This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 19, 2009 - His constituents probably would not have recognized Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe, D-1st Ward, on Saturday. Dressed in an insulated jump suit, boots, a knit cap and wearing shades, Troupe was among volunteers who worked at the old 6th District police station that is being converted into a community center.
The project was among many volunteer efforts inspired by President-elect Barack Obama’s nationwide weekend of service in conjunction with Martin Luther King Day and leading up to his inauguration on Tuesday. Other area service projects included food, clothing and blood drives.
The police station, at 5076 West Florissant, sits across the street from Calvary Cemetery. The building already has been gutted and is being readied for a range of community programs, including a radio station and a business incubator. The main goal, Troupe says, is to provide services and programs that uplift young people in north St. Louis.
“We want to teach them how to lead productive lives rather than lives of crime, and show them the value of education and training,” he said. “But more important, we want to show them a life in which they can grow and really be somebody.”
Help From South Side
Obama is right about the power and potential of the Internet for connecting people.
Debi and Tom Pratt, both 15th Ward residents, ended up working at the police station after inquiring about projects on an Obama campaign website. Troupe and other regular workers at the renovation project might not have known about the Pratts without the Internet site connecting volunteers to projects.
“We were involved in the Obama campaign this summer,” Debi Pratt said, “and this Saturday’s national day of service is really an extension of that campaign. The election is over, and this is the next level the Obama campaign wants to take us to. It’s not just about the election but about the real work that needs to happen now.”
She said Obama inspired her and others by urging Americans to show what they can do, “and we wanted to do something to show that we really mean we want change in America.”
After sifting through projects on the day of national service site, the Pratts decided that the renovation project would be useful because it involved helping youths.
Blood Drive
One of the most important service projects on Sunday was at the Young Israel Jewish Synagogue, 8101 Delmar Boulevard in University City. There the Red Cross and the Jewish community sponsored a blood drive. The idea came from Judy and Robert Hellman. An anesthesiologist, Hellman thought a blood drive would be an ideal service project.
“We can save (more) lives because the blood can be divided into different parts to meet the different needs of people,” he explains. “A cancer patient, for example, might need white blood cells while another patient might need red blood cells.”
Although the blood drive focuses on the Jewish community, Judy Hellman said other people also were welcome to participate.
“People tell us they’re very excited about this event,” she says, “and it’s a very appropriate event in light of the history taking place with the inauguration of the first black American president.”
Robert Hellman adds that he expected this year’s program to collect at least 75 units of blood, the same amount collected during their first blood drive last year.
“That’s an excellent beginning, considering the size of our congregation,” he said.
In fact, that’s an exceptional beginning, says Paul Layet, the Red Cross’ district recruitment manager.
“Generally after the holidays, it’s difficult to collect blood,” he says. “This drive is extremely beneficial to us because of the amount of blood collected. The 75 units collected last year were a lot. Generally blood drives collect about 37 units.
“Judy and Bob have taken ownership of this and made it a yearly community event. It’s not us but what they’ve done that makes this special.”
Coat Drive
Because Saturday’s temperature rose above freezing, it may have seemed odd to see the coats being handed out and collected by Hands Helping Hands in the 9800 block of Halls Ferry Road in North County. The organization was doing a brisk business, just the kind of day Zaria L. Cole imagined as co-founder of the group.
“Our goal is to eliminate the problems people face from lacking proper clothing and to prevent them from getting cold or sleeping outside because they don’t have shelter,” she says.
She says that while these problems aren’t widespread in North County, they are prevalent in the city. At her home in North County, Cole sorted through some clothing still available for distribution. She expects to put the coats and other winter items to good use by distributing them to homeless shelters in the St. Louis area.
In addition to collecting clothing to help the needy, she says the group wants to stress prevention. Saturday’s event was the first drive by Hands Helping Hands. The group set up shop at the business site of A&T Roofing “because we wanted a location people could get to easily. It also will be a drop-off site.”
Brother’s Keeper
The number of canned goods collected in one North Side drive on Sunday may not have seemed like much, but it showed the generosity of residents in that part of the city. The goods were collected when Mary Davis held what amounted to an open house at her home in the 5900 block of Drury Lane, where she also encouraged volunteers to sign up to become block captains as part of the Urban League’s Federation of Block Units. The organization serves as a neighborhood watch program to prevent crime.
Residents who saw the announcement about the Brother’s Keeper program were also encouraged to bring along canned goods for the St. Louis Urban League’s food pantry. At the end of the session, Davis had collected a large box of can goods and felt pleased by her work.
“I feel we are our brother’s keeper, and we must do what we can to help one another,” she says.
In addition, Sunday’s volunteer effort focused on an annual health walk. Each person who signs up for the health walk makes a commitment to get five people to walk with them. The goal of these walks is to educate the young about HIV and AIDS.
Davis says community residents are becoming more sensitive to ways to prevent crime in their neighborhoods. “The people of the community are excited about coming together to take back their blocks,” she says. “After all, if we don’t take charge, nobody else will.”
