My favorite ‘giving’ story begins with creating and sustaining life at D-Town Farms, a magnificent seven acre farm in Detroit’s west-side that provides community members access to notorious food and an opportunity to connect, or re-connect, with their food system, land, and their neighbors. In order to provide basic needs to their community, D-Town Farms needs to nourish their land and plants with the basic needs of food and water as well. That last part, water, is how my friend and I ended up being responsible for controlling a fire hose. Part of my year of service last year with City Year Detroit involved doing community service on a regular basis and one lucky Friday May 2012, I got to work at D-Town.
Our task for the day was to water the plants. Unfortunately, they had run out of water so we needed to refill their supply which was kept in giant blue bins. The first step was to string fire hoses from the bins to the fire hydrant. Obviously this resulted in a few made-up songs about being a fire-woman, but I digress. My friend and I ended up having to hold the end of the fire hose in order to fill the bins; however, fire hoses have high water pressure and when we tried to fill up the bin, it flew over. So water was flying up in the air, down on the ground and in everything in-between except in the bins. The only way for us to succeed was for me to get behind the bin and hold it upright so that by the end of our adventure, we were soaked head to toe . But at least we got the plants watered, right?
Reasons why I like to give:
- To be exposed to organizations in my community and help them get their great work done
- To gain insight into major discussion happening in my community
- To bond with fellow volunteers
- To do something new
- To make myself uncomfortable in an effort to grow
Volunteers are needed all year long so I encourage you to discover how you can combine something you enjoy doing with making a difference in your community!