A group of Lowe’s employees volunteered to beautify the area around the new Panther Valley Elementary playground this week.

Each year, employees at the Lehighton Lowe’s store choose a “Lowe’s Heroes” project. The store provides the materials, and the employees volunteer their time to provide labor.

Eleven volunteers showed up at the elementary school Monday morning. They were there to create brick paths and landscaping around the new playground.

“For some of us it’s personal. We grew up in the area, went to school right here and played in the yard. For others it’s believing in what Lowe’s stands for — loving where you live,” said Aidan Cleary, a Lowe’s employee and 2014 Panther Valley graduate.

For Cleary and Amanda O’Brien, a 2016 Panther Valley graduate, the project holds a special significance. They once had recess on the same schoolyard they are helping to beautify.

The new playground, which opened for students this year, is the first play equipment the school has had since before the days when Cleary and O’Brien were students.

“It’s nice to see the kids have something to play on again,” O’Brien said.

The school community came together to raise $10,000 — a total that was matched by several businesses. Principal Robert Palazzo said the landscaping is a great addition to the project, and includes the commemorative bricks which many parents and businesses purchased as part of the fundraising for the playground.

“They were able to incorporate the bricks into the landscape work they did. It’ll be a nice project,” Palazzo said.

The volunteers also built planters and landscaped with perennial plants which will bloom through much of the summer, according to Lowe’s employee Dave Persetti, who selected them.

Over the past few years, Lowe’s has sponsored projects at places like East Penn Fire Co., Chapel Hill field in Mahoning Township, and the Lehighton grove park.

Employees nominate projects they think are worthy, then the whole store gets to vote on which project they will take on as volunteers.

“It’s all volunteer. There’s no pressure from anybody to do it,” Cleary said.