Volunteers Hit The Streets On Do Day

Volunteer efforts to improve Indy communities kicked off Thursday morning when around 300 Eli Lilly volunteers donned their red t-shirts and worked to complete a mile long fitness trail outside the new Christel House Academy West charter school.  

Rodney Birch has been participating in Lilly’s Global Day of Service since it started in 2008. 

"I’ve planted trees, I've done a lot of mulching, removed top soil," says Birch, "we all have a responsibility to give back to the community."

That’s the point… to build a legacy of volunteerism in Indianapolis. 

Global Day of Service has also inspired Indy Do Day.  Now in its second year, the people powered movement is actually three days of volunteer projects - as small working at a local food pantry as and as large as the painting of 8 downtown murals as part of the Vibrant Corridors initiative. 

Julia Moore, with the Indianapolis Arts Council, says it would take months to do what the volunteers can accomplish in a matter of days. 

"When we do them at the size and the scale that we do them it's almost impossible to get them done efficiently unless we have a really good and committed corp of people doing it." says Moore.

Back at the Eli Lilly headquarters there are efforts to reach more people with new projects like Wills For Heroes, providing free wills to over 100 Indianapolis first responders and their spouses.  Lilly Foundation President Rob Smith says the program’s expansion is intentional and inspiring. 

"We wanted our day of service to morph and really to catalyze more service on this particular day by more businesses and organizations," says Smith, "I think we're going to wake up in the morning in a little bit better city because we all pitched in to try and help."

Indy Do Day continues today and Saturday with projects like music performances for Eskenazi Health patients, building an intergenerational park in Mappleton-Fall Creek and offering free products and service to single moms…. that’s just to name a few.