Bike and Build volunteers clean up at Bell Smith Springs [Video]

LES WINKELERFor The Southern

For the Bike and Build entourage, the stop in Harrisburg last week was a hybrid.

The nonprofit group, based in Philadelphia, has been raising money and awareness for affordable housing since 2003. As part of their route across the central United States, the group stopped in Harrisburg in 2018, 2019 and again last year.

While pedaling across the country, the group, in this case 23 young adults, typically stops once a week to work with Habitat for Humanity, or some other organization dealing with affordable housing. This year, their “Volunteer Day” in Southern Illinois involved cleaning up litter at Bell Smith Springs in the Shawnee National Forest.

“I wanted to really give them a day off today,” said Kerry Camp of Harrisburg, who coordinated activities for the First Presbyterian Church, Bike and Build’s Harrisburg host. “It wasn’t really the decision of mine to make, we probably could have worked on …