DETROIT – Under a summer-like sun Monday afternoon, volunteers were hard at work, pushing lawnmowers, raking leaves, and cleaning up vacant lots on Detroit’s West Side.
“I love coming to Detroit. I love the city. I am very proud. and so, anything that I can do to help the residents and help our city be great, that’s what it means to me,” volunteer Andrea Smith said.
Smith, who works at L&L Products in Romeo, was one of the team leaders for volunteers at her company. She said she has volunteered in years past.
Garrett Moody, from L&L Products, is a first-time volunteer.
“It’s been fun, helping out the community,” Moody said.
Life Remodeled is back for a second year on the city’s west side, taking over a two-square-mile area near the former Cooley High School.
The Detroit-based nonprofit has been hosting clean-ups in the city since 2014.
“This is day one of our annual six-day project. We will have 5,000 volunteers from all different walks of life,” Life Remodeled Founder and CEO Chris Lambert said.
Frances Roland lives in the area.
“It means a lot. It shows that the people really care about the community. And they care about people,” she said.
Lambert said his organization intended to purchase Cooley and repurpose it as a hub of support for families, but Detroit Public Schools Community District declined to sell the property last March, he said.
That came as a disappointment to the Calvary Community Association president Sandra Sterling.
“We are still fighting for that and we’re hoping that the Board of Education can hear us and appreciates what the community wants,” she said.
Sterling, who has been in the neighborhood since 1979, said she appreciates the work of Life Remodeled, including doing yard work at her home.
“Grateful that they are out here helping the community, removing all the blight. They did it last year, which we deeply appreciated and for them to come back again this year,” she said.
Life Remodeled volunteers will meet every afternoon through Saturday.
“This community is absolutely incredible, and we have fallen in love with a community that has been at work for years and years,” Lambert said.
Amazon is a sponsor of the project, contributing $150,000 and offering 150 volunteers, according to a news release from Life Remodeled.
Since 2014, Lambert said Life Remodeled has had more than 77,000 volunteers, cleaning up 2,000 city blocks in Detroit.