Thousands of teenagers from around the U.S. converged in Detroit, Michigan, last week to clean up the city's neighborhoods.

A whopping 30,000 young folks spent the week cutting brush, hauling away trash, and painting walls.

The project was part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Youth Gathering, which pulls in the massive crowd of kids in different cities every three years for service projects to help the needy.

"Here's my crew today…..these people worked sooo hard," Jonathan Pommerville, one of their adult leaders posted to on Facebook (pictured left).

Pommerville's group spent time cleaning out and boarding up one of the city's 70,000 abandoned buildings. They left the old house with a freshly mowed lawn, too.

The last ELCA Lutheran teen gathering in 2012 was in New Orleans, Louisiana, where they performed similar community service projects. 

While the kids were fixing up Detroit's neighborhoods, the city was improving its image within the minds of young people – several told the Detroit Free Press they were surprised at how great the downtown area looked.

(READ more at the Detroit Free Press) – Photos: ELCA and Jonathan Pommerville, via Facebook – Story tip: David Alexander

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