DePaul Community Takes to the Streets to 'Get Dirty'

More than 1,700 DePaul University students and faculty members are hitting the streets this weekend to not only better the Lincoln Park neighborhood areas across the city.

The effort is part of the school's 13th Annual Vincentian Service Day. On Saturday, members of the DePaul University community volunteering with nearly 100 community partners in the city including Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind, Erie Neighborhood House, Friends of the Parks, Marillac House and Willow Chicago.

"Volunteers will plant flowers and vegetables, trim bushes, mulch trees, clear weeds and trash in neighborhoods across the city ... " says a DePaul University news release. "The annual event is an opportunity for members of the DePaul University family and community partners to come together in Chicago neighborhoods for a day of service."

Vincentian Service Day puts DePaul’s mission of service and social justice into practice, university officials say.

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"It creates an opportunity for students to personally experience the different communities in Chicago in a way that aligns with our university mission ... (and) provides space and time to experience the margins of society first-hand," says the release. "In this way, DePaul students, faculty, and staff can become agents of social transformation by experiencing spiritual awakening and social awareness."

The day includes an estimated 75 service sites in neighborhoods across the city from Humboldt Park to Uptown, Logan Square to Pilsen, Old Town to North Lawndale and Lincoln Park to Garfield Park.

Volunteers should “be prepared to get dirty”, DePaul representatives said, as they pitch in to paint and beautify parks, clean classrooms, move books, deep clean kitchens, wash windows, assemble cat carriers or help with a three-on-three youth basketball tournament.

The day-long event kicks off at DePaul's Lincoln Park Campus athletic center, 2323 N. Sheffield Ave., where snacks and T-shirts will be distributed.

It concludes in the school's quad at Fullerton and Seminary avenues with a picnic and "peace" festival. Walk-on registration will be available that day.

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