My impact story is one, which will continue even after I write this blog. My impact story involves the South End Community of Springfield and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, more specifically the Student Bridges agency.
After the tornado went through Springfield, MA, it left devastating impacts on the community of Springfield. There were many homes destroyed and many lives left upside down. The South End community is one of the tornados victims. The place we will focus on for the story is the South End Community Center. The community center was a hub for all community events. It housed one of Student Bridges 4-H after school programs; it was where all the community youth came to play basketball. The community center was a safe haven a place where families knew their children could go to escape the dangerous streets of Springfield. After the tornado the building was condemned. No longer could the children play basketball and no longer was there a safe place to go in the afternoons after school.
As I entered my MACC Americorps *VISTA year I was faced with a new project: get a large scale project going to help get the South End Community Center back on its feet. How could I possibly do this I thought? What is it specifically that the South End community center needs in order to get back on their feet? After meeting with some of our community partners I learned that the center lost all of its computer equipment as well as all their gym equipment, it was all stolen after the tornado left the building without a roof. Yet, the community center was swamped with work and could not find time to set aside to focus on raising funds to get these items back. While in the Bridges office we brainstormed fundraising ideas and came up with having a basketball tournament. In many ways this was a metaphorical way of bringing the community back on its feet doing the one thing they love the most, playing basketball.
I sent out an email to every person I knew from Amherst, Springfield, Holyoke and even Boston. I immediately got rapid responses back of people offering services to get this event rolling. The most powerful and inspirational phone call came from the Umass men’s basketball coach. Brian Kellogg is the Umass basketball coach. He is a Springfield native himself. On a sunny day as I was sitting in the office I get a phone call and the voice on the other end stunned me. It said, “Hello, this is coach Kellogg can I speak to Rose Delorme please?” I was breathless. Often times we turn certain people in our communities into superheroes and we can never imagine them as agents of change. However, Coach Kellogg went from just the Umass basketball coach to me into a Springfield native looking to get his community back on his feet.
My impact story doesn’t have a resolution yet because the event date has been pushed back to April in order to allow for more successful planning. However, my story speaks to an impact story that will span over the entire year. We will be having monthly meetings to plan out every detail of the event. Our fundraising goal is 10,000 dollars. I know we set it high but does community engagement really have a price tag?
-Rose Delorme
MACC VISTA with Student Bridges, UMASS Amherst
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