Fifteen years of pro bono, community service celebrated

 Michigan Community Resources (MCR) honored four individuals and organizations who demonstrated outstanding commitment to pro bono and community-based service.  Hosted at Virgil Carr Center on Tuesday, Dec. 3, MCR’s 15th Anniversary Celebration acknowledged the work of its volunteers and the progress community groups make in their neighborhoods.

 
Awards were presented for Law Firm of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Partner of the Year, and Outstanding Community Action. 
 
The 2013 award winner for Law Firm of the Year was Bodman PLC for their longstanding commitment to pro bono values, which was further demonstrated by the recent hiring of Pro Bono Counsel Kim Paulson.  Under Paulson’s direction, Bodman attorneys provided hundreds of hours of pro bono legal assistance to almost 20 clients statewide this year. 
 
“For Bodman, pro bono service is an essential element of our social responsibility philosophy, and for our attorneys, it’s an integral part of a full and satisfying legal career,” said Paulson.
 
“Working with MCR helps our attorneys focus their efforts on important projects and allows them to see the positive impact their work has on our communities.”
 
“We know our clients can count on Bodman for matters big and small,” said Wendy Richards, director of legal & policy programs MCR. “[Bodman’s] commitment has played a significant role in sustaining nonprofits that serve our most vulnerable populations.”
 
This year’s award winner for Partner of the Year was presented to Helen Broughton of the City of Detroit’s Buildings Safety Engineering & Environmental Department for her assistance with MCR’s efforts to improve code enforcement. 
 
Broughton served as a resource to MCR; sharing information, explaining processes, and providing connections as staff from MCR researched Detroit’s code enforcement policies and developed educational programs for community members. Broughton also served as a panelist and presenter on code enforcement at MCR’s vacant property coalition meetings and vacant property education series workshops.  
 
The Volunteer of the Year award was presented to William J. Perrone of Dykema for his service in helping MCR build its statewide programs and for the pro bono assistance he provided to Allen Neighborhood Center (ANC) of Lansing. 
 
Perrone’s legal assistance was vital to help ANC build the Allen Market Place, a non-profit food hub that houses its award-winning farmers market, an incubator kitchen open to the community, and an innovative marketplace exchange that links rural growers to in-town restaurateurs, food service managers, and other procurers.  Perrone’s assistance to ANC was so valuable that it named its new community education room the “Bill Perrone Classroom.” 
 
Perrone said that he volunteers with MCR because, “It is a more unique pro bono experience. It is working with good people who provide direct services to those in need.  Corporate structures, contracts, leases and employment issues are not things that many volunteer organizations are familiar with, but are always necessary in order for them to fulfill their own charitable mission.  MCR does the legal side for them, so that they can do the services side.” 
 
The Outstanding Community Action award was presented to Creekside Community Development Corporation for its cooperative blight elimination and neighborhood cleanup projects.  In 2013, Creekside surveyed over 4,000 properties and is now working with several partners to house this information in an interactive database to help target strategies and resources for the greatest impact. 
 
Creekside CDC is strategic in its neighborhood cleanup projects as well. It coordinated their cleanup with Detroit’s quarterly bulk pickup dates and also built a core of volunteers who are responsible for maintaining its blight elimination and cleanup efforts. 
 
More than 150 guests helped MCR honor all of its award winners and celebrate its 15th anniversary. This event showed that despite any negative spotlight on the City of Detroit right now, amazing and positive work is transforming Detroit’s neighborhoods. This event celebrated the work that happens day in and day out to help build communities.
 
“Taking the time to honor successes like these is so important,” said Jill Ferrari, chief executive officer of MCR. “They show a little bit can do so much to help improve a community; that everyone has a role they can play, and MCR is happy to help community organizations make their goals a reality. We look forward to what we can accomplish together during the next 15 years.”   
 
Sponsors of MCR’s 15th Anniversary Celebration were JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Michigan State Housing Development Authority, Ford Building, Hennessy Engineers, O’Brien Edwards Construction, and First Merit Bank. 

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