When you sit on a new bench outside the Milanof-Schock Library, you are enjoying the fruits of a community effort. The bench has been donated by the Mount Joy Lions Club and was made from recycled plastic collected by the club. It's the seventh such bench placed in the Mount Joy community, said Maria Wassell, former president of the club.

"We wanted to have an ecology project for our club to work on, and so this is something we had seen as a project," Wassell explained, noting that the club began collecting plastic in August of 2019. "We have about 10 places throughout the community where we collect plastic bags, and since we started, we have collected 9,500 pounds. It takes 500 pounds to make one bench." The club has partnered with Trex, the company that creates the benches and supplies collection containers for the plastic.

"We can earn two benches per year," Wassell noted. "If it were by the pound, we would have earned many more benches, but we're limited by how many we can earn at a time." Collection bins are located throughout Mount Joy, she said, at local businesses and churches, including Jim Roberts West Main Auto and St. Mark's United Methodist Church. Benches have been placed by the club at Trinity Lutheran Church, by the administration building for Donegal School District and at Little Chiques Park, among other locations.

Collecting the plastic and donating the benches fits in nicely with the Lions Club's mission, Wassell said. "The Lions' slogan is 'We serve,' so the whole idea is whatever we do, we try to serve the community," she stated. Organizations supported by the club include the Milanof-Schock Library and Rainbow's End Youth Services. The club also provides scholarships to Donegal High School and Lancaster County Career & Technology Center seniors.

The bench at the Milanof-Schock Library is located in the new patio area, and Wassell emphasized that it's the result of a true community project. "We put a plaque on the back of the benches to let people know that this is a project from the Mount Joy Lions Club and the community," she said, "because it's the community members who have been supporting us and donating all the plastic to make the bench possible."