One Saginaw neighborhood is seeing improved and painted houses, repaired porches and trimmed trees this week.
That is what the volunteers of the annual One Week, One Street event have been working on to help the community.
Tamara Klida, the event organizer, said around 150 volunteers each day, Monday through Friday, came to Collingwood Street in the east side of Saginaw to repair 23 homes.
“We’re not just (in the world) for ourselves. We’re here to help others, we’re here to work together,” Klida said. “I feel really blessed to just be able to see all these people come who are willing to give up their days. Some people take work off to come and help others. It’s really inspiring for me.”
Klida said this is the 11th year of One Week, One Street, which always takes place in the last full week of June as volunteers gather from churches and organizations across the region to improve houses on a certain street in the city.
Beth De Vries, founder of Phoenix Community Farm in Midland, came to the event with a group of 10 people from the Midland Reformed Church. She said they have been working on landscaping, cleaning and gardening.
“We are passionate about loving our neighbors,” De Vries said. “I like working as a team. I like the opportunity to be out and to serve.”
Evelyn Baldwin, a pastor in the New Beginnings Deliverance Ministries, remembers how in 2013 the event started from the ideas of her husband, Pastor Roy Baldwin, and Klida.
“When we first started, it started small,” Evelyn Baldwin said. “We had an idea ... and we felt the need to make a positive change in the community. ...Then, on the first day, we didn’t know if people were going to come or not, and then it was like buses and buses of people that just came.”
She said this event has positively impacted the area, helped people enjoy their neighborhood, and brought down the crime rate.
“After we did the work in the community, it was like you could feel the spirit of God in that area, you can feel the spirit of love in the community,” she said.
Danette Bliss has been also coming to the event since its early years with her husband and kids. For her, it was an opportunity to teach her children kindness.
“All four of them are adults now, and each of them have hearts of service,” she said. “(One Week, One Street) changed the way they see people. They love to serve and help others.”
Stephen Thomas, 12, came with Bliss’s church group to volunteer at One Week, One Street. He said he cut tree branches and painted a house.
“We’ve got to give back to the community,” Thomas said when asked why he attended the event.
Kendrea Pratt was repairing a house with her group from Saginaw City Rescue Mission. She said this is her second year joining One Week, One Street.
“I think volunteering is important for either young or old,” Pratt said. “Put your time in helping the community, building the community, making it look good.”
