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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Towering triple the height of the day lilies it invaded, the weed along Riverfront Park looked formidable, and proved as much &#8212; at least for Mary Theresa Lehman. Despite a firm grip near the base and a grunt-inducing pull, the Wyoming Seminary student had to give a second yank, and then fell to the ground once the roots surrendered.</p><p>&#8220;That really hurt my hands!&#8221; Lehman conceded as she got up and brushed herself off.</p><p>Lehman and 52 classmates had walked from Seminary&#8217;s Upper School campus in Kingston to the Market Street Bridge where they met urban forester Vinnie Cotrone, who gave them a brief overview of the riverfront property before putting them to work picking up litter and pulling weeds.</p><p>The clean-up was just one of at least 15 community service opportunities some 450 students took part in Friday, officially dubbed Sem Community Day of Service.</p><p>The service projects &#8212; with options that stretched from Riverfront Park to Scranton&#8217;s Ronald McDonald House &#8212; were the culmination of a week of activities designed to help students start the year with an emphasis on the school&#8217;s value of passion for learning and serving.</p><p>Rev. Charles Carrick, the school chaplain and one of the adults accompanying the clean-up crew, said the emphasis is always on helping the community.</p><p>For many of the students, Cotrone&#8217;s chat was almost certainly a history lesson, as he talked of how the riverfront property has long been open to the public, with George Washington once camping troops there.</p><p>He spoke briefly of the 1972 flood caused by Tropical Storm Agnes &#8212; an event that occurred decades before his audience was born &#8212; which prompted levee improvements that held in 2011 when Hurricane Irene and tropical storm Lee threatened the tops of the system.</p><p>As for the students, Cotrone was impressed they went to work and stayed at it without slacking through the morning.</p><p>Lehman confessed it wasn&#8217;t her first choice on the list of service project options. Her friend Kate Romanowski had signed up to help at Hillside Farms, but when Lehman tried to sign up as well that project was already maxed out with volunteers, so the two switched to the Riverfront clean up.</p><p>&#8220;I like it here,&#8221; Romanowski said, insisting she had no regrets. &#8220;We&#8217;re having fun.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_sem-clean-up-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Seminary Upper School students help clean up Riverfron Park in Wilkes-Barre Friday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_sem-clean-up-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wyoming Seminary Upper School students help clean up Riverfron Park in Wilkes-Barre Friday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Mark Guydish | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_cleanupday01.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Seminary senior Andrew Kim places clumps of weeds into a plastic garbage bag as students participate in the Wyoming Seminary Community Day of Service cleaning up the riverfront park in Wilkes-Barre Friday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_cleanupday01.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wyoming Seminary senior Andrew Kim places clumps of weeds into a plastic garbage bag as students participate in the Wyoming Seminary Community Day of Service cleaning up the riverfront park in Wilkes-Barre Friday. </caption1><photoCredit1>Mark Guydish | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_cleanupday02.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Students of Wyoming Seminary participate in the Wyoming Seminary Community Day of Service cleaning up the riverfront park in Wilkes-Barre Friday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_cleanupday02.jpg</photo2><caption2>Students of Wyoming Seminary participate in the Wyoming Seminary Community Day of Service cleaning up the riverfront park in Wilkes-Barre Friday. </caption2><photoCredit2>Mark Guydish | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Knee-deep in day lilies, Wyoming Sem students pull weeds in Wilkes-Barre