Mission Washington week biggest yet
Courtesy of The Dreamers Company
The 7th Ward Playground after Mission Washington students worked last week to make improvements
Courtesy of The Dreamers Company
A group of youth and adult volunteers pose for a photo during Mission Washington, a weeklong community service project.
Courtesy of The Dreamers Company
The 7th Ward Playground before Mission Washington students worked last week to make improvements
Courtesy of The Dreamers Company
A West Hallam Avenue garage after Mission Washington students worked last week to restore it
Courtesy of The Dreamers Company
A West Hallam Avenue garage before Mission Washington students worked last week to restore it
Youth from across the county made a big impact in Washington’s 7th Ward during last week’s Mission Washington, a weeklong community service project.
“It was our biggest year ever,” said Aaron Miller, one of the founders of the Dreamers Company and organizer of Mission Washington.
About 95 students worked on beautification projects in the neighborhood along with about 60 adult volunteers.
“The 7th Ward playground was one of our big focuses this week,” Miller said. “We’ve worked there for three years now, and this was kind of the crowning achievement to finish it.”
They installed new playground equipment and basketball nets at the playground, put down new mulch and cleaned up around sidewalks that surround the park.
Another big accomplishment during the service week was restoring a detached garage in the 200 block of West Hallam Avenue. The garage and house are owned by a veteran who lives at the house next to the garage with his children and grandchildren. Volunteers helped restore the garage and install a new roof on it as well as on the house. The Citywide Development Corporation sponsored most of the West Hallam project, Miller said.
“This all happens because of those incredible partnerships,” Miller said.
Blueprints helped provide housing and food for the youth all week, and the Washington County Transportation Authority helped transport the youth from Washington & Jefferson College, where they were staying, to the 7th Ward each day.
Miller said many businesses and individuals volunteered this year. The staff at Good Orthodontics in Washington closed the office for a day to volunteer with Mission Washington, and also made a monetary donation to the efforts.
“That’s one thing that’s so important to the Dreamers – it’s the community collaboration,” Miller said.
Last year, due to the pandemic, Mission Washington was modified to a small group of volunteers and spread out over smaller projects throughout the city, as a means to comply with social distancing guidelines. This year, they had more volunteers and enthusiasm than ever.
“I think some of it is just that people are eager to be out and doing things again,” Miller said. “There are some incredible people that want to help. I keep thinking how incredible these volunteers are to come help out with a community that, in some cases, it’s not even their own.”
The group also completed about seven beautification projects on Donnan and Shirls avenues, for which landlords and homeowners provided materials and plants and they provided the labor.
“Neighbors would see that we were doing a lot of work, and they’d want us to help them too,” Miller said. “There were a lot of people that just needed help. All the volunteers we had and their hard work all week long just really shows you the goodness of people. When they realize they can make a difference in someone’s life, that feeling goes a long way.”