The Challenge Detroit fellows are no strangers to service. Giving is one of the five pillars on which the fellowship program was founded and it is a critical part of both the development of the fellows and general engagement in important efforts throughout the city. The fellows, guided by their service committee, have volunteered their time this year to pick up trash through the Litterati Campaign, create holiday cards for homebound seniors, prepare donation bags for Gleaner’s largest food drive, and provide manpower to allow students at the Detroit Institute of Technology to bring to life their designs for a better school grounds.

On June 28th, the 33 Challenge Detroit fellows along with coworkers, friends and family gathered together for one final day of service to wrap up their year of giving in Detroit. For this final service event, the fellows partnered with LifeBUILDERS, an organization focused on empowering youth, reclaiming neighborhoods and building communities. LifeBUILDERS is located at the epicenter of Regent Park, an area that used to be home to many firefighters and police officers but over time has been subject to the harsh effects of foreclosure, vacancy and crime. LifeBUILDERS was founded to help reverse this trend and fill the community with vibrant houses, safe streets, and most importantly, deserving and kind hearted residents.

The volunteers at the BIG Thank You Event were first given a tour of the LifeBUILDERS community in order to understand the scope of the work they were contributing to. Shortly afterwards, they were divided into teams to tackle different projects throughout the neighborhood. Groups were put to work repainting the interior of a house, weeding and watering the community garden, clearing brush away from fences and sight lines, and doing demo work on a basement of a house up for redevelopment. Despite the heat, all of the fellows and volunteers were excited to be making a tangible difference for an organization doing such important work.

When the projects were complete, the volunteers enjoyed some food and live music on the LifeBUILDERS campus as another BIG Thank You to all of the hard work they put in that afternoon and throughout the year. For more information on our partners, please visit www.lifebuildersdetroit.com. And check out some of the work we did in the video below!

Post contributed by Fellow Anna Balzer