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Billy Graham's Group and Others to Hold North Side Community Event

Community-minded volunteers will spread throughout the North Shore Thursday with paintbrushes and trash bags as part of the Community Action Project (CAP) that also will include food, music and family activities.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) partnered with the Urban Impact Foundation and Light of Life Rescue Mission for the event.

“Our hope is that people enjoy the day, that we’re able to do some of the work projects that have been slotted out for us to do. We’re hoping to do as many as we can. With the volunteers that show, and we’re hoping to bless the folks in the community,” said Mark Lingle, Festival Associate for BGEA.

BGEA has recruited more than 150 volunteers who will paint structures, clean up the neighborhood, do garden work and pass out flowers.

Also the group will be collecting various school supplies to be donated to local schools.

Community members will also be invited to relax in West Park from 1 to 7 p.m. with free food and music provided as part of Light of Life’s Annual Day of Hope Picnic. There will also be a children’s area with arts, crafts, face painting, balloon art and a puppet show.

More than 40 community organizations will set up booths in the park, including the Pittsburgh Fire Department, the American Diabetes Association, which will offer free diabetes risk assessments, and the literacy group Reading is FUNdamental, which will hand out free children’s books.

The event is a community lead up to a revival festival in Pittsburgh Aug. 15-17 organized by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Jess was accepted as a WESA fellow in the news department in January 2014. The Erie, PA native attends Duquesne University where she has a double major--broadcast journalism and political science. Following her anticipated graduation in May 2015, she plans to enter law school or begin a career in broadcast journalism.