July 2015 – Gather Baltimore / Franciscan Center / Living Classrooms Foundation

This past Saturday we had volunteer events at three separate sites and we were able to offer three very different volunteer opportunities. Two of them were repeat events for us with organizations that we love volunteering with and the other one was with Gather Baltimore, an organization that collects unsold vegetables, fruit and bread and redistributes it to local meal programs, faith communities and others in need. We were at the Bethel Street Garden. Our volunteers helped finish the hoop houses and created the plant beds that will be used for decades to come. This garden is in a space that used to be essentially an open-air drug market and it is great for the community to place a community garden where that activity used to be. Gather Baltimore does some incredible work and we were thrilled to be able to join them.

Our other two events were with old favorites of ours, The Franciscan Center and Living Classrooms Foundation. The Franciscan Center is a truly incredible place and Baltimore is lucky to have them. They support Baltimore’s most vulnerable citizens in many ways from providing food to blankets and clothing to professional attire for job interviews and even haircuts. We worked with them to organize donations they receive so they can go to the people that need them most. We were also back at Living Classrooms’ Youth Athletic and Education Center in Patterson Park and we had a blast! We played sports with the neighborhood kids and fed them hot dogs, oranges, popsicles and had a water ballon fight at the end for the kids. Everyone had so much fun and we are already looking forward to getting back out there and doing the same event next year. We will need to get back out there because the demand for the event was so much greater than the spaces we had available!