Michigan volunteer efforts lauded

Date: June 21, 2007
By: Oralandar Brand-Williams
Source: The Detroit News

DETROIT -- They serve in soup kitchens. They teach adults to read. They mentor fatherless boys. They do it willingly and freely.

On Wednesday evening, Gov. Jennifer Granholm thanked them for their selfless spirit with Governor's Service Awards during the Miracle of Volunteering awards ceremony at the Fox Theatre.

"This is an incredible group of people," said Granholm at the event. "This is what Michigan is all about. This is who we are."

Eleven Michigan organizations, businesses and individuals were honored for their volunteerism throughout Michigan.

Those honored:

Comcast Communications of Detroit, which received an Outstanding Corporate Citizenship Award

Bridget Gaitor of Taylor, who received a Youth Volunteer Award of Excellence

Winning Futures-Mentoring Solutions program in Warren, which was honored with an Innovative Mentoring Program Award. The organization serves children in grades three through 12 in Highland Park, Oak Park, Warren and Pontiac through its educational mentoring program. Kristina Marshall, the program's first participant and now its president and CEO, was overwhelmed by the honor, she said.

"It's amazing. It's really a tribute to our mentors, our business sponsors and mostly our kids," said Marshall, 30."It's a wonderful tribute. I'm really grateful for it."

Madonna University and the All Saints Neighborhood Center received a Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Award for a community partnership program with a variety of community services such as literacy tutoring, computer training, and a health and wellness program at a community center run by All Saints Catholic Church.

Lenore Croudy of Flint received the Governor George Romney Lifetime Achievement Award for Volunteerism.

Doug Heslip of Marquette received the Exemplary Volunteer Service Award

Tuesday Toolmen of Kalamazoo received the Exemplary Community Service Program Award

Carlas Quinney Jr. of Lansing received the Outstanding Mentor Award

Margaret Yake of Lexington received the Senior Volunteer Award of Excellence

Special awards were given to Hugo E. Braun Jr., who received the Russell G. Mawby Award for Philanthropy for outstanding service in Saginaw County and Molly Dobson of Ann Arbor, who received the Community Foundation Award for Philanthropy.

You can reach Oralandar Brand-Williams at (313) 222-2027 or bwilliams@detnews.com.

Finalists see duty to help others

Date: June 20, 2007
By: Julie Edgar
Source: Detroit Free Press

GOVERNOR REWARDS VOLUNTEERS' EFFORTS
Awards ceremony tonight in Detroit

Gov. Jennifer Granholm will honor citizens tonight who have given back to Michigan by volunteering.

The annual awards dinner starts at 7 p.m. at the Fox Theatre in Detroit.

Four individual awards, a corporate award and three philanthropist awards will be given.

"Nobody does this to get recognition, but it's nice to be recognized," said Mary Grill, director of communication for the Michigan Community Service Commission.

Eight metro Detroit people have been nominated for individual awards. The Free Press profiled four of them on Tuesday. To read about them, go to www.freep.com. Here are the remaining local finalists for the individual award:

Teen helps at hospital

In the gift shop at Oakwood Heritage Hospital in Taylor, Bridget Gaitor spends part of her weekend volunteering when others her age would rather spend the day hanging out with friends.

The Taylor teen not only volunteers at the gift shop, but she also canvasses doctors' offices for donations of magazines to give to patients.

"I wanted to go out and help people -- not just the people I knew, the people in the community," said the 17-year-old recent graduate of Harry S Truman High School in Taylor who is nominated for the youth volunteer award. "I believe you're supposed to give back."

One of her earliest acts of helping others was organizing book drives when she was a student at Nolan Middle School in Detroit.

Bridget donated collected books to the school library and the Detroit Public Library.

In the past, she has worked with young children at the Boys and Girls Club in Romulus and spearheaded Drug Free Taylor Day through the Oakwood Taylor Teen Health Center.

Last year, she served as president of the African-American Teen Leadership Council at her high school. Her advice to other teens who may be considering volunteering: Do it.

"They should really get into it," she said. "It fulfills a lot. You get to meet a lot of new people, learn a lot of new things."

By Cecil Angel

Senior was helped himself

For more than half his life, Herman Dooha has been a volunteer.

And the 84-year-old from Detroit continues to do so.

For at least 50 years, he has given his time to social welfare and economic organizations. Currently, he is board president for the Citizens for Better Care, a Detroit-based nonprofit with offices around the state that advocates for long-term, quality care for people who need it.

He said giving back is important to him because of all that he received as a teen living on welfare during the Great Depression.

"I think I have an obligation to do what I can to assist people" and "to motivate people to fulfill their full potential."

For most of his life, Dooha has worked in the accounting field for companies and organizations such as New Detroit and the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. He also is a board member for Simon House, a Detroit nonprofit that provides housing for homeless women who have AIDS and their children.

Dooha, nominated for the senior volunteer award, is the widower of former Detroit City Councilwoman Maryann Mahaffey, who served the city for more than 30 years until 2005.

By Bowdeya Tweh

Idea catches on with others

A conversation with her daughter sparked an idea in Clarkston resident Kimberly Viazanko: Create a program so children, even those as young as 5, can help the community through service projects.

"I was born to do this," said Viazanko, 44.

And now, four years later, the program -- Serving Our Community Kid Style, or SOCKS -- has resulted in her nomination for the Exemplary Volunteer Service Award, something that embarrasses and pleases the full-time mom of three.

SOCKS debuted in Independence Elementary School -- which all of Viazanko's children attended -- and has spread to the rest of Clarkston Community Schools and even to schools in Ohio and Colorado through word-of-mouth.

Some SOCKS projects include baking 1,200 muffins for Meals on Wheels and making fleece blankets for Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.

It was supposed to be a small, one-time thing, but Viazanko said that after the initial SOCKS effort in 2004, it was so popular that it continued to grow.

So far, more than 2,300 students and teachers have participated. Viazanko estimates that more than 2,500 people in the community have benefited.

By Korie Wilkins

Committed to her cause

For her hands-on commitment to many social causes, particularly her work on behalf of people with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers, former WKBD-TV (Channel 50) newswoman Amyre Makupson has been nominated for the governor's Exemplary Volunteer Service Award.

Makupson, 58, a Southfield mother of two, was nominated by the Alzheimer's Association of Michigan, where she has served on the board for 20 years. The organization helped her when her mother was diagnosed with the disease.

"I've been fortunate my entire life," Makupson said. "For some reason, I knew it and I always reached out," she said. "If I have time, what's wrong with trying to make it easier for someone else?

"On the selfish end, I believe there's a heaven, and I believe I'll be rewarded."

By Julie Edgar

Program's power is in organized sports

Date: June 21, 2007
By: DESIREE COOPER,FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Source: Detroit Free Press

City kids find haven at Westside club

Erica Wright, 61, stood proudly before a wall plastered with newspaper articles and graduation pictures of children and alumni of her program.

She is the founder of the Westside Cultural and Athletic Club, a grandiose name for a shoestring program designed to offer the kids of her impoverished, drug-ridden neighborhood constructive alternatives. Wright has operated the program for more than 30 years from a two-story house next to her childhood home on Detroit's west side.

When I visited her earlier this spring, she pointed with pride to the articles. But her pride was mixed with sorrow.

"I have stopped going to funerals," she said, after recounting how several of the children pictured had been killed over the years. She then pulled open a drawer full of obituaries.

"This is ridiculous," she said. "You have no idea of the tragedies these kids go through and survive."

Running for their lives

Wright knows what they're up against. On a field trip once, she brushed by a kid who was sleeping on the bus.

"The child jumped awake and yelled, 'No! Stop touching me!' " Wright said. "I felt so bad. So many of these kids are being abused."

The Westside Cultural and Athletic Club is a haven, where, for a few hours after school or on long summer days, children can play sports, do arts and crafts and study.

"No gangs, no drugs or alcohol," said Wright, ticking off the rules. "You have to stay in school, respect adults and others and be willing to learn. This is an exclusive club -- it takes a lot to do that."

Rubbie McCoy, 36, was part of the club from fifth through 11th grade.

"Me and my girlfriends used to just walk up and down the street; we didn't have anything to do," McCoy said. "If it wasn't for Erica. I don't know if I would have been going to a pool."

McCoy is now a swimming instructor at Detroit's Chadsey High School. Her daughter, Porscha, 11, is a champion swimmer and honor roll student who said she loves playing basketball and swimming with the club, just like her mother did.

"I want to be in the Olympics," Porscha said. "I like to win."

One more at the door

Wright wants the 168 children who came through her program last year to be winners, and she will do what it takes to make them feel special. In May, she organized 71 neighbors to clean overgrown lots.

"We cleared a path from the church to the school so that everyone can keep an eye on the children as they go back and forth," she said. "Clean minds, clean bodies, clean communities."

Wright was a computer operator with the IRS until 1976, when her 9-year-old son's school baseball team started practicing in a nearby field. Neighborhood kids, who weren't on the team, started pelting them with rocks.

"I took them aside and played with them," Wright said. "The next day, they were on my porch asking 'What time is practice?' "

Wright immediately saw the power that organized sports had to defuse anger, teach discipline and open up children to learning.

"It broke my heart when I realized how many of them couldn't read," said Wright, who has won many awards, including the 2000 Founder's Award from the Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame. "Sports are a way to get them to vent their frustrations. They can run their anger off."

But for every Rubbie and Porscha McCoy, there are countless others who slip through Wright's fingers. In 2004, Alicia Jackson, 24, was killed in the neighborhood along with her 7-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter in a domestic dispute.

Jackson had been in Wright's program as a child, and, a "good little girl, a great teenager and a beautiful adult," Wright told the Free Press after the killings.

Wright said she has wanted to quit, especially since "too many people who could do something just don't care." But then another person comes to her door looking for something to do.

As if on cue, a man flagged Wright from across the street as I was leaving.

"Hey, Miss Erica!" he hollered. "When are we going to have another neighborhood cleanup?"

Contact DESIREE COOPER at 313-222-6625 or dcooper@freepress.com.

THE PLAYERS: Groups, people helping downtown rebound

Date: June 21, 2007
By: John Gallagher
Source: Detroit Free Press

Dozens of groups and thousands of people are playing roles in revitalizing Detroit. Here are some major players:

City of Detroit: Through its departments and its quasi-public arm, the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., the city plays a major role in planning and supporting almost all new development within its borders. Besides Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, key players include George Jackson, president of the DEGC and Kilpatrick's chief development officer, and Derrick Miller, a Kilpatrick aide who serves as co-chair of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy.

General Motors: Since it bought the Renaissance Center for its new world headquarters, GM has played a major role in spurring redevelopment of the city's riverfront. Matt Cullen, GM's head of economic development, cochairs the Riverfront Conservancy, which oversees the new RiverWalk. Other private corporations playing big roles include Compuware and Ilitch Holdings.

Detroit Riverfront Conservancy: Created in 2002, the conservancy runs the $250-million effort to build, operate and maintain the RiverWalk. Now about half complete, the RiverWalk one day should encompass the entire 5.5-mile length of the riverfront from the Ambassador Bridge to Gabriel Richard Park near the MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle. Faye Alexander Nelson, a former Wayne State University official, serves as the conservancy's president and CEO.

Downtown Detroit Partnership: Chaired by former Super Bowl Host chairman Roger Penske and run day-to-day by President and CEO Ann Lang, this group runs the Clean Downtown program. It also heads up the lobbying to create a business improvement district to market downtown attractions and maintain landscaping and visitor services.

Detroit 300 Conservancy: Working on contract with the City of Detroit, this nonprofit group designed, built and operates Campus Martius Park. Civil leader Edsel B. Ford II chairs the conservancy, while day-to-day operations are under President Robert Gregory.

Wayne State University: Besides increasing the size of its own campus, WSU promotes economic growth through its sponsorship of Tech Town, an incubator of high-tech start-up firms.

Ilitch Holdings: Now headed by President and CEO Christopher Ilitch, son of founders Mike and Marian Ilitch, this pizza and entertainment conglomerate owns the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings, the Fox Theatre, Hockeytown Café, Motor City Casino and lots of vacant real estate on the northern edge of downtown that may or may not one day become home to a new hockey arena.

Kresge Foundation: Headed by President and CEO Richard (Rip) Rapson, this Troy-based foundation launched the new Detroit RiverWalk in 2002 with matching grants of $50 million. That typified the way private foundations are playing a bigger, more direct role in redeveloping the city. Other foundations playing roles include the Skillman Foundation, Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan and Hudson-Webber Foundation.

Detroit Renaissance: This corporate leadership group, including leading CEOs and headed day-to-day by President Doug Rothwell, promotes economic growth in the city. Among other things, it has created the Detroit Investment Fund and other entities to help bankroll projects such as the Book-Cadillac Hotel renovation. It also contributed to the RiverWalk.

Eastern Market Corp.: Headed by President Katherine Beebe, this nonprofit umbrella group is working with the City of Detroit, other civic groups and Eastern Market businesses to upgrade and revitalize the market as a food-based regional attraction.

Preservation Wayne: This nonprofit group based in Detroit promotes the preservation and reuse of historic architecture. Although it does not undertake renovation projects itself, its promotion of historic architecture has helped shift development planning in Detroit from demolition to preservation.

Local Initiatives Support Coalition: Known as LISC, this nonprofit entity offers training and financial support to dozens of neighborhood redevelopment groups.

State of Michigan: The state plays a big part in promoting Detroit redevelopment through a wide variety of grants, loans and tax incentives.

Wayne County: With a big presence thanks to Wayne County courts, jails and government offices, the county promises to play and even bigger role downtown if county Executive Robert Ficano can pull off his plan for a major new criminal justice campus.

U.S. government: With a big presence downtown thanks to the McNamara Federal Building, the U.S. District Courthouse and other structures, the federal government is planning to build a major new regional FBI headquarters on the west edge of downtown.

Private developers: Private businessmen have spurred the renovation of dozens of sites in recent years. The best-known developers, such as the Ilitch family, are household names. Others include John Ferchill of Cleveland-based Ferchill Group, who is renovating the Book-Cadillac, and Bernie Glieberman of Novi-based Crosswinds Communities, who has built more than 200 new residential units in the Brush Park district.

Casinos: Detroit's three casinos -- MGM Grand Detroit, Motor City and Greektown -- are building permanent facilities. MGM and Motor City should open their completed projects by November; Greektown will follow about a year later.

Neighborhood groups: What started out as small, volunteer efforts 30 years ago have morphed into sophisticated, well-funded, professionally staffed development groups. Among the best known and most successful are the Warren-Conner Development Coalition and Bagley Housing Association.

Detroit seizes the moment to rebuild

Date: June 21, 2007
By: JOHN GALLAGHER, FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Source: Detroit Free Press

As varied interests cooperate, results rise in concrete, steel

Detroit's new RiverWalk, which officially opens Friday in a splash of celebrations and special events, offers more than fountains, a carousel and waterfront promenade.

It also offers a new model of redeveloping Detroit.

Born of widespread regional cooperation, the project saw the City of Detroit, General Motors Corp., the Kresge Foundation and dozens of other public and private players team up to create the RiverWalk and its nonprofit governing body, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy.

In a region riven by city-suburban feuds over such issues as Cobo Center, bus routes and water rates, the RiverWalk shows that competing interests can and do cooperate to achieve major goals.

"We really created a sense of urgency by convincing ourselves that this was a moment in time," Matt Cullen, a GM executive who serves as co-chair of the nonprofit riverfront conservancy, said this week.

"Three hundred years of history on the riverfront, and there was never a time in our history when somebody had the opportunity to say, 'We're going to reclaim the whole thing.' It was the coming together of a powerful vision and a real sense of urgency."

Nor is the RiverWalk a one-of-a-kind phenomenon. Similar models of public, private and nonprofit cooperation led to the creation of Campus Martius Park in 2004 and to the city's effort in hosting Super Bowl XL in 2006.

The same blend of city, corporate and nonprofit effort will see the Eastern Market reconstruction begin soon. The Riverfront Conservancy will take over operation and maintenance of an old railroad right-of-way known as the Dequindre Cut that the city is turning into a landscaped pedestrian and bike greenway.

This broader cast of characters marks a substantial change from development practices in the 1970s through the mid- to late 1990s, when then-Mayor Coleman Young often negotiated deals one-on-one with powerful executives such as Henry Ford II, Peter Stroh and Max Fisher.

"The old way is Hank the Deuce and Al Taubman and Mike Ilitch and Coleman Young would sit down, and they would get a project done," Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said this week. "But this is a new model, and because it's a new model, bringing everybody to the table, it's spurring so much development in other ways, people saying, 'Let's make it all happen.' "

Richard (Rip) Rapson, president and chief executive of the Kresge Foundation, which contributed $50 million in matching grants to create the RiverWalk, said the foundation tied its gifts to specific contributions and actions by others.

"It was an attempt to try to create the broadest possible spectrum of civic engagement in the project," he said.

Frustrations exist

This new model doesn't mean that development in Detroit has gotten easy, even for the RiverWalk.

"It's frustratingly slow at times," Cullen said. "There's a lot of times when it took a lot of cajoling and handholding to convince everybody to keep all the puppies in the box."

George Jackson, president of the city's Detroit Economic Growth Corp. and Kilpatrick's chief development officer, agreed.

"We haven't always been bosom buddies through the process," he said of the RiverWalk. "Not everyone agrees on everything. But I think the critical piece here, even with our differences, we all had the same objective, and we didn't let anyone get off the objective of making this a reality."

Robin Boyle, a Wayne State University urban planning professor, said the greater cooperation is real, not just a slogan.

"You do see a more diverse range of players who are making an impact. Is it a big enough impact? That's the $64,000 question. But at least it's different from 20 years ago, when the silver bullet was still being sought."

A turning point

Why the change? By the late '90s, planners began to realize the old single-player, single-project mode of development wasn't helping the city much.

Throughout the '70s, '80s, and early '90s, highly touted projects like the Renaissance Center, Riverfront Apartments, Harbortown and Stroh River Place tended to be individual projects that had little spin-off effect.

Similarly, Young's efforts to encourage new downtown skyscrapers saw two built -- One Detroit Center in 1992 and 150 W. Jefferson in 1989 -- but both did little more than take tenants from older downtown buildings.

"Back then, the focus was on building projects instead of building the city," said Larry Marantette, principal of the Detroit consulting firm Taktix Solutions who in the '80s helped develop the Harbortown project and later served as president of the Greater Downtown Partnership, which helped plan the Campus Martius area.

Beginning in the mid- to late '90s during the administration of Mayor Dennis Archer and continuing under Kilpatrick, planners have emphasized broader plans to revive entire districts, like the RiverWalk and Eastern Market.

"They're not one-off projects as much as a city rebuilding plan. There's a big difference," Marantette said this week.

New financial angles

Today's redevelopment efforts also benefit from a raft of new tax credits, investment pools and other aids that weren't available until the late '90s or later.

The Book-Cadillac Hotel renovation and several other recent downtown projects got part of their financing from the Detroit Investment Fund, a $52-million private capital fund set up by the corporate leadership group Detroit Renaissance to help revitalize the city.

"I think it's becoming a little more mainstream," said Colin Hubbell, a residential developer who has built several projects in the city's Midtown district. "There's more people that have gotten their arms around what we're doing in urban development."

Contact JOHN GALLAGHER at 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com.