Summer in the City

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Category: Summer in the City 2008

Yeah, this year was pretty sweet

Following our enormous last daystravaganza this past Aug. 15, Summer in the City has officially gone into hibernation until 2009.

2008 was a huge year, as we (twice) broke our biggest-day-ever record, painted murals all over the place, built more Quikrete-and-bricks benches than we could count and all sorts of other stuff that you hopefully know about because you were there.

We're sure, though, that 2009 is going to be even bigger and betterer, and to ensure that we're going to be working diligently over the fall, winter and spring to scout out potential new carpool sites, figure out which T-shirt color will look best on us next year, send out your hours certificates and last day pictures (look for me on one of the ladders popping my SitC shirt Paul Pierce-style), and, of course, finalize our epic end-of-the-year video (who knows what that wacky Will McDowell will think of next?)

So in short: Thanks for a great year, come back next year, tell your friends (and enemies) about SitC, and stay in touch. On Facebook? Join our group!

P.S.: I'm sorry there weren't crepes at the last day. Blame Stephanie.

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Category: Summer in the City 2008

Come celebrate Summer in the City with us!

It's hard to believe another summer is coming to a close. It has been an amazing year -- more volunteers, bigger projects, new partners and leaders -- but it's not time to close the book on 2008 yet.

As has been our tradition since 2002, we will end the summer in style this Friday, and we need your help to make mark the end of a remarkable summer.

We have some great projects in store for the day: mural painting, demolition, the Summer in the City Olympics and more. But things will really get going when the volunteering ends.

Our end-of-summer celebration (consider this your formal invitation) will commence at 1 p.m. Friday at a newly renovated public park, replete with a signature mural, new playground equipment, trees, park benches and... a yellow brick road.

Even if you can't volunteer, even if you have no previous affiliation with Summer in the City, we'd love to see you there. The barbecue, sponsored by Great Lakes Electronics Recycling, will feature a ton of free food, Summer in the City giveaways and live music from Jam Society!

The celebration is at 14th and Marquette, near Detroit's New Center neighborhood. It's easy to get to from anywhere, so don't miss out!

See you soon!

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Category: Summer in the City 2008

Top 10 reasons to go to the last day celebration

10. It'll be your last chance to see Ben before he locks himself into his house for three months straight in an attempt to catch up on his sleep.
9. There may be a Neil Greenberg sighting. Who is Neil Greenberg? Exactly.
8. It's going to be the biggest day of Summer in the City EVERRRRRR.
7. The free Tigers tickets we're giving out will coincide exactly with a late-season surge by the team, and will end up being a really important, awesome game. (Barring that, the Tigers are awesome anyway).
6. You'll be able to truthfully say that you've done more good for the City of Detroit than its mayor.
5. You'll be able to brag about it to all of your friends.
4. Massive/awesome end-of-the-year group picture that you'll be able to savor and point yourself out on forever.
3. Free food.
2. Free passes to the newly renovated Detroit Institute of the Arts. Haven't been there yet? Me neither.
1. You need an excuse to get out of school/your job anyway.

Category: Summer in the City 2008

Carpooling is important part of the day

Every Friday while other Summer in the City staff members are meeting volunteers at carpool sites around Metro Detroit, I arrive early at sites to do prep work and get acquainted with the different projects. This is a great way for me to get filled in on the work we'll be doing that day and greet the volunteers when the first arrive. However there is one thing I miss out on: bonding in the car.

Aside from being environmentally friendly, carpooling with Summer in the City is a great way to get to know everyone. Although I don't get to meet at a carpool site in the morning, I have had a couple of opportunities to drive some volunteers back after the day, and these trips have been extremely fun and meaningful.

Earlier this summer, I drove four volunteers from the Groves High School site back after our Friday barbecue, and it was so cool to hear about their experiences and lives. For me, interacting with volunteers and staff is the highlight of the summer. There are so many people with such positive attitudes, diverse experiences, and great senses of humor. It's been really enjoyable to build relationships this summer and carpooling is one of the best ways to do it!

Category: Summer in the City 2008

Summer in the City 2008 in Haiku

Tuesday through Friday
It's Summer in the City
Detroiters involved

Van versus an old house
It was old and abandoned
The van won quickly

Painting murals too
Dixon, BJ, and outside
We use lots of paint

The granola bars
Our most popular feature
It's lunch for many

We're halfway done now
But there's plenty to do still
Throughout the city

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Category: Summer in the City 2008

Summer in the City after hours: When the sun goes down, the sun goes up

Wednesday was a very long, yet entertaining, day at Summer in the City. This morning I went to Ford-LaSalle Park like I always do. It was a blast, like it always is. I wrote one blog about it before if you want to check it out. Today we tie-dyed shirts! But that is not what I came to talk about ...

Every Wednesday there is a meeting in the evening for the staff called "Adult Swim." When you think "meeting," you probably think a nice air-conditioned room with a round table and a dry erase board, etc. Forget that. Adult Swim is what separates the boys from the men; where only a small portion of the staff even shows up because the only thing to expect from head honchos Ben and Mike is the unexpected.

The point of Adult Swim is to prep projects so everyone can work in a decently organized fashion the next morning. This week we went to the main mural site -- you know the one in the end-of-the-year picture that is on all the flyers -- located at 14th and Marquette. First, fellow staffers David, Andrew and Mark and I did some transporting of bricks and concrete mix (heavy stuff) into a nearby storage room so they can be easily accessed for building benches in the future.

Then we did the most important thing ever: We traced out our huge trademarked sun across the wall. It was a difficult task. There was a lot of trial and error, but in the end it looked flawless. Everyone helped trace; I got to venture atop a ladder and trace the middle ray, which goes up really, really high. They said they made me go up there because I was the youngest, but we all know the real reason.

So there you have it. Next time, volunteer, when you are out painting in between lines or building benches or whatever, know that those materials didn't get there by themselves. It was all us. You're welcome, it was our pleasure.

The barbecue this Friday is at the main mural site, so I hope everyone can make it out and see what will become the biggest and best project of the summer -- maybe ever.

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Category: Summer in the City 2008

First week of play, work and learning

Whenever somebody asks me how things are with Summer in the City, the word I always respond with is "busy." In just the first week, we've had more than 100 volunteers per day, so as you might imagine we have a lot of stuff going on.

For me, my third year of Summer in the City kicked off Wednesday working at Glazer Elementary School in Detroit. Typically when you're volunteering at schools what you're doing is classified as "youth enrichment," but the more popular term among volunteers is "playing with kids," which may be more accurate (although, admittedly, we're not playing all of the time).

Wednesday, we worked on arts-and-crafts projects, including one in which we ripped up construction paper and arranged it in collages. I made the Summer in the City logo out of some yellow construction paper (now on display on the dash of one of our vans) More popular designs among the Glazer students included flowers or various animals. During recess, we played all sorts of games, including a game of Duck Duck Goose that quickly went from having five or six participants to having what must have been well over 20. For students who weren't interested in Duck Duck Goose, we had all sorts of other great things like balls and Frisbees, so there was plenty to do.

Thursday, my friend, Will, who is also working with Summer in the City, and I, along with a bunch of volunteers, worked at Barbara Jordan, another school in Detroit. We've been working on painting a mural in one of the hallways and got an opportunity to help tutor the students. Did you know that although magma and lava are technically the same thing, magma is the word for melted rock that is underground and lava is the word for when it comes out of the ground? I had no idea there was a difference; I may have to retake fourth-grade science.

We also got to play with the students outside after they had been let out of school as part of our stay-and-play program. Again, there was plenty to do with Barbara Jordan's awesome play structure and hula-hoops, but the real highlight of the afternoon was the jump-rope games that we played. Now, I've never been much of a jump-roper, but I held my own in all of the games that we played and when Will and I had a competition with two of our volunteers, Kelly and Anna, to see which duo could jump rope for longer, we either emerged victoriously by a single jump, or it was a tie (unfortunately we lacked official jump-rope referees on the premises). Will and I will be ready next Tuesday to defend our title, of course.

Friday I worked with a group of volunteers in painting some murals on some buildings near Gratiot and Mack. Painting murals is a lot of fun because you really get to see the difference that you're making, and it's for that reason that I believe summer in the City has always ended the year by painting a big mural and getting a huge group picture with it. Of course, the murals my group worked on were somewhat smaller, but we still got a lot done. We concluded the day, of course, with one of our wonderful Summer in the City barbecues (see my previous blog entry for more information on that).

All in all, it's been a great first week at Summer in the City and I'm really looking forward to heading back to work this upcoming Tuesday. With so many volunteers there's bound to be plenty to do all summer, but that's just the way we like it--every day, as we like to say, is a big day.

Category: Summer in the City 2008

Summer in the City 2008 could be best yet

Well, it's been a long time since last summer went out with a bang (the good kind), but were hard at work over the long and lonely winter to make sure that Summer in the City 2008 is, by far, our biggest and best summer yet. Here are some of the thing we have to look forward to:

- More choice. As the FAQ says, you don't always know what type of project you're going to be doing when you come to Summer in the City. Of course, all the projects are cool, but we want you to be able to do what you're most interested in. This summer, (almost) all the volunteers will get to choose (almost) every day whether they want to do physical stuff -- painting, planting, demolition, etc. -- or youth enrichment, which is our fancy name for all the fun activities we do with elementary school kids. As always, flexibility is at the core of the program and we hope that you will mix it up over the course of the summer and try things that are outside your comfort zone.

- New van(s). And by new, I mean old. In fact, the one that we've already purchased is older than many of our volunteers, but she's a beauty. Or she will be after a signature Summer in the City paint job. Here's the plan: We're going to paint it our favorite color (bright yellow), and then all the volunteers who complete 20 hours of community service will get ceremoniously dip their hands in blue paint and put a hand print on the body. Now, if you're thinking, "Well, sure I'd like to put my hand print on the side of a van, but my real dream is to have a Summer in the City vehicle named after me," then you're in luck. We are hoping to purchase a third -- third! -- van and if you think you can help make our dream a reality, I think we can make the Marissa-Mobile dream come true. Or maybe just get your 20-plus hours and do the hand print.

- New carpool site. By popular demand, Summer in the City has added a carpool site in Troy. Troy, famous as the so-close-and-yet-so-far home of Ulysses and Somerset mall, is also home to Troy High School, where intrepid young Colts have been braving their way to far flung carpool sites in order to be a part of Summer in the City. To refresh your memory, here are the old school carpool sites. If there isn't one in your community and you think there should be, let us know. Just e-mail whyisntthereacarpoolsitenearme@summerinthecitydetroit.org. Just kidding. Seriously, though, we need all the input we can get about how to cast a wider (figurative, non-lethal) net. Try me at ben@summerinthecitydetroit.org.

- We are The Detroit News. OK, this one is so big I don't even know where to begin. We've had some great articles written about us over the years, but none of them ever quite captures the scope, style and spirit of Summer in the City. That was then. Our partnership with The Detroit News in which Summer in the City gets its own blog page on www.detnews.com, including daily pictures, volunteer blogs and videos! This is going to be the coolest thing since bottle caps.

Category: Summer in the City 2008

Summer in the City reveals Detroit to me

I can't remember where or how I first came to know of Summer in the City. I heard someone casually mention the name, stumbled upon the program's Web site and dragged my friend to try it out with me on the first day. Even from Day One, I could tell this was something I wanted to become a part of and spend my summer doing.

As the weeks of Summer in the City passed, I was given the unique opportunity to witness the city of Detroit in an entirely new light. A city I once considered downtrodden and abandoned instead became a site of progress and change, a place where our efforts had visible results.

In a way, Summer in the City has become much more than a volunteering experience for me. I hope that, through this program, more teenagers realize the remarkable potential that may, at times, seem hidden within the city of Detroit, the tremendous impact we can make when working together and the excitement of spending a summer with an amazing, motivated team striving for change.