Posts in the category The LiveUnitedSEM Network
If you haven't seen the Chrysler commercial about Detroit, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKL254Y_jtc
This is what it feels like to find your voice.
Detroit’s strength has always been its muscle. In the big family of cities, we have always been the hellion, the rebellious child who came late to the party with a beer in his hand with enough charm to get away with it, and with a reputation for throwing a punch when the charm didn’t work. Read More »
This is what it feels like to find your voice.
Detroit’s strength has always been its muscle. In the big family of cities, we have always been the hellion, the rebellious child who came late to the party with a beer in his hand with enough charm to get away with it, and with a reputation for throwing a punch when the charm didn’t work. Read More »
It was just a “check in” call …. My regular contact with one of United Way’s partner agency CEO’s. He’s become a friend, an advisor on trends in the community, and how his agency is addressing the hard issues we are all facing. With revenues falling but more and more customers needing help, he and his staff continue to show their resilience, creativity and dedication.
On this day, when he answered my call, his voice sounded different. Slower, perhaps a bit slurred … it alarmed me, so I asked “Are you ok?”. “Yes, now … but we haven’t talked since before the New Year, and I had knee replacement surgery and the recovery is coming, but it’s painful. I’m working at home so I can keep my leg up.” I offered that I would keep him in my prayers for a speedy, pain-free recovery. I told him that prayers of family and friends in addition to my own meditation focus on a return to full functioning after my shoulder surgery had given me a quick and solid recovery without medications. “Prayer works”, I offered. He concurred … and then the deeper story began as he asked for prayers for his wife.
A few weeks ago, as he was recovering from the surgery, limited in movement by a walker and the inability to drive, his wife had walked out to get the mail and fell in the driveway. Hitting her head as she fell, bleeding began into her brain. In the hospital, she spent days in the ICU as her physicians worked to help her recover. While that is enough of a challenge, for this loving husband there were the multiple issues of getting to and from the hospital to support her, his own physical therapy needs, and the daily living tasks that are simple for most of us, but a trial when there is limited movement. Of course, I would pray for her and them together and separately for a return to full health and functioning.
And then the heart of this servant leader was obvious. As the CEO of one of our region’s large non-profits, his focus was on “how do our clients manage?” and he reflected on the blessing of having friends and family who brought meals, drove him back and forth to the hospital and physical therapy, and the quiet but certain support of knowing that others were thinking of him and his wife as they healed. He focused on the many clients his agency serves who have no one around them or living nearby who can offer assistance, let alone emotional support. Looking at the complexities of medical care, home maintenance, access to transportation and emotional support, he talked about how important his agency’s work was to so many. Fundamentally, many of those his agency serves don’t have others who can help them. What would they do without his agency’s services? We talked about United Way’s “Safety Net” study currently underway and I promised him that I would keep his example in mind and offer it to my colleagues as a way to think about our role in helping so many. As we ended our conversation, I was reminded of the blessing of serving others in my own way, but this time I also reflected on the blessing of having CEOs and staff of so many agencies who are serving our community without adequate funding or staffing for the thousands they help. Maybe I’ll add that to my prayers too!
On this day, when he answered my call, his voice sounded different. Slower, perhaps a bit slurred … it alarmed me, so I asked “Are you ok?”. “Yes, now … but we haven’t talked since before the New Year, and I had knee replacement surgery and the recovery is coming, but it’s painful. I’m working at home so I can keep my leg up.” I offered that I would keep him in my prayers for a speedy, pain-free recovery. I told him that prayers of family and friends in addition to my own meditation focus on a return to full functioning after my shoulder surgery had given me a quick and solid recovery without medications. “Prayer works”, I offered. He concurred … and then the deeper story began as he asked for prayers for his wife.
A few weeks ago, as he was recovering from the surgery, limited in movement by a walker and the inability to drive, his wife had walked out to get the mail and fell in the driveway. Hitting her head as she fell, bleeding began into her brain. In the hospital, she spent days in the ICU as her physicians worked to help her recover. While that is enough of a challenge, for this loving husband there were the multiple issues of getting to and from the hospital to support her, his own physical therapy needs, and the daily living tasks that are simple for most of us, but a trial when there is limited movement. Of course, I would pray for her and them together and separately for a return to full health and functioning.
And then the heart of this servant leader was obvious. As the CEO of one of our region’s large non-profits, his focus was on “how do our clients manage?” and he reflected on the blessing of having friends and family who brought meals, drove him back and forth to the hospital and physical therapy, and the quiet but certain support of knowing that others were thinking of him and his wife as they healed. He focused on the many clients his agency serves who have no one around them or living nearby who can offer assistance, let alone emotional support. Looking at the complexities of medical care, home maintenance, access to transportation and emotional support, he talked about how important his agency’s work was to so many. Fundamentally, many of those his agency serves don’t have others who can help them. What would they do without his agency’s services? We talked about United Way’s “Safety Net” study currently underway and I promised him that I would keep his example in mind and offer it to my colleagues as a way to think about our role in helping so many. As we ended our conversation, I was reminded of the blessing of serving others in my own way, but this time I also reflected on the blessing of having CEOs and staff of so many agencies who are serving our community without adequate funding or staffing for the thousands they help. Maybe I’ll add that to my prayers too!
There are som many people who are affected by the war, the economy, the changes, and even the weather. They need our help. So many people are in a position to help their fellow neighbors and being apart of the solution and not the problem is a way to make change. So be apart of helping and give to those who need your help.
We learned at one of the Town Halls last week that SNAP benefits are worth double the value at farmers markets at Eastern Market! Spread the word.
Many people find themselves in jobs that are not going anywhere, being phased out, or in an industry that is declining. In my case, I hit a glass ceiling with no chance of movement or growth. I saw a bleak future with little to look forward to. I started to evaluate what interested me. I had always liked volunteering and working in the public sector seemed to be a better match for me; helping people, making a difference, feeling good at the end of the day.
I learned about the No Worker Left Behind (NWLB) program that offered financial support to those who were left jobless due to the economy, were in jobs that were declining or to those that needed help in low earning positions. The NWLB program was created as a strategy to transition workers into good paying jobs and occupations in high demand or in emerging industries. This program still pays participants $5000 per year for up to two years at a college, university or training facility for qualifying occupational paths.
Needless to say, I capitalized on the available funds to change my path and since I entered the NWLB program in 2007 I have earned my Master of Public Administration from Wayne State University and transitioned from the private industry as a waitress/manager of a small bar and restaurant to working in research at the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University and in Public Policy at the United Way for Southeast Michigan.
For more information about the No Worker Left Behind program visit:
www.michigan.gov/nwlb
I learned about the No Worker Left Behind (NWLB) program that offered financial support to those who were left jobless due to the economy, were in jobs that were declining or to those that needed help in low earning positions. The NWLB program was created as a strategy to transition workers into good paying jobs and occupations in high demand or in emerging industries. This program still pays participants $5000 per year for up to two years at a college, university or training facility for qualifying occupational paths.
Needless to say, I capitalized on the available funds to change my path and since I entered the NWLB program in 2007 I have earned my Master of Public Administration from Wayne State University and transitioned from the private industry as a waitress/manager of a small bar and restaurant to working in research at the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University and in Public Policy at the United Way for Southeast Michigan.
For more information about the No Worker Left Behind program visit:
www.michigan.gov/nwlb
There are times, sometimes rarer than we'd like, when we have the privilege to witness our own or someone else’s dream come to life. I had that privilege on Friday morning in Macomb County.
It was the opening of a new client choice pantry. A client choice pantry is one that looks very much like a grocery store, and families that use these types of food pantries have the chance to chose their food, rather than receive a box that is pre-stocked with standard foods. There is little variation or customization in a typical food pantry's box, but a client choice pantry allows for family dietary and cultural variations such as families who prefer rice over potatoes. This particular location is the first client choice pantry in Macomb County. Read More »
It was the opening of a new client choice pantry. A client choice pantry is one that looks very much like a grocery store, and families that use these types of food pantries have the chance to chose their food, rather than receive a box that is pre-stocked with standard foods. There is little variation or customization in a typical food pantry's box, but a client choice pantry allows for family dietary and cultural variations such as families who prefer rice over potatoes. This particular location is the first client choice pantry in Macomb County. Read More »
Sunday, March 6th began the National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference in Washington, DC. The opening breakfast and plenary housed a packed room with over 500 employees, volunteers, fellows, and execs from 45 states and a wide-ranging variety of organizations fighting tirelessly to "End Hunger by 2015."
Over the course of three days workshops and training programs provided in-depth knowledge and training on communications, advocacy strategies, research, data use, child nutrition, programs, legislative discussions, capacity building and information on SNAP, and CACFP, to name a few. Luncheons included speakers like Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who spoke to the importance of Hill visits and the work that the organizations were doing to help Americans win the war against hunger.
Carrie Leach
carrie.leach@liveunitedsem.org
Read More »
Dear, Everyone
Please help me to fundraise.
Sincerely,
Fedcmi
Please help me to fundraise.
Sincerely,
Fedcmi
One of the best bits of advice I have received lately is "Don't let the lessons from your past keep you from the promises of your future." This struck me because I hate making the same mistake twice. But the advice made me think about how many mistakes I might be making by trying to avoid repeating them.
I bring this up in light of the firing of GM CEO Rick Wagoner, a generous supporter and friend of the United Way. Read More »
Hey Everyone!:)
It's been about a month since I was on the United Way of Southeastern Michigan's website poking around and since I came across an opportunity to win a grant which would be awarded by the United Way. It asked me to answer many questions and write an essay about a service project that I would like to start, in which would be very beneficial.
At first I thought, hmm what's the chances of me winning this, and then I thought about how important it is to me to make a difference in this world. With some great ideas already popping up in my head I decided to write an essay and submit it!
A couple weeks later I received an email regarding winning $500 towards the service project i proposed. I was absolutely thrilled!
Today Eric (My boyfriend) and I met with Kira downtown and started to begin organizing the event.
It's going to take a lot of work and a lot of thinking, but Kira made a great analogy. She said that right now it is like putting together a puzzle, first you start with the corners, then you organize the colors and continue it until you piece every piece together.
Right now we are working on the corners! We meet with Kira on the 21st and will discuss more.
More information to come!
I hope that everyone will be apart of this and volunteer once we have everything ready and set to go! :)
It's been about a month since I was on the United Way of Southeastern Michigan's website poking around and since I came across an opportunity to win a grant which would be awarded by the United Way. It asked me to answer many questions and write an essay about a service project that I would like to start, in which would be very beneficial.
At first I thought, hmm what's the chances of me winning this, and then I thought about how important it is to me to make a difference in this world. With some great ideas already popping up in my head I decided to write an essay and submit it!
A couple weeks later I received an email regarding winning $500 towards the service project i proposed. I was absolutely thrilled!
Today Eric (My boyfriend) and I met with Kira downtown and started to begin organizing the event.
It's going to take a lot of work and a lot of thinking, but Kira made a great analogy. She said that right now it is like putting together a puzzle, first you start with the corners, then you organize the colors and continue it until you piece every piece together.
Right now we are working on the corners! We meet with Kira on the 21st and will discuss more.
More information to come!
I hope that everyone will be apart of this and volunteer once we have everything ready and set to go! :)
Last Friday United Way for Southeastern Michigan (UWSEM) hosted yet another successful Alternative Spring Break. Here, college students came from all over to participate in a week of service projects in Detroit in lieu of other Spring Break plans. Nick, our program leader, and I had the pleasure of presenting 2-1-1 On the Go! to the students on their last day. It was a groggy bunch, them having been up slumber partying well into the morning, but they managed to respond to our mission with excitement (thanks to a little inspiration from UWSEM's Volunteer Coordinator, Kira Putt's cheerleading demonstration, and Nick's and my impeccable sense of humor).
Nick and I, as well as few other UWSEM staff members, led the students in going out into different communities in the Greater Detroit area, to find employers interested in hiring our clients. We sent teams to Dearborn, Midtown, Ferndale, and Hamtramck to scour the local businesses (avoiding national chains, with the exception of fast food restaurants) talking to employers about the needs of our clients. The teams went out equipped with an understanding of 2-1-1 and 2-1-1 On the Go!, and how to pitch the ask to employers for full-time jobs.
They must've done something right because we ended the day with 51 employers interested in varying degrees in helping out in some way with our mission. Not all of those employers will have jobs to offer, but at least they are willing to learn about our program and keep us in their back pocket if jobs do open up. Hopefully some will take to the mission and spread the word to other employers in their networks.
Nick has organized all the contacts into one spreadsheet (a task I avoid at all costs), and we will begin following up with the employers on Monday. We hope to get some jobs out of this, but more important is the experience that the ASBers were able to gain in being a unique voice for our clients. Hopefully they learned that you don't have to be on staff with 2-1-1 On the Go! to be a vital part of our ongoing mission, and they will continue to work on reeling in employers for us as they go about their lives.
This was a fun bunch to work with, and I am privileged to have met some pretty rad folks willing to give their time and energy for the betterment of people's lives.
Nick and I, as well as few other UWSEM staff members, led the students in going out into different communities in the Greater Detroit area, to find employers interested in hiring our clients. We sent teams to Dearborn, Midtown, Ferndale, and Hamtramck to scour the local businesses (avoiding national chains, with the exception of fast food restaurants) talking to employers about the needs of our clients. The teams went out equipped with an understanding of 2-1-1 and 2-1-1 On the Go!, and how to pitch the ask to employers for full-time jobs.
They must've done something right because we ended the day with 51 employers interested in varying degrees in helping out in some way with our mission. Not all of those employers will have jobs to offer, but at least they are willing to learn about our program and keep us in their back pocket if jobs do open up. Hopefully some will take to the mission and spread the word to other employers in their networks.
Nick has organized all the contacts into one spreadsheet (a task I avoid at all costs), and we will begin following up with the employers on Monday. We hope to get some jobs out of this, but more important is the experience that the ASBers were able to gain in being a unique voice for our clients. Hopefully they learned that you don't have to be on staff with 2-1-1 On the Go! to be a vital part of our ongoing mission, and they will continue to work on reeling in employers for us as they go about their lives.
This was a fun bunch to work with, and I am privileged to have met some pretty rad folks willing to give their time and energy for the betterment of people's lives.
Taking a page from his friend and fellow billionaire Warren Buffet, Bill Gates has begun writing an annual letter to discuss candidly the success and failure of his foundation’s grant-making efforts each year. Having spent more than $2 billion in nine years to transform urban education, he has arrived at some conclusions we would do well to take heed of. He writes: Read More »
Dear United Way, ASB Detroit 2009, Team Magic, and all of the participants:
You have changed me.
I said this two years ago when I returned from a dismal flight back into Pittsburgh from ASB 07, and I will say it again: You have showed me once more what a small group of people can do, what beauty there lies in the ruin.
And you have left me forever changed.
But something this time feels different. Maybe I was too young then. Maybe the reality of graduating in less that two semesters, job hunting, and choosing the right graduate school was not as near as it is for me now; but regardless of what it is, it is with me full throttle tonight.
You have, United Way, made me question how I want to spend my life for the second time. You have me now looking into Americorps, internships in nonprofit, and volunteer opportunities in the Detroit area for this upcoming summer. I have always wanted to write. I wrote books when I was eight, poems when I was twelve. "Deciding" on a major was never an issue for me; I wanted to write, and that's what I would do. And then I embarked on my journey to Lake Charles, Louisiana in March of 2007 and it changed my outlook on life. I returned back to my university and became a social work major for about thirty six hours. But it didn't take me long to decide against it; I was too soft to perform in a field like that; volunteering was something I could do on the side like I always had.
And then I came to Detroit.
On my index card that first night I wrote my three impressions of Metro Detroit: cars, poverty, and wasteland. I was uneducated about the city and a first timer in the entire Michigan area, and though I was embarrassed of my three words on the card, they were the three honest impressions that I had. I knew for the purpose of the exercise my views would change somewhat by the end of day seven, but I had no idea I would be where I am tonight. To tell my story of my week in Detroit now is a feat I don't think I can climb. As I sat in my seat in the airplane departing from Michigan and as I sit here in my dorm room in Pennsylvania tonight, I feel a strange and surreal vertigo that makes me question if this is an ending or a beginning for me, or if that sense of time in our lives matters either way.
What is hitting me now is how crucial the Alternative Spring Break program is for the metro Detroit area. Although the ASB programs are lumped collectively together as a month long endeavor that brings college-aged students from across the country to create real change in a community, Detroit, I realized midweek, was very, very different.
This city has been struck by no hurricane, damaged by no winds or inundated by no flood waters in a humid season that threatens yearly. The city of Detroit is plagued every single day by the winds of unemployment, wounded by the effects of urban sprawl and illiteracy, soaked through to the bone with a cold feeling of tiredness and poverty. There are no seasons for this kind of disaster. There are no government-induced groups of volunteers flooding the city limits to provide shelter and food and clean clothes to those in need. The people of Detroit carry on quietly, tirelessly, working twelve hour days at jobs they may not have tomorrow. They hold some of the highest unemployment rates in the country and are plagued most with child illiteracy and appalling high school drop-out numbers, and they need our help.
The kind of disaster that is happening to them is the disaster of humankind, of the failing economy, of the automobile industry's closing doors. It collects and it pools, it lingers, lies stagnant in the streets and blows rancid through the neighborhoods. And while those groups in the Gulf Coast and Indiana are needed dearly, the city and the people of Detroit cannot be forgotten.
Together, ASB Detroit unveiled visible changes to a community. Because of us, Franklin and Wright Settlements now has an up-and-running computer lab and library for the neighborhood kids and for adults who need to create resumes and look for jobs. Lighthouse Path now has painted apartments ready for new women to move in and start new lives. Because of us, two men, Chris and Jason, will now be able to leave their homes on wooden ramps and smell spring. We worked tirelessly and enthusiastically and changed people's lives, and together, we can bring that city back.
And how scary it is to think that I almost didn't come.
All of my friends were embarking on a spring training trip to Oak Ridge, Tennessee to row and practice for upcoming regattas. I had the option to go and spend the week with my closest friends, boyfriend, and teammates. I was tempted and playfully teased every day by them, and I almost stayed. But there was something that nudged me to embark on another adventure of the unknown. And just as Lauren Hooghuis chose to stay with sixty strangers when a friend of hers passed away that first night in Detroit, I chose blindly, too, to spend the week with you.
It has been an experience like no other. I asked this in my last blog after ASB 07 and I will ask it again: How do you sum up the greatest experience of your life? How do I respond when professors, friends, and relatives ask how my trip to Detroit went? Sure, I can tell them I stayed at the University of Michigan at Dearborn, toured the city, visited museums, met new people, and created a library and literacy lab for the community. But how can I ever explain the middle school dance party we had, the late nights in the UC, the cartwheels and laps around the track I did with friends? How can I give Jeannette's love and passion for the city of Detroit justice, describe the beautiful buildings, the time I almost got trapped on the People Mover?
How can I explain that I didn't just meet new friends, I bonded with people from places I have never visited with different backgrounds and lifestyles that yet all seemed so similar to me? Someone tell me how I will ever explain Katherine Haddad? How can I do that? I am overwhelmed when asked that question: How was your time in Detroit, because they will never understand Katherine's humor or Ashim's dance moves or Amal's kindness. They will never understand Muhi and Jason, or Dave and Sineal, or those kids' faces at Franklin and Wright when we unveiled their new computer lab. And I have to ask myself this: How could I have felt so home with these people even though I was five hundred miles away from it?
And that is what amazes me the most about these trips - you guys - the people I met, the team I was blessed with. Seven days ago I thought I was coming down to southeastern Michigan because I didn't think there were enough people who cared about volunteering in the area, and as I leave seven days later I have to thank every one of you for disproving that completely distorted image I carried with me. It is a beautiful thing to have been changed like I have, to now see the city of Detroit in a completely new light, and I have you all to thank for that. Now, when I think of the city, when I think of Michigan, I'll see Jeanette pointing and explaining buildings or theaters along the city streets after they have already passed, speaking a mile a minute enthusiastically and passionately about the city she taught me to love. I'll see Dave and Sineal working with their whole hearts at Franklin and Wright to give the people of that poor community a place to come together. I'll see Jon and Ursuala and Kira, and I'll see you kids, united in a way I did not think was possible.
And as I sit here on my dorm room bed on a rainy Pennsylvania night, I cannot help but to be both grateful and utterly and terribly sad. When the plane lifted into the skies of Michigan yesterday afternoon, I realized how scared I was to go back to the life I lived just one week before. I didn't know how I was going to return to my best friends, my own family after a week like the one we just had. It is times like those when the quickness of flying is unfair. In only one hour, I had gone from a cold and rainy Michigan as an Alternative Spring Breaker with a Katherine Haddad always at my side, to a seventy-five degree Washington D.C., alone. I was dressed in pants, warm shoes, hoodie, carrying in my hand a winter coat. The transition was visible, short, and cruel, and I was vaulted all-too quickly into a world where I didn't have to wear a lanyard and a nametag, where I was not surrounded by sixty incredible, motivating young people I had grown to love.
"I wish we could go to the movies," Katherine had said Thursday night. "I wish you could stay. We could do normal stuff together." I thought of us then on my ride back to my car in a silent taxi, what additional jokes we would share, what we would do when we were bored on Saturday nights. It is both a beautiful and unsympathetic glimpse ASB gives its participants: a look into a life and friendships in another place they had before been unaware of.
And when the taxi dropped me off and I had paid my fare, I climbed into my car and spent my trip north mulling over the week, reflecting on all I had learned, missing all that I had left behind. And out there, right now, I knew that there were college students flying into airports or driving into cities that would carry them into another ASB. Maybe they are scared, maybe they are nervous. It is bittersweet to think to know that while our experience has ended, another is just beginning. In another state, in another world from Detroit, there are rows of Nalgene bottles aligned on tables, fresh sweatshirts in boxes that - in one week - will, too, be painted and dirty and loved. So here's to them, here's to us, for living united, for changing the world.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
When we reached the falls behind U of M Dearborn, we took our share of pictures and each claimed a spot on the rocks. The balmy sixty-five degree Michigan air was a pleasant gift after a week of bitter cold, and the chance to rest during that late afternoon on Friday was an incredible feeling. I settled on a spot near the water and soon drifted into sleep. During the greatest and most satisfying nap I think I have ever taken, I dreamt of a group of nameless, faceless people that somehow fulfilled me, made me happy, made me smile and feel like home. And when I awoke on the warm rocks beside the rushing creek, they were there, all of you, gathered on the rocks alone or in groups, dozing or sitting in a comfortable silence with one another. And it may have been the greatest feeling of the week - at least for me - to just see everyone together nearing the end of a phenomenal experience, united in more ways that we could even begin to understand.
And I will hold that moment always, just as I will hold you all and that week we shared in southeastern Michigan. But for right now, I have to let you go, Detroit. I have a life to get back into, friends and family that need me to be the person that they hugged goodbye eight days ago. I have Anthropology to read and a Climate midterm to study for and an internship to find for this summer, and so I will place you carefully aside and strive to avert my eyes from the Motor City. It is unfair and it will be difficult, but I know all too well there is nothing I can do. And let me remind you again that you have changed me. You have reminded me that lasting friendships can come from the most serendipitous occasions, that young people can evoke long-term change. You have shown me a clearer view of what I want this life of mine to be. I have primer on my arm and black paint in my hair, fruit leather wrappings scattered all over my bed and a black hoodie on I do not have the heart yet to remove. I am tired and feeling like I am missing something, homesick for a place I didn't know could feel like home, but it is time now to move on.
And so I will ask again what I asked two years ago: How do you sum up the greatest experience of your life? I don't think you can. How do you return to reality after a week like the one we just had? You just do. You take the free t-shirts and the fruit leathers, the stubborn paint stains and the sore limbs with you. You take the memories and the laughs, the inside jokes and the pinky promises to send packages and to call and to visit and you take them with you. It's all you can do. You continue to do the work we all came together to do in the first place last Saturday: live united. Thank you United Way, ASB Detroit 2009, Team Magic, and all the participants. You have changed me.
You have changed me.
I said this two years ago when I returned from a dismal flight back into Pittsburgh from ASB 07, and I will say it again: You have showed me once more what a small group of people can do, what beauty there lies in the ruin.
And you have left me forever changed.
But something this time feels different. Maybe I was too young then. Maybe the reality of graduating in less that two semesters, job hunting, and choosing the right graduate school was not as near as it is for me now; but regardless of what it is, it is with me full throttle tonight.
You have, United Way, made me question how I want to spend my life for the second time. You have me now looking into Americorps, internships in nonprofit, and volunteer opportunities in the Detroit area for this upcoming summer. I have always wanted to write. I wrote books when I was eight, poems when I was twelve. "Deciding" on a major was never an issue for me; I wanted to write, and that's what I would do. And then I embarked on my journey to Lake Charles, Louisiana in March of 2007 and it changed my outlook on life. I returned back to my university and became a social work major for about thirty six hours. But it didn't take me long to decide against it; I was too soft to perform in a field like that; volunteering was something I could do on the side like I always had.
And then I came to Detroit.
On my index card that first night I wrote my three impressions of Metro Detroit: cars, poverty, and wasteland. I was uneducated about the city and a first timer in the entire Michigan area, and though I was embarrassed of my three words on the card, they were the three honest impressions that I had. I knew for the purpose of the exercise my views would change somewhat by the end of day seven, but I had no idea I would be where I am tonight. To tell my story of my week in Detroit now is a feat I don't think I can climb. As I sat in my seat in the airplane departing from Michigan and as I sit here in my dorm room in Pennsylvania tonight, I feel a strange and surreal vertigo that makes me question if this is an ending or a beginning for me, or if that sense of time in our lives matters either way.
What is hitting me now is how crucial the Alternative Spring Break program is for the metro Detroit area. Although the ASB programs are lumped collectively together as a month long endeavor that brings college-aged students from across the country to create real change in a community, Detroit, I realized midweek, was very, very different.
This city has been struck by no hurricane, damaged by no winds or inundated by no flood waters in a humid season that threatens yearly. The city of Detroit is plagued every single day by the winds of unemployment, wounded by the effects of urban sprawl and illiteracy, soaked through to the bone with a cold feeling of tiredness and poverty. There are no seasons for this kind of disaster. There are no government-induced groups of volunteers flooding the city limits to provide shelter and food and clean clothes to those in need. The people of Detroit carry on quietly, tirelessly, working twelve hour days at jobs they may not have tomorrow. They hold some of the highest unemployment rates in the country and are plagued most with child illiteracy and appalling high school drop-out numbers, and they need our help.
The kind of disaster that is happening to them is the disaster of humankind, of the failing economy, of the automobile industry's closing doors. It collects and it pools, it lingers, lies stagnant in the streets and blows rancid through the neighborhoods. And while those groups in the Gulf Coast and Indiana are needed dearly, the city and the people of Detroit cannot be forgotten.
Together, ASB Detroit unveiled visible changes to a community. Because of us, Franklin and Wright Settlements now has an up-and-running computer lab and library for the neighborhood kids and for adults who need to create resumes and look for jobs. Lighthouse Path now has painted apartments ready for new women to move in and start new lives. Because of us, two men, Chris and Jason, will now be able to leave their homes on wooden ramps and smell spring. We worked tirelessly and enthusiastically and changed people's lives, and together, we can bring that city back.
And how scary it is to think that I almost didn't come.
All of my friends were embarking on a spring training trip to Oak Ridge, Tennessee to row and practice for upcoming regattas. I had the option to go and spend the week with my closest friends, boyfriend, and teammates. I was tempted and playfully teased every day by them, and I almost stayed. But there was something that nudged me to embark on another adventure of the unknown. And just as Lauren Hooghuis chose to stay with sixty strangers when a friend of hers passed away that first night in Detroit, I chose blindly, too, to spend the week with you.
It has been an experience like no other. I asked this in my last blog after ASB 07 and I will ask it again: How do you sum up the greatest experience of your life? How do I respond when professors, friends, and relatives ask how my trip to Detroit went? Sure, I can tell them I stayed at the University of Michigan at Dearborn, toured the city, visited museums, met new people, and created a library and literacy lab for the community. But how can I ever explain the middle school dance party we had, the late nights in the UC, the cartwheels and laps around the track I did with friends? How can I give Jeannette's love and passion for the city of Detroit justice, describe the beautiful buildings, the time I almost got trapped on the People Mover?
How can I explain that I didn't just meet new friends, I bonded with people from places I have never visited with different backgrounds and lifestyles that yet all seemed so similar to me? Someone tell me how I will ever explain Katherine Haddad? How can I do that? I am overwhelmed when asked that question: How was your time in Detroit, because they will never understand Katherine's humor or Ashim's dance moves or Amal's kindness. They will never understand Muhi and Jason, or Dave and Sineal, or those kids' faces at Franklin and Wright when we unveiled their new computer lab. And I have to ask myself this: How could I have felt so home with these people even though I was five hundred miles away from it?
And that is what amazes me the most about these trips - you guys - the people I met, the team I was blessed with. Seven days ago I thought I was coming down to southeastern Michigan because I didn't think there were enough people who cared about volunteering in the area, and as I leave seven days later I have to thank every one of you for disproving that completely distorted image I carried with me. It is a beautiful thing to have been changed like I have, to now see the city of Detroit in a completely new light, and I have you all to thank for that. Now, when I think of the city, when I think of Michigan, I'll see Jeanette pointing and explaining buildings or theaters along the city streets after they have already passed, speaking a mile a minute enthusiastically and passionately about the city she taught me to love. I'll see Dave and Sineal working with their whole hearts at Franklin and Wright to give the people of that poor community a place to come together. I'll see Jon and Ursuala and Kira, and I'll see you kids, united in a way I did not think was possible.
And as I sit here on my dorm room bed on a rainy Pennsylvania night, I cannot help but to be both grateful and utterly and terribly sad. When the plane lifted into the skies of Michigan yesterday afternoon, I realized how scared I was to go back to the life I lived just one week before. I didn't know how I was going to return to my best friends, my own family after a week like the one we just had. It is times like those when the quickness of flying is unfair. In only one hour, I had gone from a cold and rainy Michigan as an Alternative Spring Breaker with a Katherine Haddad always at my side, to a seventy-five degree Washington D.C., alone. I was dressed in pants, warm shoes, hoodie, carrying in my hand a winter coat. The transition was visible, short, and cruel, and I was vaulted all-too quickly into a world where I didn't have to wear a lanyard and a nametag, where I was not surrounded by sixty incredible, motivating young people I had grown to love.
"I wish we could go to the movies," Katherine had said Thursday night. "I wish you could stay. We could do normal stuff together." I thought of us then on my ride back to my car in a silent taxi, what additional jokes we would share, what we would do when we were bored on Saturday nights. It is both a beautiful and unsympathetic glimpse ASB gives its participants: a look into a life and friendships in another place they had before been unaware of.
And when the taxi dropped me off and I had paid my fare, I climbed into my car and spent my trip north mulling over the week, reflecting on all I had learned, missing all that I had left behind. And out there, right now, I knew that there were college students flying into airports or driving into cities that would carry them into another ASB. Maybe they are scared, maybe they are nervous. It is bittersweet to think to know that while our experience has ended, another is just beginning. In another state, in another world from Detroit, there are rows of Nalgene bottles aligned on tables, fresh sweatshirts in boxes that - in one week - will, too, be painted and dirty and loved. So here's to them, here's to us, for living united, for changing the world.
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When we reached the falls behind U of M Dearborn, we took our share of pictures and each claimed a spot on the rocks. The balmy sixty-five degree Michigan air was a pleasant gift after a week of bitter cold, and the chance to rest during that late afternoon on Friday was an incredible feeling. I settled on a spot near the water and soon drifted into sleep. During the greatest and most satisfying nap I think I have ever taken, I dreamt of a group of nameless, faceless people that somehow fulfilled me, made me happy, made me smile and feel like home. And when I awoke on the warm rocks beside the rushing creek, they were there, all of you, gathered on the rocks alone or in groups, dozing or sitting in a comfortable silence with one another. And it may have been the greatest feeling of the week - at least for me - to just see everyone together nearing the end of a phenomenal experience, united in more ways that we could even begin to understand.
And I will hold that moment always, just as I will hold you all and that week we shared in southeastern Michigan. But for right now, I have to let you go, Detroit. I have a life to get back into, friends and family that need me to be the person that they hugged goodbye eight days ago. I have Anthropology to read and a Climate midterm to study for and an internship to find for this summer, and so I will place you carefully aside and strive to avert my eyes from the Motor City. It is unfair and it will be difficult, but I know all too well there is nothing I can do. And let me remind you again that you have changed me. You have reminded me that lasting friendships can come from the most serendipitous occasions, that young people can evoke long-term change. You have shown me a clearer view of what I want this life of mine to be. I have primer on my arm and black paint in my hair, fruit leather wrappings scattered all over my bed and a black hoodie on I do not have the heart yet to remove. I am tired and feeling like I am missing something, homesick for a place I didn't know could feel like home, but it is time now to move on.
And so I will ask again what I asked two years ago: How do you sum up the greatest experience of your life? I don't think you can. How do you return to reality after a week like the one we just had? You just do. You take the free t-shirts and the fruit leathers, the stubborn paint stains and the sore limbs with you. You take the memories and the laughs, the inside jokes and the pinky promises to send packages and to call and to visit and you take them with you. It's all you can do. You continue to do the work we all came together to do in the first place last Saturday: live united. Thank you United Way, ASB Detroit 2009, Team Magic, and all the participants. You have changed me.
Well friends, we did it!
Another successful year of ASB at Detroit. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure this event comes back to Detroit. If there is anything I can do to help United Way of SEM, let me know!
I titled this piece ASB Coma because, for a whole week, each and every volunteer, was in a trance. We all wanted to help, we all wanted to connect with others, we all wanted to reach out. We accomplished all of that and more.
Muhi
Team 2: Boom Roasted.
Another successful year of ASB at Detroit. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure this event comes back to Detroit. If there is anything I can do to help United Way of SEM, let me know!
I titled this piece ASB Coma because, for a whole week, each and every volunteer, was in a trance. We all wanted to help, we all wanted to connect with others, we all wanted to reach out. We accomplished all of that and more.
Muhi
Team 2: Boom Roasted.
Wow. A quote I kept on hearing throughout the week was: "Nobody can accomplish everything, but everybody can accomplish something." Now more than ever, I realize the truth in that statement.
Thank you to United Way and their sponsors for making this week possible. Our group, and I'm pretty sure all the participants had a great week, which wouldn't have been possible without your support.
Building this ramp and watching Jason come down was such an accomplishment. My group worked tirelessly and extremely well together. I am proud of all of them, and glad we had an opportunity to make this happen!
Good bye :)
Muhi
Team 2: Boom-Roasted!
Thank you to United Way and their sponsors for making this week possible. Our group, and I'm pretty sure all the participants had a great week, which wouldn't have been possible without your support.
Building this ramp and watching Jason come down was such an accomplishment. My group worked tirelessly and extremely well together. I am proud of all of them, and glad we had an opportunity to make this happen!
Good bye :)
Muhi
Team 2: Boom-Roasted!
MY FEET HURT SOOO BAD!!! Standing all day building a ramp with crappy shoes was a bad idea. But, at least it wasn't cold today.
THE END.
p.s. Team two WILL be boom roasted. Hardcore.
THE END.
p.s. Team two WILL be boom roasted. Hardcore.
Our team is building a ramp through the Ray West Memorial Ramp Project for a man named Jason who is handicapped. We began to embark on this adventure yesterday and will continue on until Thursday.
This Alternative Spring Break trip in Detroit has probably been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Yesterday we met Bill, the man in charge of the ramp building project. Bill is hands down the most inspiring man i have ever met. Bill is the type of man you could sit down with for hours and talk to about the project, he knows everything and anything you would ever need to know about ramp building and the program. He, alone, inspires me to be a better person.
We have a crew of two men who we work with as well, Mike and Rob. They were both laid off from Chrysler about two years ago and each live over 100 miles from our work site. Even with the own struggles that Mike and Rob are facing, they continue to volunteer their services and help others who need it more then they do.
My team is amazing. There are seven of us, we're all goof balls but we get the job done. We are all extremely excited for Thursday when we get to see Jason ride down the ramp for the first time. I'm sure it will be quite an emotional and inspirational experience.
That is all I've really got for now.
- KG
This Alternative Spring Break trip in Detroit has probably been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Yesterday we met Bill, the man in charge of the ramp building project. Bill is hands down the most inspiring man i have ever met. Bill is the type of man you could sit down with for hours and talk to about the project, he knows everything and anything you would ever need to know about ramp building and the program. He, alone, inspires me to be a better person.
We have a crew of two men who we work with as well, Mike and Rob. They were both laid off from Chrysler about two years ago and each live over 100 miles from our work site. Even with the own struggles that Mike and Rob are facing, they continue to volunteer their services and help others who need it more then they do.
My team is amazing. There are seven of us, we're all goof balls but we get the job done. We are all extremely excited for Thursday when we get to see Jason ride down the ramp for the first time. I'm sure it will be quite an emotional and inspirational experience.
That is all I've really got for now.
- KG
I'm tied for 69th place, hopefully that will change. I am used to being number one, but this week, I am prepared to be second to everyone.
We are working at Ray West Memorial Ramp Project and we went on a tour of the Joe Louis Arena. Being from Detroit, and having 1 year of ASB under my belt, I still feel the need to learn from my experiences. I am thankful for my teammates, all the participants, staffs, and of course, the sponsors who make this happen.
I enjoyed meeting Jason, and I am looking forward to seeing him utilize his new ramp at his house by the end of the week!
I am part of team "Boom Roasted" and we are creating a lot of noise on campus at the University of Michigan - Dearborn and at our sites.
Hopefully I'll have more to say about Jason and his family, and the progress of the ramp in the days to come.
Peace and Justice,
Muhi
We are working at Ray West Memorial Ramp Project and we went on a tour of the Joe Louis Arena. Being from Detroit, and having 1 year of ASB under my belt, I still feel the need to learn from my experiences. I am thankful for my teammates, all the participants, staffs, and of course, the sponsors who make this happen.
I enjoyed meeting Jason, and I am looking forward to seeing him utilize his new ramp at his house by the end of the week!
I am part of team "Boom Roasted" and we are creating a lot of noise on campus at the University of Michigan - Dearborn and at our sites.
Hopefully I'll have more to say about Jason and his family, and the progress of the ramp in the days to come.
Peace and Justice,
Muhi
We arrived at the Franklin Wright Settlements at about 830 AM ready to go. After a tour we had the wonderful surprise of being able to do whatever we wanted with the computer lab and library. WE planned and made excellent plans! imagine that. wooh team magic. We decided to do lots of demolition and the first day, cleaning the room and determining what we would do the following days. The team name was best described as 'organic,' thanks dave... "this is where the magic happens" :D. I cannot wait to the next days to see what we accomplish! peace holmes,
-E
-E
Eventually the Digital Diva will be sharing some crucial information with us that will allow us to post all of the video blogs you guys make up onto this blog site so you can see them. Also we will put all the daily videos we make up here so you can watch them over and over and over and over and over again... or at least get the links so you can send them to your friends and family back home.
We're all hard at work to help you share your memories with everyone! We look forward to getting to know you better.
We're all hard at work to help you share your memories with everyone! We look forward to getting to know you better.
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