Thank you, Detroit, for an amazing day!

The Third Annual ARISE Detroit! Neighborhoods Day on Aug. 1, 2009 was a showcase for the best of Detroit and all throughout the city, residents put the “Neighbor” back in “Neighborhood,” with an awesome display of helping one another while having a good time.

At Friends School in Detroit in downtown Detroit, community residents from a nearby housing complex came to enjoy the music, food, fun and information that was part of the Riverfront Village Project Education Collaboration of 11 lower east side schools.

They went through more than 200 hot dogs, nearly that many burgers and at one point had to shut down the food distribution to give the concession workers a break.

Everything was free.

“It was just community people coming together to have a good time,” said JaDonna Dingus, coordinator of the event in partnership with Alan Dozier of Communities in Schools of Detroit and the Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan.

Volunteers went from door-to-door in the neighborhoods, inviting long skeptical residents to the events.

“Many of the people who came had no ties to the school at all,” Dingus said. “We tried to reach and engage people who had not been engaged before, people who feel that no one sees them, that they are invisible.”

Dingus said she hopes Neighborhoods Day sets the tone to engage the community to become involved in area schools to boost academics and parental involvement.

“We have started a community conversation about making the community better,” she said. “We have started to build a relationship of trust and authenticity to further engage folks.”

The Friends School event was one of more than 140 programs and activities tied to the Neighborhoods Day, which for the third year in a row was blessed with warm temperatures and mostly sunshine skies for thousands of participants to enjoy.

Here’s a roundup of what happened at some of the other events:

----At a mega-event for the North End, Goodwill Industries of Detroit, in partnership with the Skillman Foundation Good Neighborhoods Initiative, Keith Bennett of Goodwill was euphoric. Events were held in all six Skillman Good Neighborhoods.

“Thank you for your individual and collective efforts in putting forth a “first class” event representative of GOODWILL and the City of Detroit best in community service and community spirit!,” Bennett said of his volunteers and supporters. “We prepared and served over 900 hot dogs, 400 hamburgers, 300 turkey burgers, 150 ears of corn, hundreds of full course meals, 200 Gift Bags to youth, 23 Personal CD Players/CD’s, dozens of Polo Shirts, stuff animals, toys, and games. Along with providing back-to-back live entertainment all day featuring some of Detroit’s best sounds in jazz, Old School, R&B, mime, Spoken Word, drummers, dancers, poetry and rap. Not “one” word of profanity or disrespectful lyric all day.”

----In southwest Detroit on West Vernor, the Community Service Coalition provided accounting and other financial and tax preparation services to over 50 people with more than 100 people attending the event overall.

Participating organizations included the Accounting Aid Society, THAW, DTE Energy, Dearborn Village Community Credit Union, State Rep. Rashida Tliab, the Skillman Foundation Good Neighborhoods, National Community Development Institute, Henry Ford Health Systems and Covenant Community Care.

“Everyone was upbeat and cooperative,” said Karen Newman of the Accounting Aid Society. “People started to line up for the event before 8:30 am. The mood was positive and everyone was courteous and friendly. It was my first experience and I look forward to participating again next year.”

----Over near Palmer Park, the Holistic Development Community Center and the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints partnered for a back to school festival that was well received, according to organizer Karen Johnson Moore.

“We had a great event,” she said. “We gave out more than 300 book-bags and supplies!”

----The West Grand Boulevard Collaborative, in partnership with Detroit Synergy, used more than 20 volunteers to clean up the park at Rosa Parks and Clairmount, which was then turned over to the Blue Babies/Park West Foundation for another Neighborhoods Day event.

For Mildred Hunt-Robbins, a member of the West Grand collaborative, Neighborhoods Day offers a great opportunity to form community alliances with other like-minded organizations.

“Very often you can have a feeling of isolation,” she said. “But through Neighborhoods Day, you know in a very visible way that you have other organizations that are trying to achieve the same thing. This is one of the great things about ARISE Detroit! We’ve learned so much about other groups and individuals that are trying to make a change. This lifts your spirits and gives you energy to keep going.”

----On the east side, at Wish-Egan Park, Linda Vinson, president of the Greenbrier Community Council, was stunned at the overwhelming response to the first Osborn Community Picnic.

“It was bigger than I expected, we had over 400 people for the day, ” said Vinson, who collaborated with the East Side Unity Association, the Pulaski Community Council and Matrix Human Services.. “It was just a wonderful time. We gave out free books and information to a lot of people who didn’t know what was happening in the community. This was just one day, but now more people know about us and we can get more people out to our community meetings.”

----The Peace Project turned Gordon Park, at Clairmount and Rosa Parks Boulevard, into Peace Park, a community haven for local residents to enjoy. Teen-agers and young people from YouthVille Detroit helped to clean up the park and local artists Chazz Miller helped youth create a Peace mural.

“It was just a very strong sense of community, a rebirth of community,” said Al Taylor, founder of the Peace Project. “Our kids are invigorated. We’ve been teaching them the history of the community.”

“It was so great. We had neighborhood people come out with lawnmowers and weed wackers to help us out.

“We are reclaiming our community.

The work goes on at Peace Park, which Taylor envisions using for chess tournaments and other community activities.

To get involved go to the website, www.peaceproject.us.

----At St. John Evangelist Temple on Oakland Avenue, Rev. Lanette Williams was joined by about 25 volunteers to clear away debris from a nearby lot and hosted more than 100 people to free food and other help.

“Neighborhoods Day is bringing Detroit back together under one umbrella,” Rev. Williams said. “It symbolizes unity, love and concern. People were glad to be part of it.” There was so many great events

There was so many great events

Over 500 people turned out at the Douglass Branch of the Detroit Public Library , one of 24 library events around the city, including an authors fair at the Main Branch..

The Mosaic Youth Theatre did two crowd pleasing Motown acappella concerts on the porch of the Motown Historical Museum.

Stay tuned for video footage of Neighborhoods Day 2009, shot and edited by YouthVille Detroit, and a possible 30-minute television special or special community showing.

Driving home the other night, I noticed ARISE Detroit! Neighborhoods Day banners still gracing the exteriors of several local businesses and churches.

That’s how it should be.

Remember, Neighborhoods Day is not about one day but rather a spirit that we need to maintain throughout the year.

Let’s keep that spirit alive!-

SPECIAL THANKS: To our sponsors and supporting organizations for Neighborhoods Day: Major neighborhoods Day sponsors this year were McDonald’s, courtesy of The Detroit McDonald’s Operators, Comerica Bank, the Detroit Public Library, Wayne State University, St. John’s Health and LISC (Local Initiative Service Corporation)...

Other sponsors and supporters include the Skillman Foundation, the Michigan Chronicle, MGM Grand Detroit, WWJ Radio 950 AM, which provided all day coverage of Neighborhoods Day, Radio One, WDET, 101. 9, FM, Waste Management of Michigan, the Detroit Tigers, Eastern Market, the Ribs N Soul Festival, Metro Detroit Youth Day and YouthVille Detroit, Pepsi Bottling Group and Quality Home Health Care

A special thanks to television stations Fox 2 News, WDIV and WXYZ (including particularly Chuck Stokes) for their same-day coverage as well as The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News.

Thanks as well to The Monitor, Metro Timse and, the Michigan Citizen for advance mention of Neighborhoods Day, Warren Pierce, Sandi Kovach of V98.7 FM, Lloyd Jackson and Dick Haffner of WJR radio and the Arab American Chaldean Council radio show.

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Mark your calendars for the fourth annual ARISE Detroit! Neighborhoods Day, on Aug. 7, 2010. You can read news stories and see photos of Neighborhoods Day by going to www.arisedetroit.org.