A-OK Detroit draws more than 800 volunteers on 9/11 anniversary

On Sunday, Sept. 11, more than 830 volunteers converged on Detroit's Focus:HOPE campus for a day of community service and intercultural connection called A-OK (Acts of Kindness) Detroit. 

A-OK Detroit, designed to transform 9/11 into a day of caring and service, brought together diverse community groups with common missions of unity, peace, and mutual understanding.  Supporters included ACCESS, Women's Interfaith Solutions for Dialogue and Outreach in Metro Detroit (WISDOM), the Interfaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit, the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan, City Year Detroit, United Way, J-Serve, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and the University of Michigan-Dearborn.   

After a kick-off rally led by community leaders including William Jones, CEO of Focus:HOPE, Annie Ellington, chief service officer for the City of Detroit, Hassan Jaber, CEO of ACCESS, and Asim Mishra from the Corporation for National and Community Service in Washington D.C., volunteers cleaned up the Focus:HOPE campus and packed food for the hungry. Chinese transfer students from UM-Dearborn worked alongside Arab Americans, and Christians and Jews worked beside Muslims and Buddhists in a spirit of respect and harmony.

Volunteers planted a tree with a placque reading: "September 11, 2011 - Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 through Community Connection and Dialogue." Teens wrote letters to U.S. troops, stuffed backpacks, assembled school supply kits, and created "inventions" from scrap supplies for Detroit Public School teachers and students.  Jewish teens from J-Serve worked together with Muslim teens from ACCESS and Christian teens from various churches in the Metro Detroit area. 

After the service projects, the teens engaged in structured dialogue, sharing ideas about their cultural backgrounds, stereotypes they had experienced or witnessed, and what drew them to serve at A-OK Detroit. 

Allye Gaietto, a City Year Detroit Volunteer from Muskegon, Michigan, said that A-OK was part of her City Year mission to serve people in Detroit, which includes teaching adolescents and helping in a senior center. 

Sumaya Musleh, a Wayne State University student, volunteered through ACCESS "because of the chaos that happened in Dearborn with Terry Jones. . . coming to Dearborn to spread the word that Islam is a bad religion. We are all citizens and we need to care about each other."

Abby Siegal, a 14 year-old Groves High School student, commented, "It doesn't matter what religion we are, we all need to help our community. I have friends who said they were too scared to go down into Detroit to volunteer.  We are all just people--human beings that need to understand one another."

Teens served in interfaith groupsGabby Lowenthal, a J-Serve volunteer from West Bloomfield High School, observed, "People forget that there were Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the buildings that were attacked on 9/11.  I was too little at the time to understand, but now I know enough to give back to the community, so that nothing like this happens again."

Bill Wenzel, director of volunteer opportunities at Focus: HOPE, summed up spirit of the day: "This whole concept of A-OK meshes with the mission of Focus: HOPE.  I only wish our co-founder Eleanor Josaitis, who recently passed away, could have seen all of the adults and teens from different faiths and ethnic backgrounds coming together for a common purpose--to break down barriers, understand we are all human, and lift up Detroit!"

Gail Katz, co-founder of WISDOM and co-chair of the IFLC education committee, said, "I am so thrilled that my life's passion--bringing diverse folks together for community connection and dialogue--was realized at A-OK Detroit.  I look forward to A-OK Detroit becoming an annual signature interfaith/intercultural event in Metro Detroit."