{"id":430017,"date":"2025-12-07T01:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T01:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/430017\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T01:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T01:54:11","slug":"be-a-part-of-the-light-2025-my-block-my-hood-my-city-volunteers-decorate-south-side-chicago-homes-on-king-drive-for-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/430017\/","title":{"rendered":"Be a Part of the Light 2025: My Block, My Hood, My City volunteers decorate South Side, Chicago homes on King Drive for holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (WLS) — A Chicago group is taking “deck the halls” to a whole new level. It is decking out several neighborhoods for the holidays.<\/p>\n

Volunteers with My Block, My Hood, My City holiday are helping South Side homeowners.<\/p>\n

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\n

Houses along King Drive are now in the holiday spirit as the community group hosted its annual “Be a Part of the Light” Christmas decorating event in Chicago neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Volunteer Barbara Martin wanted everything to be perfect.<\/p>\n

“It makes me feel good, because a lot of times when you see this, it just brings joy to the Christmas spirit,” Martin said.<\/p>\n

She and other members of their chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star were among the hundreds of volunteers helping put up Christmas decorations as a part of this year’s Be a Part of the Light event.<\/p>\n

In it’s eighth year, the initiative by My Block, My Hood, My City hopes to spread joy and holiday spirit in often overlooked neighborhoods on the city’s South Side.<\/p>\n

“So normally, you go on King Drive, you see police car lights and helicopter lights. Today, you’ll see holiday lights,” My Block, My Hood, My City founder Jahmal Cole said.<\/p>\n

The goal is to decorate over 500 homes along a stretch of King Drive from 35th to 115th streets in communities like Chatham, Auburn Gresham and Greater Grand Crossing. It’s all done for free with the homeowner’s permission.<\/p>\n

“It’s all beautiful,” homeowner Ruthie Marshall said. “I appreciate it very much much and just proud to be apart.”<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO |<\/strong> Man with Down syndrome saves all year to donate to South Elgin Toys for Tots campaign<\/a><\/p>\n

Volunteers come from all over the city to help. The Jumping Juniors Double Dutch team was there Saturday.<\/p>\n

‘It gives us a chance to meet new people and become a part of part of a community you’re never a part of,” team member Taylor McKinney said.<\/p>\n

Sisters Jennifer and Amy Buczkio also wanted to give back.<\/p>\n

“This organization actually helped her mother get her covid vaccine and yes ever since then we’ve supported it,” she said.<\/p>\n

Each group set out Saturday with a bin filled with holiday lights and decorations determined to transform a community.<\/p>\n

When volunteers finish, many of them will come bac for community tree lightings and may even tour some of the houses that they decorated. They’re also being prepared for more volunteer work. They’ll be out in the neighborhood shoveling snow when the next blast comes through the city.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (WLS) — A Chicago group is taking “deck the halls” to a whole new level. It is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":430018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[199837,960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-430017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-199837","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115675795599844669","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}