#comcastcares

I volunteer every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at the Shane VIctorino Boys & Girls Club. The Boys & Girls Club is located at  4001 N. Clarissa Street Philadelphia, PA 19140, in Nicetown. The coordinator of the Nicetown club, Shakir Johnson reached out to me in early march expressing the details of an event for the kids on Earth Day. So on Earth Day, April 22nd, I engaged in seven hours of stewardship. Every year, Comcast, one of the largest American corporations, host an event for Earth Day. They have teamed up with Boys & Girls Clubs in Philadelphia and New Jersey. The event they run is called “#ComcastCaresDay”. Comcast cares day is Comcasts’ way of giving back to the local community in which they operate daily business,. Through this stewardship event many workers, families, and inhabitants of the area come together to help for a great cause.

WHAT DID I DO?

Beginning at 7 AM on Saturday April 22nd, we were put into groups. After groups were assigned we begun to conduct our stewardship. My group was instructed to clean up all the garbage from the playground. Honestly it pained me seeing so many alcohol bottles and cigarette butts on a children’s playground. A playground for kids should inherently be clean and danger free. Once we completed cleaning up the playground around 9 AM, it was time for the mulch. Since the spring has just arrived, new mulch is needed for the ground. My team was instructed to even out and level the mulch all across the playground, using rakes. Oh man mulch smells horrible, but you don’t smell it as much when you know you’re doing something for a good cause. We finished laying down and leveling the mulch around 11 AM. once the mulch went down what comes next? that’s right woodchips! My group then was instructed to level out the woodchips since they could not just leave the mulch on top. we finished laying down the woodchips around 12:30PM. What followed was definitely more fun than cleaning up the garbage and laying down the new foundation for the playground. At 12:30 we begun to take the weeds out of the garden. There was so many weeds all around the edge of the playground and garden. Shakir felt that we could move the garden to the other side of the fence, and lay more mulch and woodchips down, so the kids have more room to play on the playground area. We fully removed the garden. Once that was done at 1:30, we then begun our final task of the day. building a garden box out of wood and place plants and soil inside the box then put it on the grass outside the playground. We put perennial flowers and small shrubs in the garden boxes.  We finished putting together the garden boxes around 3 PM. Then we began the final clean up, then it was time to play with the kids. overall this stewardship was amazing. I actively volunteer weekly with my local community and I can’t even begin to stress the importance of stewardship and giving back to your community. It truly is a awesome feeling of pride, knowing you made a difference to help the environment and the less fortunate.

WHAT CORE CONCEPTS DID YOU SEE IN ACTION?

I saw the core concept of Stewardship primarily. so many Comcast workers along with many local volunteers were willing to wake up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday, to give back to the community. That is beautiful to me it is so important to give back. Another core concept I saw was the idea of eliminating the gray vacant lots in our urban communities. Less than ten years ago, the Boys and Girls club i volunteer at was a vacant lot. Through hard work and dedication, that lot was turned into a beneficial community engagement center for under privileged kids. Since the club was growing so rapidly, four years ago Shane Victorino and other leaders decided to purchase the vacant lot adjacent to the club to accommodate to growing influx of children. The Boys & Girls Club actively conducts acts of stewardship for the community which really is starting to make a significant difference.

HOW DOES THIS PROJECT OR AGENCY ADDRESS COMMUNITY NEEDS?

The Boys & Girls clubs’ mission is to enable all  young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia will become one of the premier Boys & Girls Club organizations in the country, solidifying its position as the leading youth guidance and development agency in the community through quality staffing, facilities, and programs supported by financial stability and clearly defined standards.From the Boys and Girls Club Philadelphia website “UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF COMCAST AND DAVID L. COHEN, AND IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE SNIDER YOUTH HOCKEY FOUNDATION, OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS, BGCP WILL:Expand the reach of services by increasing the number of children served from 8,000 to 25,000:Meet the educational, social and emotional needs of members by introducing innovative new programs including: Internet Essentials Labs, the Call to Action Literacy Initiative, STEM Learning Labs and Kids CafesPartner with the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation to create the Ralph J. Roberts Boys & Girls Club including a full service ice-hockey rinkEnsure financial sustainability through increased community and foundation supportEnsure the implementation of high quality programs by promoting Boys & Girls Club values, developing long-term relationships with youth and actively engaging the philanthropic communityEnhance the quality of facilities – BGCP will raise $41 million to support capital expenses and create an endowment”. The Boys and Girls Clubs here in Philadelphia along with comcast want the best for the children in our community and are doing their best efforts to do so, they need all of our community engagement to continue to make significant strides.

HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR ROLE IN THE PROJECT?

Whats most important is effort, care and showing up. My role with the Boys & Girls Club is making sure all my little “brothers and sisters” are making positive impacts and bettering themselves. My role is showing up and giving my care. I Thank God everyday for giving me what I have been blessed with having. Once you truly are grateful for what you have you should give back to the less fortunate and your community, its the right thing to do. Over the past two years I have become so close with some of the children of the club and they truly do keep my spirits high as they always put a smile on my face and help me through the long school week. Community engagement is my role. On a broader sense, I personally feel my role is to get my friends and family to start spending time at the club and make sure they do their part to help out these beautiful children.

HOW WELL ARE YOU ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR SUPERVISOR AT THE COMMUNITY SITE?

I have known Shakir Johnson for almost two years now. Wow time flies. Shakir is one of the greatest human beings i have ever met. Shakir daily gives the club everything he can offer in every and any aspect. It is so easy to speak to Shakir because anything he is thinkig or going to say is the ethical right thing to say or do. Shakir seeks out to help anyone and is so outgoing that his vibe makes you never want to leave the club. Man I love Shakir I have learned so much from him about how to be a good person, man and leader. Shakir truly cares for these kids and I wish i could be half the man Shakir is.