DETROIT — Blight Busters co-organized Angel’s night here this past Halloween, mobilizing thousands of volunteers to patrol Detroit neighborhoods and helping to reduce the number of burnt homes from 327 last year to about 150. Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrel, Jr. held a news conference in front of the spirit of Detroit statue during which he recognized Blight Busters’ President and Arab American John J. George for his effort.

John George of Motor City Blight Busters

People hear about Blight Busters every year on Angel’s night, and that’s all they know about the organization. Blight Busters is currently the subject of a pilot project reality TV program to show the nation how local community organizations are the new way to empower their communities to make a difference by taking matters into their own hands.

Stanford University psychologist Albert Bandura, who became famous for his research on the vital sense of personal control over circumstances, and who coined the term “self-efficacy,” has proved that people with a sense of control will exert effort, persist longer, get less stressed by negative events, have less fear, and more importantly get sick less often and recover faster. That is what George means by empowering his community.

“We’ve torn down around 200 abandoned homes in the past 20 years, invested over 20 million dollars in rebuilding our community, had around 120,000 volunteers, built 114 new houses, renovated 176 houses, painted 684 homes, housed 1,160 people, did 3,850 neighborhood cleanups that filled 1,550 dumpsters and 70,000 garbage bags and created “The Artist Village” as a center to teach arts and it all came from a simple start.” George says.

Twenty years ago, an abandoned home in his neighborhood was being used by drug dealers to sell drugs. The neighborhood made hundreds of calls to the police, the city, and their representatives and nothing was done. So one weekend, George got together with few of his neighbors and decided to take action. They bought boarding boards and went to work. They boarded the house, painted it, cut the grass and trimmed the bushes. When the drug dealers came that night and found the house boarded up, they left and never came back. And that’s how Blight Busters was born in 1988.

Blight Busters is more active than ever now with the new economic challenges that are plaguing Detroit, the high rate of home foreclosures and house burnings. They answer every call for help, bring volunteers to help renovate the homes of lower income families, and try to raise funds to help people stay in their homes. George believes the $700 billion package passed by Congress to bail out banks was the wrong move to help people. If that money had been put in the hands of organizations like Blight Busters, they could have effectively eradicated the home foreclosure epidemic.

George, who is a proud Arab American of Lebanese heritage, loves the city of Detroit and believes in its renaissance and resurrection. “We are part of the history of this nation. Detroit is Motown’s home, and Coppola, Hoffa, Selleck, Gaye, Gordy, Parks, Malcolm X among many others. In fact I wrote an introduction to a book that features all these peoples’ homes titled “Home in Detroit,” written by T. Burton who is one of our volunteers.”

George received the “Points of Light” award from President Clinton, and ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick described him as “a person who believes in making the impossible happen.” He was invited to Philadelphia by its mayor and was taken on a tour where he was shown hundreds of murals painted all over the city. When he came back and met Artist Chazz Miller, they teamed up and created The Artist Village on Lahser and Grand River, the center from where they’ve been drawing murals all over the city and where they have a stage and artist studio and computers teaching kids everything from drama to painting, singing and web designs. They are creating a culture for talent to grow under the management of his fiancé Alicia Marion. They have “Hop Night Freestyle Battle” every Friday night from 9-2 featuring new and upcoming talent, and “open mic poetry” every Saturday night from 9-2, open for everyone’s participation.

It was there I met a fashion designer by the name of Fresh who is holding his first fashion show November 21. His story was moving. He finished high school and was a talented painter and drew hundred of paintings, but could not find a market and was desperate. He didn’t want to follow the path of his grandfather and many of his family members who were killed while dealing drugs. His friends got him a gun and convinced him to join them in committing robberies, but when he got to the Artist Village, they embraced him and sent him on a scholarship to Chicago to study fashion design. With teary eyes he said, “These people saved me. I am ready to do my first fashion show, while my friends are serving time in jail.”

Blight Busters has an annual Thanksgiving Dinner where they fed 350 people last year, and another program where they have provided space for 300 students learning building trades and culinary arts at ACCOSS Training Center. They also run a “Summer in the City” program where 500 suburban teens help in inner city projects. To learn more about their upcoming events, visit their website www.BlightBusters.org.