Serve Rhode Island Funds $7K of Community Projects
Thursday, September 20, 2012
ServeRI provided grant funding to six local non-profits to support community service projects. (Left to right) Hilda Sullivan, Amy Waddell, Rachel Labrecque and Stephane Andrade, all City Year AmeriCorps volunteers, install siding at Habitat for Humanity’s Amherst Street Project; one of the projects supported by ServeRI.
“Volunteerism is one of our state’s most valuable resources and one that needs to be utilized to its full potential,” said Bernie Beaudreau, Executive Director of Serve Rhode Island. “In honor of this year’s September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance, our focus was to provide financial support and volunteers for a wide-variety of projects that would create positive impacts across the state and touch many lives.”
Day of Service projects
At Alvarez High School in Providence, 20 volunteers, including individuals from AmeriCorps’ College Advising Corps Program and the City Arts for Youth AmeriCorps Program, transformed the school’s front office while also cleaning and painting classrooms. Just slightly down the road, at the Lauro Elementary School, another team of volunteers worked to improve the teacher’s room while beautifying classrooms.
In Olneyville, more than three dozen City Year Rhode Island AmeriCorps Program members spent the day helping Habitat for Humanity Providence continue construction of a new, two-family home on Amherst Street. Volunteers were hard at work installing the home’s siding and performing interior framing; beginning at 9:00 a.m.
“Each project illustrated the incredible change that occurs when people come together in support of a common goal,” added Beaudreau. “Everyone in the community has something special to offer in making Rhode Island a better place for all of us, but perhaps nothing is more valuable than giving of your time.”
Volunteers from JWU, veterans programs
The day’s largest group, including more than 100 volunteers from the Johnson & Wales University Culinary Program, the Diocese of Providence and AmeriCorps, assembled emergency preparedness kits to donate to low-income families in Providence while also providing valuable awareness information.
ServeRI also funded two projects in support of local veterans. At the Rhode Island Veterans Home in Bristol, 23 volunteers from the Rhode Island Campus Compact VISTA and Scholarships for Service AmeriCorps Programs spent a combined 115 hours landscaping the home’s courtyard. The volunteers, many of whom are veterans themselves, also had a visitation session with residents of the home – bridging the generation gap between those who have fought for our country’s freedom. At Operation Stand Down in Johnston, a housing complex for previously homeless veterans, another team of volunteers cleaned and beautified the home’s outdoor common space.
At Peace and Plenty Community Park in Providence, one of the Capitol City’s most utilized family attractions, volunteers from the National Alliance for Mental Health cleaned the site and enhanced its landscaping. Built thanks to a partnership between local families and the City of Providence Parks Department, Peace and Plenty Community Park is enjoyed by hundreds each week.
In a project that was completed on September 15, more than 50 volunteers teamed-up to finish constructing a handicap accessible nature trail at McCourt Middle School in Cumberland; using a special stone dust to serve as a hard-packed surface that can accommodate wheelchairs. This new resource will allow for more students to access the trail during special school initiatives while also improving its use for members of the community.
“The National Day of Service is a great opportunity to remind people of the importance of volunteering, but the truth is, volunteers are needed every day of the year,” said Beaudreau. “We have opportunities available for people of all ages and from all walks of life – everyone is encouraged to contact us and get involved with their community.”
To get learn more about Serve Rhode Island, and to get connected with volunteer opportunities in your community, please visit www.ServeRhodeIsland.org or call (401) 331-2298.
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