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Nearly 100 people attended Make a Difference Day in Tracy Park last year (pictured). The annual clean-up event returns this weekend.

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Ryan Scott Ottney

PDT Staff Writer

Before ghosts and goblins haunt the streets next week asking for tricks or treats — hoping for treats, no doubt — AmeriCorps and Potter’s House Ministry are hosting “Make A Difference Day” this weekend to make those streets a little bit cleaner.

The Second Annual Make A Difference Day is Saturday, Oct. 27, from 9 a.m. until noon, at Tracy Park in Portsmouth.

“Make a Difference Day is a national day of community service and we have to do a project to help give back from what we get from everyone else,” said Jodi Stanley of AmeriCorps. Stanley is also a member of Potter’s House Ministry.

Trash bags, gloves, vests, and trash bins will be available at the park for volunteers to use to help clean-up the community. Nearly 100 people showed up last year, and collected several tons of trash. It was so successful last year, Stanley said the city actually asked them to do it again this year.

“We’re going to go through the city and pick up as much trash as we can in those three hours,” Stanley said.

She said it’s important to clean the community, to make it look better for residents and visitors.

Also for Make a Difference Day this year, local Girl Scouts will be going door-to-door in Sciotoville in Portsmouth, collecting food items for the Potter’s House Ministry Food Pantry.

“Our main priority is just the pantry. You can use the pantry once a month. We serve over 800 families a month, so canned food goes really quick. Personal care and sundry items are really short-handed because it’s expensive for us to keep on the shelf,” Stanley said.

For more information about Potter’s House Ministry, visit them online at the Sciotoville Church of the Nazarene website — www.jesusthenazarene.com.

Ryan Scott Ottney can be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 235, or rottney@heartlandpublications.com.