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With a little help
Posted By David, Mar 28, 2010
Who wants to spend their spring break in what Forbes labels America’s most miserable city? And to do volunteer work? For most people this is probably not the most desirable of situations, but that’s exactly why this trip was so amazing. Think of the people this would attract. Awesome people! An overly generalized but pretty spot-on description of our group: twenty-three interested, selfless individuals seeking to make a positive difference in a city that needs assistance and attention. And of course we’re all hilarious and loads of fun. And sexy. Particularly the left-handers and especially Jason Liu. Through Legal Aid Society, I worked primarily with pro se clients seeking to divorce. We had a brief session to go over the material and process with Lauren Gilbride and then came the clients. These were people whose only income consisted of food stamps, child support, or some other form of government support. I had broken my nose, had a cast, and one of the clients told me, “My husband gave me three of those.” Learning about the law was great, but it was these individuals that made the trip. We gave maybe an hour of our time to each client, but they were so grateful and happy for our effort. I think we made a positive difference in these people’s lives and that’s wonderful. It doesn’t take much.
Cleveland faces high unemployment, foreclosures, and bankruptcies, among other problems; but you can see that it can be great. One night, a few of us went to dinner at Lolita, a Michael Symon restaurant located in a trendy neighborhood of Cleveland. Not so long ago the neighborhood was rundown, isolated, and forgotten. But there came an interest and an effort to make it better. Today Tremont holds at least one delicious restaurant, fun bars (including one with a massive indoor tree. A freaking tree!), and enough art galleries to have an art walk of over twenty locations. Plus it has cool street names like Professor and Literary. Enough at least for Anna to declare the Cleveland trip successful after one night while happily devouring her rosemary mac and cheese.