“A charity group run by college students plans to complete more than a dozen community service projects around the city next spring,” the Telegram & Gazette reported in a recent article covering the projected goals of Working for Worcester.
Founded at the College of the Holy Cross in 2012, Working for Worcester released a list of 18 projects around the City planned for the April 16 work day in Spring 2016. “The organization typically gets around 1,000 people pitching in each year,” the Telegram said, “including students from all of the city’s colleges.”
Brendan Healey ’16, a co-chair of the organization, told the Telegram that this year’s project goal was “ambitious, for sure.” But nothing the organization couldn’t handle. Working for Worcester has opened many of its volunteers’ eyes to the needs of the City that often get overlooked. “When I first did this project,” Healey explained to the Telegram, “I saw a side of Worcester that not everybody sees.”
To improve the Worcester community on all fronts, the organization’s project list for 2016 includes working for Plumley Village, in one of the poorer sections of the City, to the more suburban neighborhoods of the West Side. Working for Worcester received around 30 project requests this year. Tatnuck Magnet School was among those request. Erin Dobson, Tatnuck’s principal, told the Telegram, “For me personally, it’s great to see people, especially young people, come together to make this community we all love a better place for everyone.”
From the Boys & Girls Club to Swing Into Action, a Worcester-based, inclusive playground advocacy group, Working for Worcester hopes to transform project sites for the better. Molly Hourigan ’16, Working for Worcester co-chair alongside Healey, said, “Seeing the results, and seeing the difference between the morning before and the evening after, it's a great transformation.”
Earlier in the year, Working for Worcester received a $29,000 grant from the Activation Fund of The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts for technology and sustainability, with the goal to enable the organization to move to a higher level of capacity and continue to function at that level even after the grant ends.
In 2014, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams featured Working for Worcester, then led by Jeffrey Reppucci ’14 and Derek Kump ’14, on their “Making a Difference” segment in 2014. The project raised more than $100,000 and renovated 20 community sites around the City.
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This "Holy Cross in the News" item is by Emma Collins '16.
