Volunteers give time to beautify Camden neighborhood

Volunteers picked up paintbrushes, hammers, and shovels Thursday to give back to the community in a service project to get rid of blight and help spruce up an East Camden neighborhood.

For several hours, the volunteers labored simultaneously on three hands-on projects: repainting a mural at Dudley Grange Park that was defaced with graffiti; helping with demolition work at an abandoned rowhouse on Mickle Street that will be rehabilitated; and mulching trees.

"I love to volunteer," said Amber Shockley, 27, of Camden, a YMCA counselor, as she rolled lime-green paint onto a mural wall across the street from Woodrow Wilson High School. "I love to give back to my community. It's always a nice thing."

The day of service was organized by NeighborWorks America, a nonprofit based in Washington that works with more than 200 local groups across the country to improve neighborhoods, help residents become homeowners, and train community-development leaders. It has generated more than $27.2 billion in reinvestment in communities.

"Camden has a lot of challenges. This is the nitty-gritty work, but it's the work that has to be done," said Paul Weech, president and chief executive officer of NeighborWorks. "Volunteerism is the fabric of many of our communities."

In Dudley Grange Park, about a dozen volunteers put fresh paint on a rainbow of stripes on a mural that was designed by high school students several years ago. A black stretch on the reverse of the mural had provided a particularly tempting canvas for graffiti artists, so the volunteers painted over the markings on both sides, hoping the colorful palette will discourage vandals from targeting it again. The mural usually gets a fresh coat of paint every year.

"I think this park is beautiful," said Chekera Cooper, 21, also of Camden, a YMCA counselor, who runs a program to provide Camden youth with a safe place to play at Dudley Grange. "I want to make sure the kids enjoy the park."

Betty Mitchell, a retired Camden elementary school teacher who has lived in the city for 60 years, said she believes residents must play a role in revitalizing the distressed community  of about 70,000 that has been plagued with homelessness, violence, unemployment, and crumbling neighborhoods.

"If anyone is going to be responsible for the beautification of our city, it should be us," said Mitchell, 75. "I could  have moved, but I chose to stay. I'm not going anywhere now."

Unlike most of Thursday's volunteers, who were Camden residents, Orlando Rivera lives outside the city. Rivera, a loan officer at M&T Bank in Woodbury, wanted to help out and spread the word about the bank's $25 million mortgage subsidy program for first-time home buyers in certain targeted areas in New Jersey, including Camden, Pennsauken, Willingboro, Burlington City, and Lawnside.

"It's important to help people. The money is available. Why not?" said Rivera.

A few blocks away, volunteers, mostly from St. Joseph's Carpenter Society, knocked down walls and cleaned out debris from a rowhouse in the 3000 block of Mickle. The rowhouse is to be gutted and refurbished and sold to a local family.

"It's in such horrible shape. It's really bad," said Pilar Hogan Closkey, executive director of St . Joseph's Carpenter Society, one of six NeighborWorks organizations in New Jersey and the only one in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties. The 30-year-old nonprofit has renovated nearly 1,000 abandoned properties, mostly in Camden, and over the last several years has expanded to Collingswood, Gloucester City, Merchantville, and Pennsauken.

A handful of volunteers also worked with the NJ Tree Foundation to mulch trees that were planted last year. They also learned how to inspect mature trees  for damage, something that officials hope the volunteers will do also in their own neighborhoods.

The day of service was part of the NeighborWorks training institute, which the nonprofit is hosting in Philadelphia through Friday to provide training to 1,800 affordable-housing and community-development professionals from around the country.