Crossfire volunteers help community, host street fair in Ashland
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - Anthony Weaver, left, prepares hot dogs for Thursday's street fair near the soon-to-be home of Crossfire Youth Ministries' Ashland Youth Center, in the former A&P Supermarket at Centre and 12th Streets.
ASHLAND – Over 60 teens, many from Pennsylvania’s Amish Country, travelled to coal country this week to perform community service projects, all culminating with a street fair for the Ashland community.
Crossfire Youth Ministries has been in the Ashland community for about the past 17 years, James Horning, executive director, told the Sentinel outside the former A&P supermarket on Centre Street that the group is renovating and will soon house its Ashland Youth Center.
The group, according to their website, also operates a youth center in East Cocalico Township, Lancaster County, near Ephrata, where they are based.
This week, dozens of teens, along with adult chaperones, from that area came to Ashland for three days of service projects around town, as well as a street fair on 12th Street, according to Anthony Weaver, Fredericksburg, a volunteer with the group. Most of the teens, Weaver said, are from the Ephrata Community Church, though some are also from North Schuylkill schools.
Volunteers all wore bright yellow shirts adorned with “Ashland, Penna. 1857” and a tree on the front, with the Crossfire logo and “We <3 Ashland” on the back.
During the week, volunteers handled a wide variety of projects, which included painting the Ashland Municipal Building at Pine and 18th Streets. Horning said that the project was expected to take most of the time they were in Ashland, but it was completed in a day. The building houses Ashland’s municipal offices, the police department, and the Museum of Anthracite Mining.
The group also handled weeding, litter control, and other such tasks in town. They also painted the town’s fire hydrants and cut down a tree at Higher Ups Park.
Thursday and Friday, Crossfire planned a street fair for 12th Street between Centre and Chestnut Streets, adjacent to the former A&P Supermarket.
A variety of activities are included in the fair, including a ring toss, bounce house, football toss, and face painting, among others.
The fair runs from 4pm to 8pm both days.
“It’s such a blessing to have them in the town,” Kaity Korn, an Ashland borough councilwoman, said. “It’s hard to get teenagers out these days to do anything, let alone volunteering to give up their whole week many miles away from home to do all this stuff in a town they know nothing about and have never been to.”
Korn has been involved with the ministry since she was 15 — she is now 32 — and her son, Kenny, 12, was one of the volunteers Thursday.
“We’ve been very well-received in the community. Nothing but good responses,” Horning said. “People are so thankful for teens helping to clean up and make a difference.”
As for why Crossfire chose Ashland, Horning said, “Simple, God called me here.”
Horning said that, as he was operating in Ephrata and struggling to get Crossfire off the ground, he received a phone call saying “Hey, there is a need up in the coal region.”
“I said to our board, I think God’s calling us north, and they said go, so I came through Ashland,” Horning said. He said he encountered a woman at the Ashland high-rise after she mistook his truck for that of her uncle’s.
That woman, he said, belonged to Bethany Church, which acquired a building at 12th and Market. He said that Crossfire helped Bethany renovate the building, and eventually acquired it themselves. The building currently houses Crossfire’s Ashland Youth Center.
Crossfire has been renovating the former A&P Supermarket at Centre and 12th for the past several months, and is nearing completion. Horning said the building was a “total disaster” and to be demolished when the building was acquired, and his group set out to renovate the long-abandoned store building.
Horning said renovations for that building are nearly $500,000, and are nearly paid off.
“To me, I’m stunned. People have generously given of their time and resources,” Horning said.
Renovations are nearing completion, and Horning hopes to have the building ready for a possible open house next month.
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