By Danny Fenster, text and photos.
It is a beautiful Saturday in Detroit, 72 degrees and sunny, and at Hart Plaza, families and young couples are taking in the sun by the river.
Below, in the shade of the underground amphitheater, a youthful mix of volunteers and organizers from the group Summer in the City are covering the walls with new paint.
Summer in the City is a Detroit non-profit that organizes volunteers for a variety of programs in the city. The group has a three-pronged approach in Detroit, says Executive Director Ilene Crane: Paint, Plant and Play.
"We like alliteration," she says. The first P is obvious enough—this is one of many murals they have painted throughout the city. The planting includes gardening projects they are working on.
They have plans to create a garden in Southwest Detroit this summer. The playing alludes to work they do with community centers and Detroit Public Schools to get kids active outdoors.
Crane (pictured above) says the city reached out to them and asked them to paint over an existing, fading mural celebrating the city's 300th birthday. Hence, the newly resplendent walls.
Crane began working with Summer in the City while home from Central Michigan University six years ago. After spending time in Detroit, "I could not go back to Mount Pleasant," she says.
She transferred to Wayne State and soon began working full-time for the non-profit.
"This is definitely the largest scale (mural) we've done," she says.
They have six more working days left to finish painting Hart Plaza. Crane says she been drumming up volunteers through postings on Facebook and Twitter pages.
Michele Oberholtzer is part of a new non-profit, Seed Detroit, a volunteer network that is about to launch in Detroit. Oberholtzer (pictured above) says Seed plans to launch next week, and will work with Detroit-based Loveland Technologies on projects, with the help of financial supporters in San Francisco.
