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World champ repairs world with a little help from his friends.

W

hat happens when a world
champion teams up with
Repair the World and volun-
teers from near and far? Together, they
take one small, important step to repairing
his corner of the world.
The champ is Tommy Hearns: the
Hitman, the Motor City Cobra, the first
boxer in history to win five world titles
in five different divisions. His corner,
now that he's retired from boxing, is East
Grand Boulevard and Helen Street, where
he grew up on Detroit's East Side.
Packard produced its last car two blocks
away in 1957, the year before Hearns was
born. The neighborhood's "tough love"
helped mold him into a Hall of Fame
fighter. When Hearns returned to Helen
Street, he found no houses remaining —
not the house he grew up in nor any other
homes on the block. In their place, weeds
grew up to his shoulders and pheasants
roamed among illegally dumped car parts.
But the place still spoke to him. And so
did his old neighbors, who shared their
pride in his accomplishments and desire
to see him reconnect with his roots. So he
stayed in touch with them and reached
out to Repair the World, a Jewish ser-
vice organization, as well as friends and
fans, including Jackie Kallen and Ryan
Fishman. Together, they mowed, weeded,
mulched and painted to help clean up and
beautify the neighborhood in advance of
a major community celebration Hearns is
planning for August.

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Repair the World fellow Joel Millman of Detroit and director of Repair the World Detroit Ben Falik of Huntington Woods with
Tommy Hearns

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❑

"I can't thank all

the people
who came out or helped out enough.
It's just with such a joy and light that I
get to see all these folks get involved
with me in my passion. I want to see
Detroit move forward. This city made
me who I am today; this neighbor-
hood made me who I am today. It was
so hard to drive down Helen just two
weeks ago, and now it's a beautiful
thing. Ryan really got us together with
the city in a way I couldn't have imag-
ined, and Jackie has always been there
for me — it's a thrill."

— Tommy Hearns

Jackie Kellen

28 July 24 • 2014

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William Parkinson, 10, of Oak Park

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