Today I used a “Good Deeds” day from GTB, so I got paid to volunteer with a bunch of other veterans working in Recovery Park. We were continuing work that we started in our most recent challenge with RP. It was great to be around fellow vets for the day and working towards accomplishing plans laid out by the fellows.

If you haven’t heard of it Recovery Park or RP is an economic empowerment initiative aimed at improving job prospects for individuals with barriers to employment. They are heavily involved with urban farming and actually supply a good deal of produce to local Detroit restaurants. In our most recent challenge we teamed up to make some plans for improving an area around the Chene-Ferry market. The Chene-Ferry market is located in a heavily blighted part of the city, sometimes referred to as Poletown. The neighborhood was once home to 2,400 residents and was a hotbed for entertainment. Today it has ruralized with 22 residents that enjoy the return of nature and the wildlife it brings to their part of Detroit.  We laid the plans for a group called The Mission Continues to come to Poletown and implement today.

The Mission Continues is a veteran service organization. The group has local platoons and also does mass deployments bringing people from all over the country to volunteer in a designated city. They helped reactivate the entryway to the Chene-Ferry market by constructing seating, refinshing walkways, and priming walls for a mural to be put in, they also constructed 3 bus stops, and 9 raised garden beds. That was all in one day. As a veteran it was an awesome way to connect with other vets and it was cool learning about everyone’s backgrounds. Recovery Park is doing important work for an under served population and I am very proud that an organization of vets would recognize that and bring an incredible amount of resources to aid in their mission.

Today was great because things lined up really well. My host company is cool enough to have a “Good Deeds” program that allowed me to continue on a project we worked on in Challenge Detroit, and connect with fellow vets while serving the community. Kind of a best case scenario for me. Plus it was a good kick off to my six-day weekend for the 4th of July. I will be raising a beer or three to all the vets that gave their time, effort, and energy to help Recovery Park and the people of Detroit.