Community members gathered on Main Street in Hurricane to help brighten up their town Wednesday.
The City of Hurricane hosted the cleanup event after various residents, businesses, churches and other groups asked what they could do for community service.
Vanessa Ervin, Hurricane's marketing and development manager, said the city provided all of the supplies, with the exception of paint for the gazebo, which was donated by Home Depot.
Volunteers worked together to mulch, weed, plant flowers and paint the gazebo.
Ervin said a few people had been making comments about the gazebo's shabby appearance, and the volunteers were eager to give the structure a face-lift.
With several community events on Main Street coming up, Ervin said this was a perfect time to host the cleanup.
"We've got a lot of events coming up here, so we thought we would take the opportunity and take one big day where one big group could come out and have plenty to do," Ervin said.
Hurricane will host its annual Main Street Spring Festival on Saturday, May 7, and will host Food Truck Fridays during the summer.
Leslie Lilly, 25, of Scott Depot, was busy pulling weeds and mulching with the friends she had made through the Putnam County Drug Court Program.
Lilly is in phase three of the program, so she doesn't have to do community service anymore, but she attended anyway. She said she's found support through the friends she's made, and enjoys making memories through completing community service projects with them.
"It gives us a new second chance at life," Lilly said. "It helps us get back into the community and do some work."
Celesta Pistor, 38, of Charleston, is in the same program and was working alongside Lilly. Pistor said she had been charged with possession in Hurricane, and that she had come full circle by cleaning the city up on Wednesday.
"I personally think they cleaned up Hurricane enough when they got me off the streets," she joked.
"We're all pretty happy to be here, believe it or not," she added.
Leanne Griffith, 25, of Teays Valley, has been clean of heroin and Xanax for 18 months. She said the program has helped her tremendously with finding support and staying clean.
"Not only does [the program] keep us clean, it helps reintegrate us into society," Griffith said.
Cecily Gist, vice president of branch operations for STAR USA Federal Credit Union in Teays Valley, came to the event to give back to the community members her branch serves.
"We're a local area business; we have to give back to the community too," Gist said. "We always try to make sure we still consider our members first."
Zoe Vickers, 14, of Teays Valley, was painting alongside her mother and her brother. Vickers thought the event was a neat way to volunteer with her family.
"I saw it in the newspaper, I saw where it was advertised in upcoming events and thought it sounded interesting," Vickers said. "I enjoy weeding and painting."
Reach Laura Haight at laura.haight@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4843 or follow @laurahaight_ on Twitter.