South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Hundreds volunteer to Make A Difference in their communities
FORT LAUDERDALE – From painting to picking up trash to growing food, hundreds of volunteers rolled up their sleeves at 35 project sites around Fort Lauderdale on Saturday morning.
It was all part of the Make A Difference Day national campaign dedicated to neighbors helping neighbors.
Tarmekara Wilson, 45, is one of those neighbors in need of help. She has lived in a home in the 1000 block of Park Drive since she was about 8 years old and it had fallen into disrepair.
A city code enforcer noticed and helped her get her affairs in order, then dozens of volunteers showed up to paint her house about 7 a.m. Saturday.
“If it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t be here. I truly appreciate her,” Wilson said. “God sent me these angels, these Earth angels to come help me and I thank God for that.”
Over by the Fort Lauderdale Fire and Safety Museum, at 1022 W. Las Olas Blvd., local Rotary Club president Pat McNamara and about a dozen others were picking up litter on the surrounding streets.
“Well, our motto is ‘Service Above Self’ so we do as many service projects around town as we can,” he said. “To d ay, we ’ re cleaning the streets.”
“The idea is if we all work together we can all get more done quicker,” added fellow volunteer Jaye Abbate.
In Snyder Park, at 3299
SW Fourth St., master gardener Joan Starr and her volunteers were planting an edible food forest.
“About three years ago we started to redevelop this area to make it a food forest so that not only was it a habitat for birds and butterflies but also for humans,” she said.
Among the edible items being grown were various herbs, coconuts, pineapples, mangoes and Everglades tomatoes.
“It’s not Publix, but …I’m hoping that once this is developed, yes, people can come in and take what they want,” Starr said. “A lot of this is to encourage people to grow their own food.”
Besides these environmentally conscious projects, there were clean-ups at the beach and along waterways around Fort
Lauderdale. A few libraries were also hosting book readings for children and collecting book and toy donations.
The annual event takes place on the fourth Saturday of October and is the largest community service volunteer effort conducted nationwide.
wkroustan@ sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4303 or Twitter @WayneRoustan