Jimmy and Roslyn Carter planted trees. Hollywood hunk Ben Affleck packed boxes for a food bank. Michelle Obama, Jill Biden and Jeanne Ritter assembled care packages for U.S. troops serving abroad.
They were among several hundred volunteers who fanned out Wednesday morning to help agencies the Democratic National Convention’s host city.
Wearing a light blue shirt with the words “Democrats Work” written across it, former President Jimmy Carter wasn’t afraid to put his back into a tree planting project at Bicentennial Park in Aurora.
“Well, I came to work,” he said.
Carter greeted excited and crying volunteers, took photos and joked about the trees at his home blocking the signal for his Sirius Satellite Radio.
Obama and Ritter kicked off the service day with a 7:30 a.m. meeting with military veterans and loved ones in Curtis Park to assemble care packages for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
After greeting a crowd of about 200, they joined an assembly line to spend the next half-hour hour packing U.S. Postal Service boxes with items ranging from Slim Jims and Oreo cookies to hand sanitizer and athletic socks. Obama was accompanied by her mother, Marian Robinson; daughters Sasha and Malia, and her brother, Craig Robinson.
Obama and Ritter departed at 8:30 a.m., just ahead of the expected 150 delegates who arrived in yellow school buses to plant plum and other ornamental trees in Curtis Park.
At the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library in nearby Five Points, 11 delegates from New Mexico, Virginia, Kentucky and Colorado arrived via light rail to read to 100 children from area pre-schools, kindergartens and first grades. Each child also received a book to take home.
Actor Affleck joined U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts at Food Bank of the Rockies to “help send hunger packing” by packing nonperishable food into 25-pound boxes for distribution to FBR clients.
Despite an equipment malfunction — his tape gun jammed — Affleck’s team completed 17 boxes in five minutes. A team led by the legislators filled 15 boxes.
