New England
Gwethalyn Phillips
Bangor, ME
The people of Chicago are giving much of themselves to welcome us and make us feel at home in their lovely city. The Maine delegation decided to try to give a bit of ourselves in return. Today about twenty-five Maine Delegates worked on a community clean-up project with fifteen boys and girls from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. unit of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago. The Club cleans vacant lots in the neighborhood about four times a year to help maintain pride in the community. Our job, today, was to collect the glass, tires, and debris in the lot across the street from the Club entrance. I worked quite a bit with Jasmine, a nine year-old who has been in the Club every day since she was four. She is a delight--so bright and happy and full of plans for school this fall. A young man named Darrell sat next to me at lunch. He plans a medical career and is anxious for school to start. After all was said and done, these young people gave far more to us than we could possibly give to them.
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