Friday Roundup 11.19.10 - The Let's Have a Discussion Edition

Slow down, life! I am trying to enjoy the next six weeks. Christmas carols are on the radio. People are cooking delicious food. Colored leaves are falling from the trees. It’s just a great time of year, and I need life to shift down a couple gears. Who is with me?

Busy week at Hands On Charlotte. My fellow AmeriCorps members and I played catch up after being away at the conference. We are in full swing planning service projects for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so be sure to check back here for details as we move into 2011.

At the core of MLK Day and most of our programming is the idea of civic engagement. Hands On Charlotte exists, in large part, to facilitate opportunities for Charlotteans to connect with their community. So when I read a recent article explaining how North Carolinians are participating below most national averages for civic engagement, I took a step back. How can Hands On Charlotte better engage YOU?

Look, I have access to readership statistics, and something like 30 people read this blog. So let’s have a little discussion here. How can Hands On Charlotte better reach out to you, your neighbors, your friends and your family? How can we compel you further to join us at our projects? What is it going to take to get 3,000 new volunteers to join us for MLK Day? Post a comment or send me an email. We would love to hear from you!

Normally on the Friday Roundup, I list a number of weekend projects for you to consider. This week, I’m highlighting only one. Tomorrow’s BIG Project is at Hawthorne High School, where our volunteers will join students and faculty in building a peace garden in memorial of Tiffany Wright, the pregnant teenage student who was gunned down over a year ago while waiting for the bus. We need 80 volunteers, and we currently have 50 signed up. Can you join us tomorrow from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m.?

Thanks for reading! Check back next week as we kick off the holiday season in style!


Tanner

Weekend project has special meaning

All Hands On Charlotte projects are important, but this Saturday’s BIG Project may be one of our most meaningful efforts of the year.

I’m sure you recall the headlines from last year: Pregnant Teen Gunned Down at Bus Stop. That teenager was Tiffany Wright, and she was a student at Hawthorne High School. In the aftermath of that tragedy, her fellow students spoke about building a peace garden in remembrance of Tiffany. For more than a year, that garden has remained just an idea. Until now…

As part of HOC’s monthly BIG Project, our volunteers will be building that peace garden at Hawthorne. We hope it will serve as a lasting memorial to Tiffany and to other area youngsters whose lives have been cut short by violence. We hope it will provide some comfort to students whose daily existence is marked by conflict and anxiety. We hope that building the garden helps our volunteers deepen their appreciation for the blessings and the people in their lives.

And we hope you will join us. Please visit the HOC web site to sign up.


Bob Young is the associate director of Hands On Charlotte