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Saturday, July 25, 2009
ARISE Detroit! designed to lift city spirits
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Events on Aug. 1 designed to lift spirits, help
city
Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
Detroit -- An Aug.1 celebration of the city's neighborhoods will include
more than 150 events, organizers said Friday.
This will be the third such day organized by ARISE Detroit!, a nonprofit organization
dedicated to lifting the city's spirits through improvements in everything from
cleanliness to getting people to act more neighborly. Among the events planned are
picnics, children's activities and community cleanup efforts.
At a press conference Friday announcing the event, Mayor Dave Bing said such activities
are what the city needs. More than 400 community-based organizations are expected
to participate.
"City Hall cannot do it alone," Bing told a crowd of about 50 people gathered in
a McDonald's restaurant on Grand River. Area McDonald's owners are sponsors of the
day.
ARISE officials presented a symbolic check to the mayor for more than $600,000 --
the economic impact, they say, that the day has on Detroit.
"Detroit is sometimes down, like we are right now, but you can never count Detroit
out," said Melvin Jones, a McDonald's operator.
Martha Booker, a 19-year-old Detroiter, will participate in an Aug. 1 children's
event at the Joseph Walker Williams Recreation Center. The effort "keeps our city
alive," she said.
For more information, call (313) 921-1955 or visit
arisedetroit.org.
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, center, listens to details of the third annual ARISE Detroit!
The daylong event includes picnics and cleanup efforts. (Santiago Esparza / The
Detroit News
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