#greenvsgray

[dreamgreenteam1-blog]

Comcast Cares Day- Mubarak Kahloan

I volunteer every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at the Shane VIctorino Boys & Girls Club. The Boys & Girls Club is located at  4001 N. Clarissa Street Philadelphia, PA 19140, in Nicetown. The coordinator of the Nicetown club, Shakir Johnson reached out to me in early march expressing the details of an event for the kids on Earth Day. So on Earth Day, April 22nd, I engaged in seven hours of stewardship. Every year, Comcast, one of the largest American corporations, host an event for Earth Day. They have teamed up with Boys & Girls Clubs in Philadelphia and New Jersey. The event they run is called “#ComcastCaresDay”. Comcast cares day is Comcasts’ way of giving back to the local community in which they operate daily business,. Through this stewardship event many workers, families, and inhabitants of the area come together to help for a great cause.

WHAT DID I DO?

Beginning at 7 AM on Saturday April 22nd, we were put into groups. After groups were assigned we begun to conduct our stewardship. My group was instructed to clean up all the garbage from the playground. Honestly it pained me seeing so many alcohol bottles and cigarette butts on a children’s playground. A playground for kids should inherently be clean and danger free. Once we completed cleaning up the playground around 9 AM, it was time for the mulch. Since the spring has just arrived, new mulch is needed for the ground. My team was instructed to even out and level the mulch all across the playground, using rakes. Oh man mulch smells horrible, but you don’t smell it as much when you know you’re doing something for a good cause. We finished laying down and leveling the mulch around 11 AM. once the mulch went down what comes next? that’s right woodchips! My group then was instructed to level out the woodchips since they could not just leave the mulch on top. we finished laying down the woodchips around 12:30PM. What followed was definitely more fun than cleaning up the garbage and laying down the new foundation for the playground. At 12:30 we begun to take the weeds out of the garden. There was so many weeds all around the edge of the playground and garden. Shakir felt that we could move the garden to the other side of the fence, and lay more mulch and woodchips down, so the kids have more room to play on the playground area. We fully removed the garden. Once that was done at 1:30, we then begun our final task of the day. building a garden box out of wood and place plants and soil inside the box then put it on the grass outside the playground. We put perennial flowers and small shrubs in the garden boxes.  We finished putting together the garden boxes around 3 PM. Then we began the final clean up, then it was time to play with the kids. overall this stewardship was amazing. I actively volunteer weekly with my local community and I can’t even begin to stress the importance of stewardship and giving back to your community. It truly is a awesome feeling of pride, knowing you made a difference to help the environment and the less fortunate.

WHAT CORE CONCEPTS DID YOU SEE IN ACTION?

I saw the core concept of Stewardship primarily. so many Comcast workers along with many local volunteers were willing to wake up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday, to give back to the community. That is beautiful to me it is so important to give back. Another core concept I saw was the idea of eliminating the gray vacant lots in our urban communities. Less than ten years ago, the Boys and Girls club i volunteer at was a vacant lot. Through hard work and dedication, that lot was turned into a beneficial community engagement center for under privileged kids. Since the club was growing so rapidly, four years ago Shane Victorino and other leaders decided to purchase the vacant lot adjacent to the club to accommodate to growing influx of children. The Boys & Girls Club actively conducts acts of stewardship for the community which really is starting to make a significant difference.

HOW DOES THIS PROJECT OR AGENCY ADDRESS COMMUNITY NEEDS?

The Boys & Girls clubs’ mission is to enable all  young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Philadelphia will become one of the premier Boys & Girls Club organizations in the country, solidifying its position as the leading youth guidance and development agency in the community through quality staffing, facilities, and programs supported by financial stability and clearly defined standards.From the Boys and Girls Club Philadelphia website “UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF COMCAST AND DAVID L. COHEN, AND IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE SNIDER YOUTH HOCKEY FOUNDATION, OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS, BGCP WILL:Expand the reach of services by increasing the number of children served from 8,000 to 25,000:Meet the educational, social and emotional needs of members by introducing innovative new programs including: Internet Essentials Labs, the Call to Action Literacy Initiative, STEM Learning Labs and Kids CafesPartner with the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation to create the Ralph J. Roberts Boys & Girls Club including a full service ice-hockey rinkEnsure financial sustainability through increased community and foundation supportEnsure the implementation of high quality programs by promoting Boys & Girls Club values, developing long-term relationships with youth and actively engaging the philanthropic communityEnhance the quality of facilities – BGCP will raise $41 million to support capital expenses and create an endowment”. The Boys and Girls Clubs here in Philadelphia along with comcast want the best for the children in our community and are doing their best efforts to do so, they need all of our community engagement to continue to make significant strides.

HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR ROLE IN THE PROJECT?

Whats most important is effort, care and showing up. My role with the Boys & Girls Club is making sure all my little “brothers and sisters” are making positive impacts and bettering themselves. My role is showing up and giving my care. I Thank God everyday for giving me what I have been blessed with having. Once you truly are grateful for what you have you should give back to the less fortunate and your community, its the right thing to do. Over the past two years I have become so close with some of the children of the club and they truly do keep my spirits high as they always put a smile on my face and help me through the long school week. Community engagement is my role. On a broader sense, I personally feel my role is to get my friends and family to start spending time at the club and make sure they do their part to help out these beautiful children.

HOW WELL ARE YOU ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR SUPERVISOR AT THE COMMUNITY SITE?

I have known Shakir Johnson for almost two years now. Wow time flies. Shakir is one of the greatest human beings i have ever met. Shakir daily gives the club everything he can offer in every and any aspect. It is so easy to speak to Shakir because anything he is thinkig or going to say is the ethical right thing to say or do. Shakir seeks out to help anyone and is so outgoing that his vibe makes you never want to leave the club. Man I love Shakir I have learned so much from him about how to be a good person, man and leader. Shakir truly cares for these kids and I wish i could be half the man Shakir is.

Overall the Comcast Cares Day event at the Boys & Girls Club in Nicetown was phenomenal. I actively engage in volunteering and I can’t begin to express the importance and true beneficial impacts one can make in his/her community through stewardship.

[mrjonkhoo]

A bit of war and peace in #Greenwich this week as HMS Bulwark visits and moors by this great wildflower bit of green in the grey...

[jonnybsustainability]

Stewardship

Overview of Project: (Focus on Creating/Saving energy, mechanical power, & recycling)

I work for The Wharton School of Business as a Facilities/Project/Sustainability Manager. I did my Stewardship Project at UPENN's Green Power Down Challenge event on Feb. 24th, 2016. Our partnerships with this event were as follows, University of Pennsylvania, PENN Orb, Year of Discovery UPENN, PENN Sustainability Review (PSR), PENN Career Services, and Healthy PENN.

The Power Down Challenge empowers members of the Penn community to reduce their energy consumption and deepen their understanding of energy issues. Throughout the month of February, we and our partners join together for educational events and programs about energy consumption, reduction, and innovation. In connection with the University's Academic Theme Year, the Power Down Challenge in 2016 encouraged Penn community to "discover" ways in which energy consumption affects our community and environment- and how we can come together to strengthen our conservation efforts. The 2016 campaign culminated in a collaborative, campus-wide Energy Reduction Challenge on February 24th, 2016.

 ·         What Course Concepts did you see in actions?

The weeks we spent discussing soil and all the matter that it consists of came to mind a few times. The class we went through the 5 bags of different soils actually helped me decide if the soil from our space would be healthy. Also the past weeks focusing on trees really made me look at the Dogwoods differently than I ever had before. We are planning tree tours for next year!

 ·         What did you do?

During the 2016 Power Down Challenge, we saved a total of 220,640 kWh in 24 hours in our first ever single-day Energy Reduction Challenge. I personally went around to all 5 of our buildings on UPENN's campus and walked with our building managers to identify where we can save the most energy in our buildings. We focused on the areas of electricity, water, and steam functions of each building. After going through each building thoroughly we decided that we would be able to shut off about half of the lighting we use on a daily basis in each building. We placed recycling bins throughout each building for used batteries, ink cartages, paper, electronics (cell phones, computers, calculators, etc.), placed multiple signs informing students and faculty to unplug electronics not in use, to use our refillable water bottle fountains, to use our compost bins for food waste instead of dumping in regular trash, for them to use public transportation (bike, walk, subway, trolley, etc.), and of our recycling bins. We informed our building managers to lower thermostats in efforts to save more energy. Tree planting along our Vance Hall building was done as well and I spoke with our Senior Director of Operations about planting more trees for next year’s event and we are working out our budget to hopefully plant twice as many trees as we did this year (5). Along with this I spent the day making sure these were fulfilled by faculty. Most of this work was done by me prior to the event date and most of the signs for our event I either created or had part in creating. I spent 8 hours on the 24th of February 2016 taking part in and managing the event.

 ·         How does this project address community needs?

The community will benefit from many parts of our project. While some benefit our school as well. By having multiple recycling stations for all matters from plastics and cans to old computers and compost. With this we can help the entire Penn community lower its carbon footprint right here in Philadelphia. While everyone is remembering to recycle their plastic water bottles we encouraged everyone to use our filtered water bottle stations to help reduce the use of water bottles and the other beverage containers that go to our landfills and other areas. Advertised and had most travel to school or work without the use of their own personal vehicles and taking either public transportation, bicycling, walking, etc. Our planting of Pink Dogwoods helped an area on our campus that had stormwater gathering and after our planting and small reconstruction of the space we were successful. These events also helped bring many people of the community get together and achieve success in findings ways to save.

 ·         What did you do today that made you feel that you made a difference?

I believe that the energy we saved today will be energy we can use tomorrow. The outcome of our event was great. We saved a total of 220,640 kWh in just 24 hours. We planted some trees which is always a good thing for everyone, cannot have too many trees. I also believe that we really helped rid of a lot of trash that is now going to be recycled or disposed of properly. Finally I think that people will hold onto to some of the power saving tactics they did today.

  ·         What did you do that seemed to be effective or ineffective in service to others?

I believe my efforts were a part of the success we all achieved today. Without rewriting what I wrote for the question above I saw our compost and recycling projects turn out great. We were able to recycle so much and having compost areas for faculty and students to use I think will only help.

 ·         How can you continue your involvement with this Urban Greening Issue?

I will continue my involvement by working towards adding more creative and effective practices to our events. I will work to make next year’s PDC even better. I am extremely interested in all aspects of sustainability and I believe I’m going to focus my career in sustainability design/fabrication.  

 ·         How can you educate other or raise awareness about this Urban Greening Issue?

I can help spread awareness of the issues we are all facing and I can also work on solutions for those problems. By attending multiple events such as the IFMA Green Project, What IF Innovation Festival, Delaware Valley Green Building Council Tri-State conference, and so on to gain more knowledge of each situation.