Grand Circle COO Anthony LaBreque, a RTB board member, RTB Executive Director Janice Walker, and RBT staffer Jamie Gibson at the Holmes School in Dorchester. Seth Daniel photo
The Rebuilding Together Boston (RTB) organization, now 35 years in service, met up with its long-time partner, Grand Circle Travel Corp., on Sat., May 2, to spend a day of hard volunteer service in Dorchester at the Oliver Wendell Holmes K-6 School and the Oasis on Ballou Farm on Saturday, May 2.
Volunteers at Oasis on Ballou Farm took a break from work for a photo shoot. They built 21 raised garden beds over the course of the day. Seth Daniel photo
The event followed an announcement earlier in the year of a $245,000 commitment over three years from Grand Circle to sponsor RTB projects.
“Today we’re bringing 100 volunteers together to take on projects at the Holmes Innovation School and to build six raised gardens at Oasis on Ballou,” said RTB CEO Janice Walker. “Grand Circle is our largest sponsor.
“I’ve been working with RTB for more than 30 years and this organization for 20 years,” she added. “Covid was tough. We couldn’t go out and do what we do in the community. I’m happy to say now we have come back from Covid stronger than ever and are fully staffed up.”
Holmes School staff were on hand to help with the work. RTB uses corporate volunteers and site staff in preserving and repairing existing resources like schools and community gardens. Seth Daniel photo
Walker said RTB is now a year-round program using volunteers to sustain and repair existing infrastructure as well as home repair programs for low-income senior citizens.
Grand Circle COO Anthony LaBreque, who is also on the RTB board, noted they had 65 volunteers at the Holmes School and another 40 at Oasis that day. At the school, they cleared out clutter, painted the underutilized catwalk above the gym, conducted inventory, and reorganized classrooms.
“I’m proud to be part of a group that takes time out to give back in the backyard where we work,” he said. “Today what we’re doing really speaks to the mission of RTB, which is ‘Preserving what’s there and making it better.’”
Holmes Principal Lianne Hughes Odom looked through a storage room that had previously been inaccessible with clutter, unopened boxes, and outdated materials. Volunteers cleaned out the room, found new board games that can be used, and inventoried and organized random supplies.
The same thing occurred in the school library, where volunteers spent hours organizing, retiring, and adding books to the shelves.
“This is a place we can use now,” Odom said. “It’s incredible. These are the things we always wanted to do but couldn’t get to them with the day-to-day work in the school.”
At Oasis, some 40 volunteers worked through intermittent rain showers to build raised garden beds at the recently reopened farm on Ballou Street.
Volunteers repainted and decluttering the catwalk above the Holmes School gym, which had been inaccessible for a period of time. Seth Daniel photo
