Atlantic Beach receives helping hand (with video)

Atlantic Beach's community center got a facelift Wednesday, and its Town Hall will get the same today.

More than 60 middle school students from Oklahoma and volunteers from Barefoot Church in North Myrtle Beach spent Wednesday picking up trash, removing debris, power washing, painting and repairing the community center at 1010 32nd Ave. S. in Atlantic Beach.

Today they will work at Town Hall at 717 30th Ave. S.

"We just want to give back to the community as much as we can," said Rod Gray, executive pastor at Barefoot Church. "We believe in Atlantic Beach. There's a bright future there. We want to help out because they don't have a huge budget."

The Oklahoma students who have been helping with the cleanup are in the Myrtle Beach area on spring break with The 99, a walkthrough theater that graphically re-enacts the five leading causes of death in teenagers and young adults, according to its Web site. The Web site states that an average of 99 young people between the ages of 10 and 25 die daily in the United States. The 99 is a symbol based on statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Gray said the group's theater will be at NASCAR SpeedPark in Myrtle Beach this weekend.