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A group of College Park volunteers who organized an April 22 stream cleanup hope the event was the first of many collaborative community projects.

The Earth Day cleanup was organized by the Faith Community Network of College Park, a group of volunteers from more than 10 places of worship in the city, including Hope Lutheran Church, United University Methodist Church and Dar-us-Salaam mosque.

About 30 volunteers attended the two-hour event, removing debris from the Guilford Run stream, located in the southern portion of the city. By day's end, they collected items ranging from paper and plastic bottles to metal folding chairs and tire rims.

"We probably had 20, 30 huge trash bags that we pulled out of there," said the Rev. James Vigen, pastor at Hope Lutheran.

The Faith Community Network was formed in early 2009 to help foster discussion of crime and public safety issues such as police presence and citizen watch programs in the city. Looking for its first community service project, the group met in February with Mayor Andrew Fellows, who suggested they do a community cleanup. The Guilford Run stream was chosen, in part, because of its proximity to Hope Lutheran and other churches, Vigen said.

"It kind of flows through a lot of the religious institutions that are on Guilford [Drive]," Fellows said. "It seemed to me to be a pretty natural way ... for them to get engaged with the community."

Vigen said the group hopes to have regular cleanups in the future, and eventually could expand its focus to issues of poverty and unemployment. He added that the group's religious diversity could bring members and residents closer together by highlighting their common interests rather than differences.

"The overarching aim is to work for projects for the common good," he said.