16406: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Volunteers spruce up Little Haiti sites (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Aug. 15, 2003

Volunteers spruce up Little Haiti sites
Effort kicks off United Way's '03 fundraising
BY TIFFANI KNOWLES
tknowles@herald.com


More photos

NEW SOD: United Way volunteer Danni Catambay carries sod Thursday for a
street swale in Little Haiti. TIM CHAPMAN/HERALD STAFF


Marie Augustine recalls playing games of tag as a child in the dirt yard,
filled with broken bottles and rusty cans, of Little Haiti's Athalie Range
Park.

''It was really trashy. Now the kids will have grass to play on instead of
dirt,'' said Augustine, 19, pointing at the newly installed picnic tables,
freshly painted murals and a permanent volleyball court.

On Thursday, she was among the 3,000 volunteers representing more than 50
Miami-Dade County organizations working from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. as part of the
United Way's ''Big Hearts in Little Haiti'' cleanup project.

A half-mile strip of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, between Interstate 95
and Northwest Second Avenue, was blocked off to traffic as the volunteers
gave face lifts to the Miami Edison Library, the Edison Courts Management
Office, Edison Park Elementary, Miami Edison Senior High, Miami-Dade Schools
Police headquarters, the Annette Eisenberg Community Center and the park.

Augustine worked with the Greater Miami Service Corps, laying sod, planting
trees and painting the walls inside the Eisenberg Community Center at
Northwest Fifth Avenue.

Thursday's event officially launched the United Way's yearly fundraising
campaign. Last year's campaign raised $47 million, said Blanca Silva,
director of media relations for United Way of Miami-Dade. The money is used
to support social service agencies that provide emergency food and shelter
programs and assist children and families.

''Our mission with projects like this is building community by helping
people care for one another,'' said Tamara Klingler, senior vice president
of public relations for the United Way of Miami-Dade. ``In one day we can
transform lives, we can transform a community.''

Counting free labor and donations of supplies, the value of the the cleanup
project is about $500,000, said Klingler.

A focal point of the project is the development of the Haitian Freedom
Garden at North Miami Avenue.

Dozens of workers added landscaping and created a wall to prevent cars from
parking on the grass.

Two flagpoles eventually will be installed to fly the U.S. and Haitian
flags, and a monument of Haitian significance will be built by the city of
Miami.

It's the 13th year the United Way has held a cleanup project. Last year,
volunteers joined forces to spruce up Haulover Beach.

As sisters Raymonde and Roseline Jean Joseph strolled by a team painting the
exterior of their high school's athletic storage building on their way back
from the library, they marvelled at the work being put into their community.

''I think it's wonderful,'' Roseline said. ``I didn't think that many people
in the world cared.''

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