Community

Saturday, October 24 was a memorable day for me; but, before I get into that, I guess I should give a little background first. I've been a regular volunteer with Habitat for Humanity for the past four or five years. Since becoming a Realtor though, my schedule has not allowed me the time to make myself available every Saturday as I once was able to do. Also, the last two houses that HFH had, have been completed with new one's not scheduled to start till more funding come in.

Having heard of Rebuilding Together in previous jobs, I thought I would investigate them and see if I could give some time to that organization. As it turns out, I signed up just in time to volunteer for the community service project of re-landscaping city hall. That bring me to this past Saturday. The event started with over 200 people converging onto the city hall parking lot. We were greeted by friendly staff which helped us register and also gave us a bright green t-shirt to wear for the day. After that, we all heard what the plan for the day was going to be. In short, we were going to replace water sucking lawn into an edible forest. This was all part of a bigger project that was going on worldwide as part of 350.org.

I was assigned to group three. We consisted of 10 people with two team leaders. We were the group that would take care of the part of the lawn directly to the right of the entrance of the building. Our job was to dig a sloping 4" trench along the perimeter of the lawn, remove shrubs and excess dirt, cover it all with cardboard and then cover with bark.

We managed to get this all done by 12:30, just in time for lunch. At which time we were fed burritos, chips and salad.

I think the part that struck me the most about all this was the way in which everyone worked together. There were people from all walks of life. A variety of ages, political and religious beliefs as well as social status. It was pretty amazing to see about 20 wheelbarrows going back and forth loading up with compost or bark depending on where it was going. Everyone had a true spirit of cooperation. Also, the group was well organized so there wasn't a lot of standing around trying to figure out what to do next.

In short this was a true community project. People doing what we are supposed to do with one another. You can check out some before and after pictures below.

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