The Millbury Daily Voice
By Steve Balestrieri
MILLBURY, Mass. — The Millbury Lions Club got a big assist cleaning up the mess at Windle Field from the just-ended carnival, and it came from an unlikely sources.
Inmates from the Worcester County House of Correction pitched in and were instrumental in getting ride of the debris and litter from the carnival and fireworks show.
“There were a lot of people out here this weekend … easily over 15,000, ” Lions Club member Ron Marlborough said as he chatted with fellow Lion Bill Kane, Sheriff Lew Evangelidis and Kimberly Roy, director of Community Programs for the Worcester County Sheriff’s Department.
Marlborough said the inmates’ contributions were huge for the town. The sheriff added: “This is just a win-win for everyone. It is also a chance for them to see that someone believes in them. They gain some self-esteem and it sets them up for success in the future.”
Millbury is no stranger to the Inmate Community Service Program. In addition to providing help on the cleanup, inmates from the program did work at the Public Library and Senior Center and recently painted Town Hall.
Only about 75 of the more than 1,200 inmates at the jail are eligible to take part in the program. “There’s diginity and self-respect in what they’re doing,” Evangelidis said, “as well as a sense of being a part of something.”
To show their appreciation, the Lions treated the inmates to pizza and ice cream before they finished at Windle Field.
Evangelidis has said before that the program makes it less likely inmates will return to jail. “That’s the goal,” he told Marlborough. “That’s what we all want.”
