Clean-up volunteers cross neighborhood borders to help

Here’s why this group, based in the Lents neighborhood of outer East Portland, helped out a resident living in Mt. Scott-Arleta …

Volunteers from the Lents Neighborhood Livability Association “cross borders” – and begin to unload yard maintenance gear to help a resident in the Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhood.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

Forecast rainstorms came into the area with a vengeance on Saturday morning, June 20, as volunteers with the Lents Neighborhood Livability Association (LNLA) unpacked their gear to help a resident of the Mt. Scott-Arleta neighborhood catch up on his yard work.

Cold rain pelted the eight LNLA volunteers who began hacking away at an overgrown front yard, and the backyard jungle of chest-high grass and Himalayan blackberry vines.

One of LNLA’s founders, Char Pennie, says the organization was founded primarily to help people in the area who need it.

“A case worker with Adventist Health said this homeowner, Bill, had a medical condition, and could really use a hand with his yard work,” related LNLA’s Char Pennie.

The organization’s name is associated with the Lents neighborhood, Pennie conceded; but because the LNLA is not a city-affiliated neighborhood association, they’re not bound to any specific geographic service area.

Helping prune overgrown shrubs is LNLA volunteer Terry Lilly.

“When we find people in Brentwood-Darlington, Powellhurst-Gilbert, and other areas around us that need the help we can give, our ‘Neighbor-to-Neighbor’ program volunteers are willing to go pitch in,” Pennie told East Portland News. “Since the start of our LNLA organization, our focus has been to help and inform people, instead of getting involved with politics; we just help where we can.”

Many hands – and some power tools – help the volunteers tidy up plants in this yard.

At their monthly meetings, which are held on Mt. Scott at the Community Connections Center, the LNLA brings in city leaders and others to inform neighbors about current issues. Learn more at the LNLA website: CLICK HERE.

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