Three-year-old Henry McAulay, left, and four-year-old Carolyn Stoner lend a hand shoveling mulch at a residence with West Virginia Delegate Matt Rorhbach (R-Cabell) and Ryan Stoner of Fifth Avenue Baptist Church during the third annual “Helpington” cleanup project Sunday, May 3, 2015, in Huntington’s West End.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A few years ago, Jana Stoner of Fifth Avenue Baptist Church gave Monty Fulton of First Presbyterian Church a call. She and a group from her congregation had been to Joplin, Mississippi, to clean up the aftermath of the devastating 2011 tornado, and came upon a nondenominational group of organized volunteers there, who had been doing cleanup in Joplin long before the disaster.
She wondered if the same effort could be made in Huntington, and someone suggested she call Fulton about it.
That did it, she said.
The next thing she knew, they were driving around Huntington listening for God’s will about which neighborhood to help. The area surrounding Central City Elementary School seemed to be their answer. And their annual cleanups have been growing ever since…
