Catherine Jun / The Detroit News
Detroit -- Jeffrey Dunson is doing what he can to beautify the green and
white clapboard church on the city's east side.
He and a dozen other teens with Youth Connection on Thursday pulled weeds, trimmed
trees and cut the unruly grass outside Everybody's Universal Tabernacle Church of
Holiness on Meldrum.
"We're trying to make it look nice," Dunson, 18, said. "If we don't do it, who will?"
Community involvement like this will be spotlighted Saturday at the third annual
Neighborhoods Day, a citywide event organized by ARISE Detroit.
The day will feature more than 140 programs and activities, including cleanup efforts,
health fairs, community festivals and youth and gospel concerts.
"People in Detroit want to be connected, and they're looking for ways to harness
the community for good," said Luther Keith, executive director of ARISE, a coalition
of nonprofits dedicated to combatting social problems through volunteerism and community
activism.
The event is also meant to inform residents about valuable services in their community.
Covenant Community Care, a clinic that serves the uninsured primarily in the city's
southwest, will be offering free blood pressure and glucose screenings.
The church Saturday will host a "picnic with a purpose" -- a barbecue for area families,
said the Rev. Annie Adams.
The teens, she said, will work through the summer to repaint the church and the
curbs outside.
"The partnering, the collaboration -- that's the only way we're going to survive,"
Adams said.
For a list and locations of events, go to
arisedetroit.org.
Neal Rubin: I'm reading Gene Weingarten's typically funny column in the Washington
Post, and I'm looking at a link to a Slate article called "The Four Things People
Can't Stand … Continued
Talore Sparks, left, and Shaniqua Payne help beautify a church Thursday in Detroit.
(David Coates / The Detroit News)
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