To help clean up the inner city neighborhoods of Detroit, Sweepster Corp. recently donated a new John Deere skid-steer loader with scrap grapple bucket to help with the 5th annual Detroit Project.
Approximately 2,000 volunteers from area universities, schools and suburbs worked with a team of 40 project planners on 80 sites in northwest Detroit to demolish houses used for drug trafficking, board up unsafe structures, clean up public parks, plant new trees and flowers, paint city murals and clean up illegal dumpsites. The skid steer was used during the demolition projects.
The student-run Detroit Project, which began in 1999 as a single day of service, has grown into one of the largest community service organizations at the University of Michigan with an average of 1,500 volunteers or more participating each year. In recent years the project has expanded to include year-long service opportunities, including tutoring programs at Detroit elementary schools, an annual food and clothing drive and ongoing demolition and cleanup projects.
