By Collin Quigley, AmeriCorps Member & Volunteer Coordinator
The first service project I directed was my Eagle Scout Project at Saint Francis Inn, a food pantry in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood. Over a long weekend, we installed a railing to the Inn’s basement and then demolished and renovated the small room in the basement used for storing baby supplies.
A common mantra my troop had with Eagle Scout projects is that one of them will not change a community, or the world; but each project is a start, a step along the way. One project will not change much, but a continued commitment to a community of need adds up over time.
Habitat’s Rock the Block is rooted in that commitment. In the past half-decade, Habitat has committed itself to revitalizing communities in Pottstown, Norristown, and starting this year, Upper Darby.
One Rock the Block project will not change the world, but it is a start. Through a sustained partnership with our communities, we can bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice one day, one community, one block, one house, and one person at a time, especially when the work continues month after month, and year after year.
I spent my Rock the Block Day in Pottstown, working with groups stretched across nine projects in our neighborhood revitalization zone. Teams of volunteers planted in community gardens, installed pavers in city parks, cleaned up Pottstown’s alleyways, and sweated on our active build site.
The work completed during Rock the Block is not remarkable for individual project achievements but rather by the shared, cumulative impact of the projects.
None of that work would be possible without our volunteers, so many of whom go above and beyond to make events like this possible.
Rock the Block would not be possible without folks like Derrick Perry and Dan Price, who identified extra projects in their communities, made it possible to increase our impact and volunteer capacity. It would not be a success without folks like Patti Post and Brett Rankin, who used their skills to lead volunteers. And our impact year-after-year would not be the same with volunteers like Maura Buri and Jim Kenning, who return to their project sites the day after to keep improving the properties of our homeowners.
Something I told our volunteers in Pottstown is that the goal of Rock the Block is not to change anything about the communities we serve. In my years leading Habitat trips in college and serving as an AmeriCorps here, I doubt I have changed much; what I can say is that the people I have met in the communities I served have changed me with their love, grit, and stories. We may go to Rock the Block to try to revitalize communities, but I think the communities revitalize us.
I ended my Rock the Block day at our build site at 417 Chestnut Street, sweating as I was sitting in a folding chair on the second floor of Ms. Debra’s future home in Pottstown. Along with another volunteer and staff member, we sat up there, hearing Debra’s stories of raising her kids in Pottstown and adopting half the town in the process.
Debra, a woman with unrivaled Pottstown pride, shared many of the same observations about Rock the Block that we did – that the work done in Pottstown earlier that day was meaningful, but how the deeper meaning comes from long-term partnership, commitment, and service that restores and instills the pride homeowners have in their neighborhoods.
A favorite reflection of mine leading service-immersions in college calls us to “trust in the slow work.” Often we “like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something.” However, “it is the law of progress that is made passing through some stages of instability – and that it may take a very long time.” Our neighborhood partnerships are rooted in a shared trust with communities our slow work will add up over time. The work takes time, and we might see the end in the moment; but in time, the work will pay dividends.
Early in my senior year of college, I ended up at our annual service-year fair to explore options for what was next for me. As I walked into the room, the first thing I noticed was the table for “Franciscan Volunteer Ministries” and a poster for their placement at Saint Francis Inn, where I did my Eagle Scout project years ago.
I walked up to the table and told them I was a Philly kid familiar with the Inn. The rep asked me how and I told her how I did my Eagle Scout project there in the basement about five years prior. She responded, “wow, you’re the railing kid, I’ve been praying for you for five years.” It may take time, but the slow work of service makes a difference, in ways big and small.
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