Working for Worcester hosts 13th annual Build Day, local college students volunteer

WORCESTER — Dozens of Working for Worcester volunteers gathered at the Austin/Newbury Street Tot Lot Saturday morning to build a neighborhood park. Volunteers began building the playground from the ground up.

Volunteers worked on all sides of the site, from laying mulch on an open area near the playground to hammering down pieces on the play set they constructed.

Working for Worcester started about 13 years ago. In the fall of 2012, Holy Cross junior roommates Jeff Reppucci and Derek Kump founded the group, dedicated to mobilizing college students to improve recreation infrastructure and opportunities across the city, according to its website. Years later, hundreds of Holy Cross students and Worcester residents continue to volunteer.

The day of service began at City Hall, where city officials and leaders for Working for Worcester spoke about the importance of community service.

"We have over a thousand volunteers today, which is great," JP McCarthy, Working for Worcester's director of community engagement and mobilization, said. "We have students from a bunch of different colleges in Worcester so it's awesome to get everyone together for a day to give back."

The Austin Street Tot Lot was one of their largest sites with the most volunteers, McCarthy said. Unlike previous years, the playground they built was not at a school but in a neighborhood.

The Austin/Newbury Street playground is a project seven years in the making. Common Ground, the organization that owns the lot occupied by the playground, built a playground on the lot in 2001 and has maintained it ever since. Volunteers for Working for Worcester gave the playground an upgrade Saturday, replacing the play set and adding in two slides.

"We reached out to Working for Worcester to see if we could make the site this year," Worcester Common Ground community organizer Annessia Jimenez said. "We brainstormed ideas and what we could do with this project site. It's a great program (Working for Worcester), it's super helpful to the city."

Holy Cross seniors Connor Faughnan and Kirsten Letourneau unloaded work materials from a parked SUV near the lot. This is both the fourth time for both volunteering with Working for Worcester.

Groups of volunteers used the supplies Faughnan and Letourneau were unloading to plant flowers. Both students have volunteered since their freshman years.

"Being able to help here, I've seen more parts of the city than I would have as a normal student," Faughnan, a site coordinator, said. "I enjoy helping with the local schools and neighborhoods, it's something I did back home so being able to do this here was pretty cool."

Faughnan is from West Haven, Connecticut. Letourneau, who is from Paxton, said volunteering has allowed her to connect with the Worcester community in a more tangible way.

"I mostly took on an academic role in volunteering (growing up), like tutoring and stuff like that," Letourneau said. "When I learned about Working for Worcester, it definitely interested me to take on larger roles like having playgrounds built."

Letourneau said a lot of the other playground sites Working for Worcester works on are for schools.

"In the city, there's not that many green areas where kids can play and be safe," Letourneau said. "I think it's nice to be able to have a place for them to play that's safe and hopefully stays kept up."

Letourneau said she hopes the playground stays maintained after they finish.

"We're actually able to see families going (to the playground) either later in the day or a couple days after and to actually see it be used is really nice," Letourneau said. "Even having conversations with other family members and people who volunteered, it's not only making a difference in their child's lives but the community's as well."

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Working for Worcester hosts 13th annual Build Day