DYP and It Starts At Home joined forces on the rainy morning of Saturday, May 16th to help restore a neighborhood and give the motor city makeover. Over 30 volunteers, young and old, gathered on the block of 4644 Oregon to board up abandoned houses, mow lawns, pick up trash to bring back a community.
David Cross, Founder of It Starts At Home, gathered his friends and neighbors one day and decided:
“We need to take back our neighborhood.”
Cross started seeing a lot of trash build up and people just dropping tires off throughout the neighborhood. From then the vision was born. Cross wanted to start a neighborhood cleanup and....
“Create unity through the love of the community.”
Cross started the first project and from there, the founders and he said that no matter how many volunteers they get, they would always be out there doing work. The hardest challenge for Cross to overcome is actually the tools, from lawnmowers to chainsaws. We still try to come together and do whatever we can do.
“We have one lawnmower and we’ll work that lawnmower and until we can’t work it anymore. ”
Cross suggests to those looking to get involved that they should partner up with their neighborhood and that they can always partner with It Starts At Home, which is always doing board ups and partnering with other 501 (c)3's and other neighborhood community groups.
You can always find to do something on their Facebook page. Cross finished the day off by saying:
“I want to thank everyone who came out. DYP, Rico Razo, District 6 Manager, the volunteers from our cookers to drilling, councilmen. I’m just blessed that we had a great time.”
Thanks, David. DYP had a tremendous time as well. Being a part of reestablishing a neighborhood is tremendously rewarding and inspiring.
We hope you will join us next time. Stay tuned!