Youth groups from around town turned out to celebrate their contributions to the community at the Global Youth Service Day event on April 27, sponsored by the Arlington Alliance for Youth and the City of Arlington.
The celebration included an awards presentation, hot dogs, music and plenty of chances to toss a Frisbee and enjoy the spring sunshine at the Levitt Pavilion in downtown Arlington.
Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) is an annual campaign, founded in the late 1980s, that celebrates and mobilizes children and teens for community service projects, many of which are founded by grants from corporate partners. According to the movement' s website, the campaign is observed in more than 100 countries each year.
Locally, the project is anchored by the Arlington Alliance for Youth, a collaboration of youth advocates and agencies dedicated to the principles of the America' s Promise Alliance.
Many of the groups that participated in Arlington' s GYSD conducted service projects on the day of the event, organizing food drives, neighborhood clean-ups, and home improvement projects benefiting community members in need.
Other organizations were celebrating long-term projects, like the Berry Elementary sixth-graders who spruced up the school' s landscape, or the fundraising for premature babies conducted by the Zeta Youth Affiliate, a community service arm of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority.
Zeta youth members Joshua Robertson and Michaela Dennis described the GYSD event a chance to "show off a little, learn more and get to meet new people."
Added Marc Marchand, executive vice-president of the Arlington Alliance for Youth: "It' s a fun event and a chance to celebrate the kids' projects, many of which were funded by grants from the Arlington Alliance for Youth."
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