'Good Deeds Day' volunteers improve Wake County neighborhoods

WAKE COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) -- Sunday's mild temperatures provided ideal conditions for outdoor improvement work by volunteers from a variety of faiths.

Men, women and children spent time clearing discarded candy wrappers, stray papers and other trash from areas on and near the Islamic Center of Raleigh campus.

"Our tenets in our faith, 'to do for others as you would do for yourself, to help your neighbor' motivate the volunteers," said Ahmad Hadad. "And this is just our way of coming together and helping out one another."

Similar work was done 15 minutes away from the center, at a community garden on Plainview Drive.

"Good Deeds Day is an international day that was started in 2007 by a non profit that started with 6,000 volunteers in one country, in Israel, and last year ended up with 3.5 million volunteers in 100 countries," said Barry Schwartz from Raleigh-Cary Jewish Family Services.

Working together with people across the age spectrum is a great opportunity for the youngest volunteers. Hadad says they can "Meet other kids their age, find out if it's friends they had and places they didn't know about. It shows the that they should be involved in their community and helping it grow."

Schwartz says Good Deeds Day inspired about 20 volunteer projects in Wake County.