Chicago had the largest turnout, with over 50 people! Volunteers cleaned over 4 acres of a Chicago park and mulched trees for the summer. It was a beautiful sunny day spent outside doing good old fashioned manual labor with friends, and making friends with strangers.
“When we showed up to Douglas Park, my friends and I were pretty overwhelmed at how huge it was. We figured we’d target a corner of the park, clean it up, put mulch around the trees, and that would be all we could get to in the few hours I had before I had to go perform in a show on the other side of town. As a kid, I never had to play in a trash-filled playground or worry if my bare feet would land on broken glass when I jumped off the swing. Not the case here. Amanda kicked off the Chicago CommuniTyler event atop a little hill, which was to be our meeting place for the day. It was so great seeing Northwestern friends, familiar faces, and meeting new people – some from around Chicago, some who had traveled from as far as Georgia to take part in the day. Thankfully Ty gave us a beautiful sunny day to be outside. The most obvious starting point for trash pick up was the playground, which was spotless within 20 minutes with so many helping hands on deck. Before we knew it, our little hill meeting spot was out of eyesight, and people from the street were thanking us for cleaning up the park where their children play. Our “corner” of the park just kept expanding, and what a difference it made. The park looked amazing, every CommuniTyler volunteer was sufficiently sweaty, covered in mulch dust, and united in friendship and service.”
−Erika Kokkinos
