MANASSAS, Va. — The question was on everyone’s lips: Did we make it? It was close. At 8:45 a.m., 15 minutes before the determined start time, Manassas City was still short 45 participants for the attempt at the Guinness Book of World Records Red Light-Green Light Game.
“Get on your phones! Tweet, Facebook, call! Get people here!” said Christen Zenich, Neighborhood Recreation Supervisor of Manassas City and organizer of the event. In the end, there were 755 participants, and a new world record was set.
That was just the beginning to a busy day for Manassas. After the world record game of Red Light-Green Light, more than 500 volunteers spread among 17 worksites to upgrade and brighten public spaces in the Big Day of Serving, a national effort sponsored by Group Cares, a national Christian youth group, to give back, transforming neighborhoods in need.
At Weems Elementary, recent recipient of $50,000 from the Ellen Degeneres Show for purchasing uniforms for the 2013-14 school year, there were four major projects planned. Volunteers spread baseball-quality dirt on the infield of two baseball fields and repaired and painted the backstop at one of them. Additionally, the stairs at the back of the building were cleaned and painted in the school’s colors, red and white, and a teaching garden was installed in the school’s courtyard.
Volunteers completed five projects at Byrd Park, including the installation of a new adult fitness station, refurbishment of the basketball courts, repair of a stairway at the park, repainting and repairing the roof repair at the heavily used pavilion, and distributed a mountain of mulch among three separate play areas.
Seven teams handled projects at Stonewall Park, including installing soccer goal posts and a bike path, cleaning up the creek and woods areas, landscaping the pool, and installing mosaic tiles hand-painted by more than 700 Manassas residents over the past months.
Additionally, a team was dispatched to clean up the overgrown backyard of a private home. At that home two utilities trucks were needed to haul away the shrubs and tree limbs that were trimmed and removed from the property.
An estimated 3,444 man-hours were spent in total, with 574 volunteers coming from churches in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, and locally from Manassas and Woodbridge. Additionally, volunteers came from all corners of the Manassas community, particularly from the Boys and Girls Club, which contributed bus transportation of volunteers to and from worksites, as well as the MC services of Glenn Vickers, Regional Director of the Prince William County Boys and Girls Clubs.
Sponsors included Walgreens, which provided first aid stations; Chick-fil-A, Roy Rogers, Shoppers Food Warehouse, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Costco Wholesale, US Food Service, Wegmans, Virginia BBQ, and The Chicken Place provided food; supplies were provided by WalMart, Lowe’s, Stone Center, McLane, Herzig Excavating, Phoenix Painting, George Mason University, First Virginia Community Bank; WalMart and Walgreens, and Didlake. Mike Garcia Construction and Olde Towne Landscaping provided materials and labor for projects. Sponsoring churches were Project INFUSION, Light of Life Church, Evergreen Community Church, and Life Church. Community Thrift Stores and Habitat for Humanity of Prince William and Manassas and Manassas Park.
