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Coral reef scene brightens landscape, passersby’s days

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The brightly colored under the sea arrangement alongside the Gordon Nagle Trail near Cressona was not intended to be the eye-catcher it has become.

“It was a cleanup project with my daughter to get rid of the shrubs in the yard,” Joe Gavalis, 42, of Pottsville, said.

Gavalis said the shrubs were overgrown — 15 to 20 feet high — so they cut them down, leaving them with jagged stumps.

“After we cut them, I said to myself, ‘Wow, I have all these stumps and if I pull them, it will hurt the roots of the tree,” Gavalis said.

Gavalis said they thought of painting them but weren’t sure what color they wanted to paint the stumps.

“I said we could have painted them blue and white for Blue Mountain colors,” his daughter, Jordan Gavalis, 13, of Pottsville, said.

Joe Gavalis said he had bright orange paint from his trucking business, J.R. Trucking, Pottsville, so they painted a couple stumps orange. They liked the bright color so much that they bought all sorts of bright colors to paint the stumps.

Joe Gavalis also said they had to sand the stumps down so the paint would stick.

Jordan Gavalis and her friend, Lenise Collins, 13, of Cressona, said that sanding was the hardest part of the project, but Joe Gavalis said the cleanup was the most difficult, in his opinion.

“We had five loads of branches for one truck and four loads for another,” he said.

He said his daughter took a little convincing to help clean up, but not so much with the design.

“I liked getting sprayed with different colors,” Jordan Gavalis said. She also said they even spray painted their friend’s shoes rainbow colors.

His significant other, Beth Jenkins, Pottsville, and his daughter’s other friend, Hannah Houtz, Pottsville, worked on the project, as well.

“Beth’s mom said they kind of looked like a coral reef, so we went with it,” Joe Gavalis said.

The scene includes not only the stumps but also metal fish from Lancaster, stuffed and blowup sea animals and even a barrel made to look like toxic waste, all over a carpet of mulch.

“We were going to use sand because we could get it for free, but then it would turn into a giant cat litter box,” Joe Gavalis said. “Trail Gardens was a huge help with the mulch, though.”

Jenkins said they thought about adding beach chairs to the scene, “but it isn’t supposed to be a beach theme, it’s under the sea, so we went with mulch.”

Joe Gavalis said they have already spent more than $400 on the project that was only supposed to be yard work.

“I didn’t know it was going to be this big,” Jordan Gavalis said.

“If you’re going to do something, you might as well do the best we can,” Joe Gavalis added.

Joe Gavalis said that they have been working on the scene for about two months.

“We started it right after school. We got to do something to keep (my daughter) busy,” Joe Gavalis said.

The project may be an ongoing and annual bonding experience.

“We are thinking about adding a treasure chest with gold cellophane and Mardi Gras beads and maybe a skeleton wrapped around it,” Joe Gavalis said.

“I said we could do like a life vest on it or something,” Jordan Gavalis added.

“We might even continue it next year — maybe a different theme,” Joe Gavalis said.

Jenkins said they didn’t want to add too much to the scene.

“We didn’t want to add tires because we don’t wanna garbage it up,” she said.

Jenkins said their best find for the scene was “Crabby,” the stuffed crab.

Gavalis said they have received many compliments from those passing by their yard by beeping, giving thumbs up or even stopping on the side of the road to appreciate the scene.

“People stop here all the time ... someone even pulled a U-turn in the middle of the road while we were working on it and asked us about it,” Joe Gavalis said.

Jenkins said the project was worth it “if it makes someone smile.”

“I like it, it’s bright and fun. All of us enjoy doing it,” Jenkins said.


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