pair of gardening gloves or tools, they’re welcome to come help out,” said Kathy DiPangrazio, an event coordinator for Be The Change.

Officially nonpartisan but comprised of former Obama campaign volunteers, Be The Change has been looking for ways to keep last year’s positive momentum going by bringing change to the community, including a previous project of painting the interior of Lansdale’s PEAK Center, she said.

“We’re just sort of trying to find organizations that we can come in and help do something unique for them, and let people who belong to our group see if they want to do something on their own with them on more of a long-term basis,” DiPangrazio said.

The coming spring cleanup, for example, is being held in association with Project HEARTH (Helping Elderly Adults Remain in Their Homes), a program of Montgomery County’s Family Services office.

Walnut Meadows is located on Wood Hollow Drive, off Woodbine Road behind Christopher Dock Mennonite High School in Towamencin. For more information or specific directions, contact Be The Change at BeTheChangeNorthPenn@Verizon.net.

Meanwhile, starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, members of Lansdale’s Renew Community will be cleaning up the Kugel Ball area, and welcoming any help (and any brooms and leaf blowers they can borrow) from the community.

“People hang out there all of the time, and it’s practically right next to one of the largest intersections in the borough, Main and Broad streets. With lots of people comes lots of refuse, so we figured, why not take a couple of hours and give back to the Lansdale community?” said Bethany Paul, Renew’s community engagement coordinator.

Renew hopes to see people renewed spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally in the name of Jesus, she said, so they’re trying to do what he would be doing if alive today.

“We’re not going to shove a tract in your hand if you show up. We just want to show others that, if Jesus were here, he’d be doing stuff like this. He’d be spending his Saturday mornings with the locals, picking up the stuff that nobody else wants to touch,” Paul said.

And this won’t be the last cleanup for Renew either: on the last Saturday of every month, they’ll clean up that area again, to help out the Lansdale Farmers Market, which will be opening there on July 4.

“JR Briggs, our lead pastor of Renew, asked the borough, ‘What can we do to help?’ and we are and will continue to ask that question,” Paul said. “It’ll be a great time to get to know others who live in the borough, and gain a sense of ownership and pride for the town.”

For more information about Renew, contact bethanypaul@renewcommunity.org or visit www.RenewCommunity.org.