{"id":238328,"date":"2026-07-08T11:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T11:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/238328\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T11:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T11:57:11","slug":"non-profit-helps-spruce-up-local-parks-and-recreational-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/238328\/","title":{"rendered":"Non-profit helps spruce up local parks and recreational sites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six members of Youth Advocate Programs cleaned up Connell Park in Scranton. <\/p>\n

SCRANTON, Pa. \u2014 Whether it was picking out wet weeds or the crumple of litter as it made its way from the ground to a trash bag, these kids did a lot to make Connell Park in Scranton\u00a0<\/a>a little nicer on Monday.<\/p>\n

“We have the same six kids with us every day. \u00a0We work Monday through Friday. We visit any parks in Scranton that are on the schedule,” said Michael Anthony.\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n \"\" <\/p>\n


\n This story continues below. <\/p>\n

He and Ashley Harte oversee the group of six kids who are involved with Youth Advocate Programs.<\/p>\n

For years, Anthony says the nonprofit out of Dunmore has worked with the City of Scranton to help spruce up area parks and recreation centers.<\/p>\n

“These places are really busy around the holidays, especially the 4th of July, right? I mean, there’s tons of garbage everywhere, and it’s, I mean, it’s always nice to have a clean community,” said Anthony.<\/p>\n

Members do everything from cleaning sites and landscaping to much more.<\/p>\n

But this trip saw the group start their day weeding and planting some new flowers before moving to trash pickup.<\/p>\n

“Been seeing a lot of water bottle caps, Gatorade bottles,” said Rhys Jones.<\/p>\n

With the help of some grabbers, the staff sorted through the mulch looking for litter while Richard Bagley stood by waiting to collect it.<\/p>\n

“I find it quite satisfying, like plucking out weeds, cleaning up garbage,” said Bagley. “It’s fun work.”<\/p>\n

A little hard work goes a long way in keeping these parks clean and ready for playing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six members of Youth Advocate Programs cleaned up Connell Park in Scranton. SCRANTON, Pa. \u2014 Whether it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-238328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}