Ray Borawski ’28
Staff Writer
This past Saturday, hundreds of volunteers from Holy Cross and other organizations and schools gathered in Worcester Common for Working for Worcester’s 14th annual build day. Within an hour, 16 sites throughout Worcester filled with volunteers in matching white shirts, all of whom had the goal of building, painting, repairing or whatever else their site needed.
This student-led organization, founded 14 years ago by Holy Cross roommates Jeff Reppucci and Derek Kump now stands as one of the city’s largest service efforts, capturing a partnership between Holy Cross, other colleges and local businesses as well as community organizations. At its inception, Kump and Reppucci wanted Working for Worcester to serve as a means to give back to their communities, focusing on fixtures for the city’s underprivileged youth, and creating the motto “for the kids” which is printed on the volunteers t-shirts.
Behind the scenes the leadership team, composed of mostly Holy Cross students, worked throughout the academic year to secure funding, organize resources, and communicate with partners and schools from across the community. According to their website, Working for Worcester sees more than 1,200 volunteers dispatched every year. More than 2.4 million dollars have been raised and 30 businesses are partners, showcasing how many moving parts this organization has, and how many struggles leadership had to overcome. All of this resulted in more resources for children to enjoy, cleaner parks and a more welcoming environment for all residents of Worcester.
Build day itself operates within a layered leadership structure. Site directors and managers oversee groups at sites across the city, helping manage resources, work with representatives from the school or park the group is working on, and make sure volunteers know what their job is. Ultimately everything went smoothly, largely thanks to the volunteers and site representatives.
The weather this year was thankfully calm. It was forecasted to rain however throughout the day, the bad weather held off until groups were back. Throughout, all of these groups adapted with some starting early, some staying late and generally doing whatever it took to get the job done, something which highlighted the selfless nature of all parties involved.
Over its fourteen year history, Working for Worcester has done a lot, through its millions in deployed funds, thousands of volunteers and hundreds of projects, however the core of its organization has always been the individuals involved. Its mission, to organize students in support of this city that they temporarily call home, proves to be a unifying rallying point for students from all walks of life, and serves as a reflection of what organized student involvement can accomplish at scale.
As the organization approaches its 15th year, it shows no signs of slowing down. So far more than 45,000 people have been impacted by its efforts, a number that only seems as though it will increase in years to come.
Featured image courtesy of Working for Worcester
Copy edited by Sophia Mariani ’26
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