As someone who lives in Philadelphia, I’ve never been to any events. I always played with my neighbors or stayed home. Growing up I was surrounded by violence on a consistent basis. Joining We Love Philly has given me a new outlook on the city . Philadelphia is showing me that there are good people that want to do positive things for the community. Their are organizations that create events on your own block and I never had that growing up. I’m grateful to see these organizations doing something for our community and We Love Philly is giving me the chance to be apart of these events. An event that serves one of the most important holidays that brings people together is probably the most unexpected idea I’ve seen happening. The holiday I’m referring to is Martin Luther King Day and the organization is called Global Citizen.
Global Citizen is an organization that creates events, opportunities and entertainment for Philadelphia. Global Citizen teaches the community that we can all come together. Global Citizens targets diverse groups for civic engagement through volunteering, community building, service learning and leadership training. Global Citizen’s aim is to bring diverse groups together and build a stronger community. Global Citizen has volunteer events that span throughout the year. Their biggest event of the year is their MLK Day of Service. This year they had over 150,000 volunteers participate throughout the Philadelphia area. The We Love Philly team and I couldn’t believe what we saw when we arrived to volunteer this year.
When I arrived at Girard College I couldn’t believe how big it was. It looked like a college campus. It was cool to listen to the history of the location from Mr. Aponte. I never knew the significance it held during the Civil Rights Movement. When we entered the gymnasium, there were several tables with several different organizations setting up. I started off volunteering by helping an organization set up a table and by writing some positive messages on the wall. Afterwards I continued to the basement. That’s when the fun began. I put on a volunteer shirt and helped with sign in sheets. I began giving away T-shirts to everyone who signed their names and email addresses. Waves of a hundred people at a time kept coming. It was inspiring to see so many people who were there to volunteer or to take advantage of all the free community resources. It was a learning experience for me. I met a lot of people and I had a lot of fun. I want to thank Global Citizen for the opportunity to help volunteer for them and attend this huge event. If you want to learn more about Global Citizen listen to our podcast at the top of this page and if you want to see footage from the event check out the volunteer video we made for them below.