Volunteers Celebrate Earth Day with Refresh of Popular Children’s Playground in Scranton

Fourteen volunteers gathered at the Nay Aug Avenue Natural Play Area in Scranton on Thursday to clean up the children’s park and spread mulch as part of Lackawanna Heritage Valley’s Earth Day Refresh.

Co-workers, families and local residents joined in the event organized by Lackawanna Heritage Valley, the local organization responsible for developing and overseeing the natural play area. Through periods of brief snowfall amidst a particularly cold spring evening, the group removed trash and litter and cleaned up weeds but spent the majority of their efforts on spreading 65 cubic yards of fresh mulch across the playground.

The Nay Aug Avenue Natural Play Area, located at 1738 Nay Aug Avenue in Scranton, was built with natural features and is aquatic-themed. The park features a community pavilion, a tyke-bike track, slides built into the sides of dirt mounds, tire swings, a climbing snake, a fishing shack and fish climbers.

More than a dozen firefighters from the City of Scranton also volunteered with Lackawanna Heritage Valley in celebration of Earth Day. The firefighters spent Thursday along the Scranton Riverwalk section of the Lackawanna River Heritage Trail building tables, cutting back invasive plant species, and cleaning up litter and debris.

“We rely heavily on the generosity of local residents and volunteer groups to help us maintain our recreation sites and over 40 miles of the Lackawanna River Heritage Trail,” said Owen Worozbyt, trails and environmental programs manager for Lackawanna Heritage Valley. “We’re so thankful for our fleet of volunteers and the thousands of volunteer hours they’ve dedicated to preserving our region’s natural beauty.”

Lackawanna Heritage Valley will be working alongside the Lackawanna River Conservation Association and a number of other like-minded organizations on volunteer-based Watershed Stewardship Days over the next several weekends. To volunteer for these events or to plan a volunteer event of your own, interested residents and visitors are asked to call the organization at (570) 963-6730 or visit the Lackawanna River Heritage Trail Facebook page for more information.