Marco Villalobos A.K.A. “Oracle” a hip-hop artist and videographer, recently coordinated an event called “The Big Day of Serving,” where over 400 volunteers served the local community of Nashville, Tn this last weekend.

With months of planning, over 400 volunteers converged in the city of Nashville from surrounding states such as Kentucky, Alabama, Illinois, and Missouri to impact the Jo Johnston Community in the heart of Nashville, Tn.

Here is an article the local Tennessean did on this impactful event.

Day of Serving in Nashville brightens community, volunteers alike

A paint-splattered Miriam Creighton was all smiles as she surveyed the building she’d just finished painting Saturday as part of the second annual Big Day of Serving in Nashville, hosted by Provision International.

“It’s rewarding, knowing that you’ve done something good for the community,” said Creighton, 15, a sophomore at Watertown High School. She was volunteering with a 15-member group from St. Rose Catholic Church in Murfreesboro, where she is a member of the youth group.

Local ministry hosts event, helps kids

Nearby, other teens and adults continued to paint the trim, railings and doors of an apartment building owned by Provision International, a local ministry that targets children living in the surrounding Henry Hale public housing development by hosting youth-friendly events each week.

Todd Armstrong, a member of Provision International and a volunteer chaplain at Riverbend prison, has called the complex home for the past three years.

“I’m really excited that they are doing this for us,” he said of the volunteers painting the complex. “Being an inner-city ministry, we don’t get a lot of help, financially. The city lets us use some land, but that’s about it. If you look around, Henry Hale just got a nice big face lift. ... We wanted to freshen up a bit.”

The painting project at the ministry was one of 15 projects that took place Saturday as part of the Big Day of Serving, said Marco Villalobos, the event’s coordinator. Of the more than 400 volunteers who came to participate, about 375 were kids, he said. They painted, landscaped, gardened, farmed, cleaned up around area nonprofits, sorted food for a local food bank and picked up litter around Nashville, among other things.

Planning had been taking place for the Big Day of Serving for the past six months, ever since Villalobos took over as coordinator.

It was Emily Johnson’s first year volunteering at the event, but the 15-year-old was already thinking about next year.

“I really like volunteering because you can see your imprint on things,” said the Oakland High School sophomore. “The best part of it all is definitely looking at the before and after of a project.”

Article written by Nicole Young for the Tennessean.