Make a Difference Day

The fourth Saturday of October witnessed national ‘Make a Difference Day. ‘What did you do to make a difference in your community? Did you, volunteer at a soup kitchen, tutor a student, volunteer at a nursing home or hospital? This year, I was lucky enough to have two projects. The first was Scots in Service Day and the second was in giving a helping hand at the United Way’s Southwest Solutions early learning center.

Everyone who knows me knows that I went to the College of Wooster, GO SCOTS. Each and every year, we Scots, come together, across the world, and give back to our communities. This year, Wooster Detroit community worked with Kensington Metro Park. Anyone who lives in the metro Detroit region, and hasn’t already, should make it out to the park, it’s a beautiful place to visit. This year we helped the park by removing some invasive trees. After we were done, we fed some birds; one even perched on the edge of my hand to eat some seeds.

Southwest Solution is an early learning center located in the heart of Detroit. They focus on empowering parents with young children, ages that range from birth to five. The center also provides free early learning to children, in one most impoverished location in the country. The biggest surprise to me was that the signs were bilingual and that 80% of the families they service are Spanish speaking. We helped Southwest solution by building an outdoor shed on their playground. Overall, it felt good to get my hands dirty and help two great organizations. I hope everyone else made a difference too.