Over 100 volunteers were in attendance at the Kiss Hershey Back, KHB, on May 11th, 2019 at this event’s various locations such as Gelder Park where they cleaned picked up litter throughout the town.

There are many different groups that volunteered at KHB. Garrett Rucker, KHB’s Public Relations board member, said, “Various groups from the community are volunteering at the event including the Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Hershey Indivisible Team, Hershey Company, and, of course, the Milton Hershey School.”

According to KHB’s website, “It was estimated that during the first Kiss Hershey Back! Event [in 2008], 26-28 cubic yards of trash and 8-10 cubic yards of recyclables were collected. Ever since then the event has only grown.”

Karen Potter was at Gelder Park with Boy Scout troop 200, a Boy Scout troop of girls, and a Cub Scout troop. Potter said she and her troop have been volunteering, “on and off for seven years.”

For Boy Scout Troop 200 Kiss Hershey Back was just one of several service projects.  “We try to do different service projects,” said Jeff Hosenfeld of Troop 200.

According to the site leaders Meghan Douger and Akshil Patel, two first-year medical students at Penn State, there are about 30 volunteers at Gelder Park. Each person received a bag for the litter collected and gloves for safety.

“It is a great event. We always enjoy helping out with it,” Potter said.

After the event was over, the volunteers participated in a celebration of all the hard work done that day. 21 raffle prizes were given out to the lucky winners as another bonus for helping with this cause including gift cards, and baskets.

These gifts were made possible because of Kiss Hershey Back’s many sponsors: Hershey Biergarten, Escape Room Hershey, Isaac’s, Rotary Club, The Hershey Co., Mount Nittany Vineyard and Winery, Troeg, ABC North Lanes and Loung, Cold Stone Creamery, Au Bon Lieu, CrossFit Hershey, Cocoa Diner, Royer’s Flowers, Sheetz, Hershey Story and Hershey Gardens, Simply J Boutique, Penn State College of Medicine Bookstore, Karns, Bath and Body Works, Pennsylvania State Police Museum, Spring Gate Vineyard, Art on Derry, Bowman Trust, Roundtop Mountain, Harrisburg River Boat Society, and The Lazer Factory.