GOP delegates fan out across N.Y. to perform acts of volunteerism

• Published in: Knight Ridder Tribune News Service p. 1
• Main Author: Kevin McDermott and Justin Gest
• Format: Newsletter
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Tribune Content Agency LLC 31.08.2004

"The average person thinks Republicans are all rich, white, arrogant men. (But) we put on our jeans and old shoes and go and get our hands dirty," said William Dam, an Illinois party official from suburban Chicago. He spoke earlier Monday, as a chartered bus carrying the t-shirt-clad conventioneers rumbled north from the delegation's Times Square hotel to Boys & Girls Harbor, an East Harlem school, day care and community center, where the classroom in need of a paint job awaited. More than thirty Missouri delegates and their family members journeyed to Chinatown in downtown Manhattan to tour the eclectic neighborhood and volunteer in a local park and senior citizen center. Arriving at Catherine Square in the shadow of Confucius Plaza, some of the delegates began cleaning up Columbus Park while others served meals at the Chinatown Senior Citizen Center across the street. A small anti-[Bush] protest formed around the park's lunch benches, and a crowd developed while members of the delegation worked in the plants. Three young Chinese boys sped past [Neal Breitweiser] on scooters shortly thereafter, and each yelled, "Down with Bush!"