Catholic groups take to the streets for annual day of service in Detroit

DETROIT — In commemoration of a man who took to the streets to change people’s lives, Catholics from across Metro Detroit took to streets to make their city a better place to live.

Groups from 22 parishes and schools took part in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service on Jan. 14, coordinated by the Archdiocese of Detroit and hosted by Sacred Heart Parish in Detroit.

The event started out with groups gathering at Sacred Heart, where they received their assignments and set out for various charities and nonprofits throughout the city.

Members of Christ the Good Shepherd Parish in Lincoln Park assisted Urban Neighborhood Initiatives, a nonprofit that works to clean up neighborhoods throughout Detroit by clearing blight, removing overgrown trees and shrubs and establishing permanent green spaces.



Volunteers from Christ the Good Shepherd worked on a four-acre lot on the corner of Springwells and Lafayette in southwest Detroit.

“Our goal in the Springwells neighborhood of southwest Detroit is to make it a safer place to live, work and play,” said C.J. DeMille, volunteer coordinator at Urban Neighborhood Initiatives, who oversaw the volunteers. “Our goal is to take a land that’s been vacant and dangerous and make it a safe place to walk.”

Volunteers from the Allen Park parish cut down dead trees and shrubs, picked up trash and weeded the sidewalks. Young people had the chance to channel their inner lumberjack, cutting down dead trees and clearing the area of overgrown shrubbery.

“This is a major access way to the neighborhood, so on a corner lot, it makes a good shortcut,” DeMille said. “When you have a lot of young people running through the area, clearing the area of debris and dead trees will make it a much safer space.”

Across town, members of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Troy assisted the Crisis Pregnancy Resource Center at St. Cecilia Church of St. Charles Lwanga Parish with inventory and organizing donated items to the center.

“We’re organizing our backroom and office,” said Jim Cruse, volunteer coordinator at the Crisis Pregnancy Resource Center. “We have diapers, formula, clothes, diaper bags, lotions and shampoo; all these items that we need a lot of help keeping track of.”

Cruse said he receives plenty of calls from people who want to donate to the center that helps new mothers in need of assistance.

“We need this done so we can find what we have and know what we need,” Cruse said. “Having volunteers helps a lot. We don’t have a paid staff, so having these volunteers come in is a big help.”

Eighth-grader Nolan McMaster was doing the volunteer work for his confirmation class.

“This event is about helping people who help others as much as possible,” said Nolan, a St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parishioner. “Martin Luther King helped a lot of people who didn’t live near him. We’re trying to help on a smaller scale. In the Catholic faith, you help all your brothers and sisters going out of our way to be like Christ.”

After the projects finished, volunteers returned to Sacred Heart for an MLK-inspired march around the block, culminating in a rally inside the church, carrying signs that read “peace,” “justice,” “love,” “unity” and “Jesus.”

Once inside, volunteers celebrated praise and worship while watching a slideshow of photos taken from the projects and hearing testimonials from people who volunteered.

St. Charles Lwanga parishioner Bryesha Edwards said the day of service was a fitting way to commemorate the life and legacy of King.

“The biggest things that are coming to me now are love — we’re picked to love everyone — and faith, the faith we have in God,” Edwards told The Michigan Catholic. “We’re here to show others that we still need to treat everyone equally.”

Edwards emphasized how important it was to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a day of service, a “day on” instead of a day off.

“I think MLK’s message needs to be heard every day,” Edwards said. “A lot of people are having troubles, but whether we have good or bad experiences, we need to go out and share our experiences with others. What we need to do is see the good, not the bad, in others. To see each other as brothers and sisters, as MLK would want us to do.”