Arts and Scraps nonprofit offers community service hours for students

By David Glenn

Guest writer

Arts and Scraps is a non-profit organization that offers community service hours for Rochester

University students who are willing to assist people to take recycled goods to transform them into art.

Stevie Baka, store manager of Arts and Scraps who has worked there for five years, said Arts and Scraps is a place that wants to serve the metro Detroit area. The nonprofit takes in recycled goods from industries and consumers to resource back to the community by selling those recreated goods.

“I love people… so people inspire me, and I like anything that you can engage where you can kind of connect two different things synergistic-wise,” Baka said.

Volunteers have many choices of duties to perform, including cleaning up the store, organizing and sorting items, or selling fabric. On the technical side, Arts and Scraps offer administrative jobs for volunteers to build flyers for marketing purposes, which can give volunteers a digital creating experience.

“But we also do take-home tasks… there are lots of opportunities on our website for volunteering,” Baka said.

Covid-19 has caused many organizations to change protocols, but Arts and Scraps had adapted to meet the needs of the community. Walk-up volunteering no longer takes place. Those wishing to volunteer must register online to complete their community service.

“We pivoted and we started making things for people to home school, things for people that just want stuff...resources and they’re bored,” Baka said.

When describing what it’s like to work at Arts and Scraps, “It’s the best job ever,” Baka said.

He also said being a part of people’s creativity on projects is fun. The store wants to grow to have more space and to merge with more communities. A couple of future goals for Arts and Scraps is to take in more industrial recycled goods and to extend its programming.

Rochester University students who need community service hours to complete their degree can volunteer with Arts and Scraps, which is located at 16135 Harper Ave. in Detroit in East English Village in the Cornerstone and Morningside neighborhoods, off Interstate I-94.

If you are interested and willing to volunteer, go to www.artsandscraps.org.