Clients:
This week's update will be a bit different in the fact that it will NOT deal with the MAAR reports! I spent the past week out of the office, volunteering my time do to mission work in inner-city Detroit with the youth group from Westminster Presbyterian Church which is located on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. 7 adult leaders (including myself) and 21 high school students piled into two 15-passanger vans and one mini-van (leaders had to drive) and set off for Detroit with stops in Madison WI, (on the way out) and Chicago IL (on the way back).
If you think the real estate market/world is bad here in the Twin Cities, I would tell you to make a stop Detroit. There have been few places (if any) that I have been that face a larger up-hill battle to recovery, and that would include New Orleans after Katrina (which is where I went the last time I thought this was a good idea!) than the Detroit area. While we were there we worked at a food bank to package up food for children (1 in 8 families will get assistance for FOOD in the Detroit area this year), we did outside beautification projects at several churches, and we cleaned and installed a new floor at a youth center in the inner city. We slept on the floors and lounges of churches, had to shower at the YMCA, and had to "punt" many times as we ran out of work to do at several of the job sites. 21 motivated teen-agers can accomplish a lot. However we also got to see the lake on University of Madison campus at sunset, take in a Tiger's game, see the Holocaust museum, help 3 struggling churches by doing more work in week than they can accomplish in 3 months, as well as share laughter, stories and music over the 1600 mile journey.
Detroit not only lacks the workforce to correct the problems it has but more importantly the leadership and administration to organize and work/rescue effort. Thousands of foreclosed buildings with broken windows and missing doors sit open and unsecured, unlike here in the Twin Cities where properties are boarded up quickly for safety. Huge areas of the city are affected with blight and entire neighborhoods have been vacated left for ghost towns. The people who are left are very proud, and are very concerned about not only our perception of what Detroit is today, but if they will be able to survive. With 40% of the population having left in the past 10 years, there are not enough people there to do the work needed. No easy answers for that city. It was a sobering week.
On a personal note, while spending 7 days with 21 teenagers in a 15 passenger van is not EVERYONES idea of a good time, I got more out of this trip than I ever thought I would. This kids were amazing and I was humbled by their attitude, work ethic and compassion. Seeing an area of the country as economically depressed as Detroit made me thankful for what we have here in the Twin Cities. Our city is beautiful and we enjoy a very high quality of life even in these challenging times.
I am fortunate enough to have a career where I can donate a week of my time in 2011. However, I ended up receiving so much more than I gave. While I know not everyone can take a week off, I encourage all of your to volunteer in some way or another to a cause that has meaning to you. I believe that if each of us had the ability, conviction and means to give of our time we could maybe solve some of these biggest problems we face today. At worst, we would help each other and learn a little bit more about what it is to be a human being on this planet.