Good in the Hood

Richie Romney is a jolly kind of person with a face that flushes red when he laughs, which he does a lot, especially in our setting- a friend's hyper, noisy birthday party carrying on around us. However, he manages to tell me about Good in the Hood, the non profit organization he helped start. In the summer of 2009 it was a ‘service group’- a few friends making cookies or raking leaves for people in the neighborhood, NBD. Today, it’s a full-blown incorporation (I had to double check when he threw the ‘inc’ on the end of their catchy, rolls-off-your-tongue name). By full-blown incorporation I mean more than 1000 volunteers building houses, throwing quarterly fundraising parties, tutoring refugees, hosting Christmas banquets and silent auctions, and performing almost weekly miscellaneous service activities, plus plenty of mainstream media coverage and a documentary in the works. So how do a couple of early-20’s kids run that kind of momentous project? Because really, its one massive project of projects. “None of us are graduated so its like we’ve pulled out Non Profit or Dummies and started learning.” Plenty of work for founders Richie Romney and Daniel Dudley, but mostly these two and their gang of volunteers are just playing around on their playground of service. “One of the best times was taking refugee kids trick-or-treating. It was a huge rumble on everybody’s doorstep and I had to try to get them in line to say please and thank you, and it was crazy with all these kids, there’s little Batman punching everyone to get to the front of the line for candy..” Good in the Hood is ballooning with energy, contagious with cause. Between the 1000 + volunteers and ‘countless hours’ of service given, it’s a win-win…win-win-win-win kind of deal. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to jump in? Being a part of Good in the Hood or even just learning about it just sits right, adds a spice of satisfaction to how you think about the community. Keep it up, you non-profiting good-doing kids!
dogoodinthehood.com