By Emily Kean and Dan Nemiroff
Partner: ARAMARK
Volunteers: 200
Service Partner: The Lighthouse in Philadelphia, PA and Respond, Inc. in Camden, NJ
When: May 8-11, 2011
TCF: Emily Kean; Project Manager Susan Bensen in Philadephia and Dan Nemiroff; Senior Partners Manager Chris Farr in Camden, NJ
Reserves: Care Force Alumni '09 Tom Wingert; City Year Greater Philadelphia: Rebecca Tyrrell, Michael Athy, Melanie Johnson, Samuel Collitt, Jamie Hamilton, and Linnea McCalla in Philadelphia. Alicia McLamb, Phil LaMotte, and Maya Butovskaya in Camden.
This ARAMARK event marked the first one of 2011 and was one of the largest that ARAMARK will hold this year since their headquarters are located in Philadelphia. Dan and Emily had the opportunity to play a crucial role in the service development of this event and lead our reserves from City Year Greater Philadelphia throughout prep the entire week. On Wednesday, May 11, 200 ARAMARK employees came out to Philadelphia and Camden to help transform two different community centers.
In Philadelphia, ARAMARK partnered with The Lighthouse for a second time to continue to increase their impact and strengthen their relationship. The event took place at the Lighthouse’s field house and baseball field in Kensington. The field house had a leaky roof and they had been unable to use this facility even though they have continued to use the baseball field. Youth who used the field would have to walk to Burger King up the hill a block to use the restroom. ARAMARK has been able to repair the roof and employees painted the interior and exterior of the field house during the service day ensuring that the this building would be accessible in the future. ARAMARK also partnered with Teens 4 Good to create a community garden where youth can learn about how to grow their own food and eat healthy. The produce from the garden will be sold during baseball games and the money raised will go back into programming at The Lighthouse offers to youth and families in the Kensington area.
In Camden, we partnered with an organization called Respond, Inc. and helped revamp one of their childcare facilities. Respond, Inc. is a broad reaching organization that serves the Camden community in a number of different capacities. On Wednesday, the ARAMARK volunteers were able to replace and expand the existing fence that surrounds the playground, add mulch to the playground area, paint a large wall mural, paint five panel murals & five plywood murals, and add a community garden complete with six large garden beds, soil, and seedlings. Respond, Inc. has provided amazing service to the Camden community for many years, and being able to support them and their work was a great feeling!
The corps members from City Year Greater Philadelphia did a great job working to complete all of the prep work for event at both the Philadelphia and Camden sites. We appreciated their flexibility and hard work all week. Their leadership and spirit during the prep week and event day helped to make both service sites a success! Thank you CYGP!
