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Co-opers Building Community
By Sarah Horwitz
Vice President of External Affairs
Long before the sun came up on a beautiful Saturday morning on October 14th, twenty-two co-opers were already starting their day, putting on work clothes, and heading to what ended up being this year’s first—but not last—highly successful co-op community service day. Largely due to the hard work and infectious enthusiasm of co-op old-timer and everyday-innovator Jordan Pelot-Whitcomb, seven folks from Castro, five from Cloyne, four from Hoyt, three people from the African-American Theme House, and one person each from Wilde and Lothlorien spent their Saturday at Sobrante Park in East Oakland repairing the homes of senior citizens.
We were participating in a workday by Rebuilding Together, working side by side with other community groups, including a women in business association, an honors society, and an African-American sorority. Some of us painted a new wheelchair ramp on a senior couple’s home, while some hauled wheelbarrows of dirt for a new garden and others lifted old furniture into dumpsters and helped to carry in replacements. For Erica Mu of Hoyt, “it was neat to have the family working with us on the house.”
At lunch time we enjoyed resting in the sun, munching on the sandwiches (including a vegan option!) that Rebuilding Together had provided for us, and getting to know some of our workmates better. Then it was back to work, but work like this brought a smile to our paint-splattered faces, and not only because we were we giving back to our community. We also had the opportunity to build community both between our organization and others, and to strengthen the community amongst co-opers from different houses. For me, the best part was getting to work with co-opers from different houses that I had never met before. By the end of the day, a chorus of co-opers began chirping about how we should apply the Rebuilding Together model to our own homes, and build inter–co-op community by having Rebuilding the USCA workdays!''
Sarah is a Senior majoring in History. She lives at Oscar Wilde House.