The barometer for success in all professions is one’s ability to make a positive impact on others and, of course, his/her employer. I don’t think there is any profession in which that statement rings more true than community development work.

In Madagascar, there were several times where I wondered if the Malagasy students I worked with were getting anything out of my presence. For anyone curious about the emotional roller coaster of the Peace Corps, these moments are the lowest of the low. It’s worse than finding a snake in your sheets at night, or struggling with the host country language, or having something stolen, or losing an entire jar of JIF peanut butter that your parents spent a fortune to send to you to one of the rats that has taken up residence in your home. Actually, now that I think about it that last one was pretty tough, too.

In all seriousness, though, in development work there is nothing more calming and gratifying than the reassurance that your presence is serving a purpose. Recently, Mike Kurfess and I had the opportunity to organize a volunteer event for all Southeastern Michigan employees at the Edw. C. Levy Co., our Challenge Detroit host company. Long story short: this was one of those projects where I felt like my presence was truly serving a purpose and making a measurable difference.

For the project, the Levy company partnered with The Greening of Detroit, a non-profit organization determined to revitalize the city through green infrastructure and sustainable urban agriculture. As part of the partnership, I helped coordinate an 8-week loan of a small piece of machinery called a skid steer. Since then, the Greening of Detroit has been using the machine for several vacant land beautification projects around the city. Last year, the organization rented the same piece of machinery for a similar period of time for roughly $14,000. For anyone who understands how difficult it is for non-profits to find money, you can appreciate the fact that this has been a HUGE help.

The Greening of Detroit using the skid steer on a lot in Osborn. The lot is being turned into an outdoor education center.

I also helped organize the donation of an old 20-foot shipping container to Greening. The container, which was recently delivered to Greening’s Detroit Market Garden location next to Eastern Market, is going to be used for office space and tool storage.

In return, The Greening of Detroit helped us put together a great volunteer event for our employees on Thursday, May 19th. We spent about six hours on our company’s campus building 100 garden boxes which Greening will use for their Build a Garden program. For those who haven’t heard of it, the Build a Garden program is an opportunity for all Detroiters to receive garden boxes and an education on how to create and maintain your own garden. Last year, Greening of Detroit installed about 200 garden boxes in homes throughout the city. Each time a resident applied and was approved for the program, staff and volunteers would spend hours building the boxes, painting them in linseed oil, and then delivering them. We built half of their expected inventory for the entire summer in 6 hours. Here are a few pictures from the day…

All 100 garden boxes stacked onto a flatbed truck and awaiting transport to Greening’s Detroit Market Garden.

Made it to the Detroit Market Garden!

As you might imagine, the supplies needed to build 100 garden beds were not free. The Greening of Detroit charges each resident who receives a bed $25 for the cost of supplies and delivery, which pretty much allows the organization to come out even for every box they build and install. I’m very grateful that Levy gave us the opportunity to help the Greening financially. We decided to create a GoFundMe account and ask for donations from employees. For those who weren’t as interested in building garden boxes, this was another way to give back to the community. In about a week and a half, the good people of the Levy company raised a little more than $2,000 and the company agreed to make up the difference so that all the wood, screws, and linseed oil needed to build 100 garden boxes would be covered.

In the end, my work on this project over the past two months helped make a significant impact on the Greening of Detroit, their staff and volunteers, dozens of residents around the city, and also on the Levy company.