PITTSTON, Pa. — An army of volunteers in light blue stormed the city of Pittston to help with some remodeling and clean-up projects around the city.
"So today is part of a continuing project the '100 Hometowns Project' with Lowe's and today's piece is their volunteer piece," said Michael Lombardo, Pittston Mayor.
"It's been a fantastic time," said Jessica Vickerson, Lowe's manager. "So there was a lot of prep work that went into it logistically with supplies and volunteers. We have associates from Northeastern Pennsylvania, the southern tier of New York all came together to work about 86 volunteers here today."
The main focus of these volunteers is building out the arts academy that will be upstairs on Main Street.
It's a project that awarded the city a grant to get the job done, as well as the help. Mayor Michael Lombardo says the work getting done in one day here would have taken city volunteers weeks.
"So in this space, you know, you're seeing some basic framing, you're seeing some electrical, you're seeing insulation, you're seeing some prep work for drywall and then you're seeing some drywall, so they'll do the install the drywall but not the finish today," said Lombardo.
In addition to the work inside the soon-to-be arts academy, volunteers with Lowe's did a lot of other things around the city of Pittston too.
"Doing cleanup, and then out doing landscaping," said Lombardo. "So it's been a great effort to have all these people that you know we can throw out a bunch of different projects."
"We're used to flat stacking sticks and bricks in our store, taking care of our customers, but this is an awesome time to interact in the community," said Vickerson.
"Honestly, opportunity to give back to the community support this great project here in Pittston is awesome and honestly, with all of the COVID restrictions we haven't had a lot of time to get together so to have all 13 of my stores, to be able to participate work together, have some collaboration is fantastic," said Jason Noel, district manager.