Guest Editorial … Every Neighbor program continues to grow and improve

By Max Gilginas
Every Neighbor volunteers are incredibly proud of the work we accomplished this year. The program gained 10 new core volunteers and served over 50 households.
This is the third year of this scrappy grassroots program, and we hope to grow into something powerful that can reach every neighbor in need.
This year, we applied for the Seeding Grant from Wayne Metro Community Action Agency and grant management from One New Humanity.
We secured funding of $3,000. With this, we purchased tools and supplies for each new volunteer to work effectively and safely. First Aid, snacks for energy to keep our volunteers working, yard waste bags, and plenty of work gloves were also essential to our efforts.
The City of Hamtramck helped with transportation, logistics, additional supplies, and volunteers from the Summer Youth Program. These dedicated young people worked incredibly hard and learned to prune trees, care for gardens and lawns, and care for feral cats.
We are also very grateful to the volunteers from GM Cares, Henry Ford Health Systems, the student youth corps, and the entire community. We were delighted to receive so much delivered from our wishlist. It was heartwarming to walk into a pile of packages that contained everything we needed.
We saved residents an estimated $22,000 that they would have spent in hiring a lawn service, buying supplies, and paying code tickets.
We were able to help 30 additional households as compared to last season.
The support and funding we had this year made our work more efficient and comfortable for volunteers and more effective for our neighbors. Many of these were repeat services, and we were able to maintain many yards throughout the entire season. We also expanded this year into minor porch repair and painting, and found this was a great need within the city.
Connecting with each neighbor is really the heart of what we do. The lawn work is secondary to including our most vulnerable neighbors in our community. Each visit found residents grateful to have just been heard. We will work to reach even more residents in the coming years.
We were also able to help the community at large with two months of work on the Library Garden. It is a wonderful single lot next to the library, and it is accessible and open to all residents.
Unfortunately, it had been neglected since 2020 when COVID struck. We cleared it of all weeds, took down invasive trees, cleaned the garden plots, painted and repaired the fence and picnic table, and supplied the garden with tools for casual volunteers.
We had a fantastic response to our presence in the Labor Day Parade. Many residents recognized the name of the organization, thanked each of us, and cheered on the volunteers who were handing out work gloves and trash bags or picking up trash.
We are excited to see this program grow so quickly. The need is overwhelming, and we are happy to help our neighbors feel like neighbors. This can only get better with support from the City of Hamtramck, grants, and community donations.
To volunteer or donate, send an email: mgilginas@hamtramckcity.com or everyneighborhamtramck@gmail.com
(Max Gilginas is the city’s Volunteer Coordinator.)
Posted Sept. 13, 2024