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Volunteers cut grass, pick
up trash to spiff up Detroit
ARISE Detroit! Neighborhoods Day aims to make city a better place
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BY CECIL ANGEL • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • August
2, 2009
In Gordon Park on Detroit's west side, Sheldon Lowman was spending Saturday cutting
foot-high grass and sweeping up trash in a neglected city park at the corner of
Rosa Parks and Clairmount.
"It's making Detroit better," said Lowman, 17, of Detroit, who will be a senior
at Kettering High School. "I would like to help my community and give back."
Lowman was one of thousands of volunteers at more than 140 events in neighborhoods
across the city participating in the third annual ARISE Detroit! Neighborhoods Day.
Events ranged from the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit's two a cappella concerts
of Motown songs outside the Motown Historical Museum on West Grand Boulevard to
the Matrix Human Services health fair in the McNichols and Gratiot area to a youth
basketball tournament sponsored by the Arab American Chaldean Council on 7 Mile
Road.
"The participation has been amazing," ARISE Detroit! Founder Luther Keith said.
"People want to feel good about their community, and they want to connect with other
people with that same vision."
ARISE -- Activating Resources and Inspiring Service and Empowerment -- is a coalition
of more than 400 nonprofits, churches and community groups.
Keith said the growing volunteerism in the city shows that "Detroit just doesn't
have a pulse but a strong heart beating."
Some of the volunteers also said that volunteerism was key to Detroit's recovery.
"You don't need to get paid for everything," said Chazz Miller, 46, an artist who
painted a mural on a fence that bordered two sides of Gordon Park.
His mural illustrates the metamorphosis of a butterfly, a reflection of how Detroit
is changing, he said.
Al Taylor, 54, who was overseeing the cleanup of Gordon Park and who is the founder
of the Peace Project, a group that offers nonviolent alternatives to young people,
said his group is adopting the park and will continue to fix it up.
"We still have a lot of work to do," Taylor said. "This is just the beginning."
Contact CECIL ANGEL: 313-223-4531 or angel@freepress.com
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