LEWISTON — Per Almquist figures 300 people can do a lot of good for the community when they work together — especially when they bring along some power tools.

Almquist, pastor at Lewiston’s Free Grace Presbyterian Church, is helping to organize a team of Twin Cities church-goers to tackle some of the jobs Saturday morning that city crews can’t quite finish.

In Lewiston, volunteers will help clear brush at Franklin Pasture and the high school cross-country track and will clean up Simard-Payne Memorial Park’s riverside.

In Auburn, volunteers will clear brush around city parks, help clean up graffiti and help repair bleachers and other facilities around town.

The project is called Share L/A and is expected to bring together volunteers from 12 local churches in Lewiston and Auburn. Volunteers will meet at 9 a.m. in the Lewiston High School parking lot and spread out from there.

“We’re not really sure how many people will show up,” Almquist said. “Two years ago, the last time we did this, we had 150 people show up. So this year, we’re hoping for that many on both sides of the river. So, we’d like to see 300 people come out.”

This year, they get to bring their gasoline-powered weed whackers and chain saws.

“Two years ago, the city couldn’t get insurance, so we couldn’t use power tools,” Almquist said. “Everything we did, we had to do by hand.”

This year, the churches are providing insurance.

“We hope that will let us get even more work done,” Almquist said. “The waiver only goes so far. They can’t provide power tools, but we can bring our own.”

The day of service is the brainchild of Almquist and Pastor Dave Bochtler of Grace Community Church in Auburn.

“We talked to some other pastors, and they were interested, and then we went to the city,” Almquist said.

Megan Bates, deputy director of Lewiston Public Works, said the event is a blessing for her staff.

“It’s huge, because these are projects we just would not get done,” she said. “We don’t have the staff and we don’t have the time.”

One project the volunteers will be working on is the overlook between East Avenue and Franklin Pasture.

“The last time we did anything there was seven years ago, when we didn’t have a winter and we went in and did some clearing,” Bates said. “They are going to be taking down a significant amount of brush and all that material will be chipped up right there on site and put down so the brush does not grow back so quickly. That’s going to be a highly visible project. I think people will notice that right off.”

It has been a good year for church groups working downtown. A group of 24 volunteers from the East Glenville Community Church in Scotia, N.Y., have spent the week at the Root Cellar, a Christian outreach group, in downtown Lewiston.

Volunteer Heather Chevalier said her group had spent much of the week on prayer walks, collecting trash in the downtown and praying for  residents. The group is scheduled to clear brush at Riverside Cemetery on Thursday.

Another group of volunteers, Youth Works, has been staying at Lewiston’s Pathway Vineyard Church this summer doing volunteer projects. Volunteers from that group helped clean up along the Androscoggin River on Wednesday.

“It’s exciting for us, to see churches from all over come alongside the cities, L and A,” said Heather Kidd, ministry coordinator at the Root Cellar.

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