To continue our Giving Back series on Young Democrats organizing and participating in community service events around the country, I wanted to highlight a blog post from the Alaska Young Democrats. No matter how small or large of an event you do, taking the initiative to do something like this and give back to the community is a great, great thing. Your time and energy helps everyone in your community, not just those that agree with you politically. And that’s what Democrats are all about…helping everybody. If you have a project you’d like us to showcase, email communications AT yda DOT org. Thanks Alaska!

<From www.ydak.org>

As Anchorage Chair of the Alaska Young Democrats, I participated in an event this past weekend. Perhaps the largest platform held within our group is a strong sense of community, and as we work to revamp the organization, we believe that working towards good within the community is the strongest statement we can make. Our President, Keli Booher, came up with an idea a few weeks back in response to some of the “issues” the city has had with street cleaning; bus stops overrun with snow and pathways blocked off. Our city, as anyone who has lived here through a winter knows, has some staggeringly dedicated municipal workers who do a job second to none keeping our streets cleared when a winter storm barrels through.

But, then came Mayor Sullivan, who takes a sporting event approach to budget cuts. Some of our streets, and those that navigate them, have taken on the role as the losing team.

This past Saturday, the Young Democrats teamed up with a cadre of legislators, assembly members, current candidates, and neighbors to try and (if nothing else) provide city workers with a ten minute break, come Monday, by clearing a path in front of Mountain View Elementary School. The sidewalk path leading to the entrance of the school had been covered with a three foot pile of snow and has remained that way for over a month, forcing children to have to walk in the street, amidst traffic, in order to get to class. We decided, with the school aiming to return from Christmas Break, that enough was enough. Municipal workers are already under a humbling workload, and should not be expected to be miracle workers.

Here’s the before:

Here’s the after:

And here’s all the time in between:

Thanks to all the Young Democrats who came out, special thanks to Assembly Members Elvi Gray-Jackson and Matt Claman, RepresentativesLes Gara, Harry Crawford, and Max Gruenberg, candidate for Governor Bob Poe, all the other volunteers who just showed up, and also to theMudflats, for helping us get the word out about this event (as well as providing some heartfelt and supportive mudpuppy-commentary!).

The Young Democrats are planning many more events centered around improving our community and helping to move Anchorage forward. After all, we’re Young Democrats, and we plan on living here for awhile.

Hope to see you next time.