A new community effort to clean up the Peters Creek Parkway area between Link Road and the new baseball stadium brought out more than 30 volunteers to scour the creek and roadside for trash yesterday afternoon.
The cleanup was part of the new Peters Creek Community Initiative, a collaboration of several churches in the area, the West Salem and Ardmore neighborhood associations and the Shalom Project, a nonprofit community-development organization whose officials hope to see how they can improve businesses on Peters Creek Parkway.
Volunteers taking part in Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful's annual Big Sweep cleanup of area lakes and streams, which was also held this weekend, pitched in on the effort along the banks of Peters Creek.
Kelly Carpenter, the senior pastor of Green Street United Methodist Church, said he was inspired to get involved in the cleanup effort after an initial training meeting of the community-initiative group.
That desire was reinforced after reading a story in the Winston-Salem Journal about what kind of development might come to the Peters Creek area from Link Road to First Street.
"At that point, I realized that that was probably a sign that we as faith communities, neighborhood associations, residents had to get our act together to really think of what it is we wanted to happen here, otherwise somebody from outside is going to come in and make those decisions for us," Carpenter said. "That's why we've organized together to kind of have a say-so about these businesses and new development that might take place here."
About 15 organizations are involved in the Peters Creek Community Initiative, he said.
Community-initiative officials started the Peters Creek cleanup with a service, music and free lunch in the West Salem Shopping Center.
Volunteers then started walking the creek's banks removing trash and debris, in an effort replicated throughout the city during the Big Sweep. An additional 800 volunteers pulled about 50,000 pounds of junk from creeks, waterways, streams and parks, said George Stilphen, the executive director of Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful.
Several other groups had Big Sweep workings before yesterday, Stilphen said, and others will have cleanups later in the month.
Stilphen said that when the final participation is tallied, he expects 3,000 volunteers to have taken part in the annual effort, which is now in its 22nd year.
Jerry McLeese, a volunteer with the Peters Creek Community Initiative, said that the organization will be working with residents and businesses owners to get their ideas about how to improve and revitalize the Peters Creek Parkway area.
"One of the things that we're trying to do is recognize that this is a very diverse community," said McLeese, a member of Ardmore United Methodist Church. "We're not trying to change that, in fact, we're trying to enhance that."
McLeese said he passed out flyers for the cleanup to people who were white, black, Hispanic and Asian. "It was a full range of people, and what we want to do is make this a neighborhood for all people to feel like they belong here," he said.
■ Lisa Boone-Wood can be reached at 727-7232 or at lboone-wood@wsjournal.com.
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