DETROIT —In assembly-line fashion, A Time to Help volunteers worked together Saturday morning (March 27) packaging food items into boxes, loading them onto pallets and sending them off to their final destinations: the front doorsteps of more than 60 seniors in need.
It was all part of a well-coordinated effort led by Focus: HOPE, one of Detroit’s most-beloved nonprofits which does so much for so many underserved residents in the city and surrounding communities.
ATTH volunteers showed up strong for the project: not a single registered volunteer was absent.
SAY Detroit also received a helping hand from two staffers representing the charity’s youth development program, the SAY Play Center at Lipke Park, which provided two shuttle buses for the back-end of the project: delivering the food boxes to those who need it most. Thank you Herb, Garland and Eric!
Rick Mazyck, volunteer engagement coordinator at Focus: HOPE, said ATTH volunteers stacked a total of 12 pallets with 660 35-pound boxes of food and other essential items.
“It’s not just 660 total seniors who’ll be receiving the food boxes, but 660 families since many of our deliveries go to multi-generational homes,” Mazyck said. “It really is community impact beyond our registered recipients.”
With a total of nearly 40 volunteers on hand, including Ken Brown, who’s SAY Detroit founder Mitch Albom’s radio show co-host, the turnout was especially appreciated by Focus: HOPE because volunteerism as a whole is down; many companies which usually provide employees to help still can’t due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Most groups still can’t come regularly right now,’’ Mazyck said. “During the height of the pandemic we were really struggling’’ for volunteers.
Longtime ATTH volunteer Marshall Hunt said: “It was impressive the amount of boxes we were able to fill, especially knowing they’ll be going to people who really need the assistance.”
Details for SAY Detroit’s ATTH project — set for late-April or early May —will be released in the next week or so.
