Service for Peace - Washington, DC

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Washington, DC

Join Hands Day Service Project

June 21st, 2003

by Michael Stewart

The morning of June 21st saw Join Hands Day projects all around the country. Each sought to bring together people across generations to serve their community. The Hopkins apartment complex in southeast Washington was the site of the capitol's Join Hands Day project.

Over 200 volunteers from a variety of organizations came to help repair, renovate and beautify the playground area of the apartments. Kids from the local Boys & Girls club and Boy Scouts Troops 316 and 1517 joined young people and adults from a diverse body of service organizations. Members of the American Fraternal Congress, the Points of Light Foundation, DC Housing Authority, American Red Cross, the Hungarian Reform Federation of America, Morgan Stanley of Reston, and Service for Peace made up a small army of volunteers.

The army was put to good use, as there was plenty of work to keep them busy. Participants were divided into teams, each combining members of different generations. Gardens around the playground and courtyard were heaped with mulch and replanted. Designs of people and animals were painted on the apartment's walls. Wooden cutouts of the designs were painted and hung on the fence and gate that surrounded the yard. The fence itself was assaulted with steel wool and brushes before receiving a fresh coat of paint. Stronger volunteers manned wheelbarrows to keep a steady supply of mulch and wood chips flowing to the gardens and play areas, where teams with rakes spread them out.

Join Hands Day offered far more than hard work. A local DJ, "Scuba Steve", played music while everyone worked. As the projects winded down, the entertainment phase began. There was dancing, as well as hula-hoop, jump rope and limbo contests. Taking a break from the work, kids and the younger adults did chalk drawings and played in the street. Everyone was more than ready to eat after the morning's work, and a huge grill was used to cook a BBQ lunch.

After lunch, the mayor of Washington, the Honorable Anthony Williams, addressed the crowd alongside Bob Goodwin, CEO of the Points of Light foundation. Both thanked the organizations and individuals that had come out to serve the community. The mayor expressed his confidence that "the future of the city is in good hands", after seeing all the young people working side-by-side with other volunteers.

Join Hands Day was a memorable experience, not just for the work we accomplished, but also for the warmth and openness between the different groups of people. During the course of the day I worked with people whom I never would have met or spoken to in my everyday life- an apartment manager from the neighborhood, kids from the Boys and Girls club, a financial planner from Virginia, and members of the Hungarian Reform Federation (I hadn't even known such an organization existed). It was one of the best service projects I've seen, and I'm glad that Service for Peace could support it. I hope to be a part of more projects like this, since one day a year isn't nearly enough.