Running Toward Each Other: Where Every Step Becomes a Verse
A Melody Made of Service
Miles Smith Jr.
12/4/2025
I have learned, in this work, that community is less a destination and more a song, one that rises from block corners and athletic spaces, from laughter cracked open in cold November air, from the courage of young people discovering where their power lives.
When I step into spaces like Thanksgiving on the Block hosted by Beauty to the Block and Transformation Church, with the partnerships of Stone Hill Church, Central Church, Thompson Memorial Church, Hidden Pain Outreach, Called to the Crown, Skill-Lit Café, and Trent-Towne Market, I do not arrive as an administrator. I arrive as a witness. A learner. Someone trying to listen my way into understanding, trusting curiosity to guide me toward education, engagement, and empowerment.
This year, the block of 16 West Ingram Ave in Trenton, New Jersey was full of color, warmth, and possibility. With 45 volunteers, including Princeton University student-athletes from Women’s Track & Field and their coaches, 185 families and more than 600 individuals received food, clothing, and hot meals. But “served” feels too small a word for what took place. What I saw wasn’t distribution; it was connection. It was recognition. It was a community meeting with open hands.
Watching the Women’s Track and Field athletes show up in this space not as visitors but as partners reminded me of what collaboration becomes when it is lived rather than simply planned. Their presence was not performative. It was rooted, honest, and deeply felt. They came not to fix but to learn, not to lead the narrative but to join it.
Women's Track and Field freshman student-athlete, Elizabeth Yeboah-Kodie, spoke as someone discovering both responsibility and joy in the same breath. She told me she was grateful to serve, grateful to meet the community, grateful to understand what it means to impact someone’s day with intention. “Learning to make someone’s day a little better allows me to grow,” Elizabeth said. “The smiles I see help me see the beauty of service.” In her voice, I heard what transformation sounds like when it's in process.
Our coaches felt it, too. Assistant Women’s Track & Field Coach Reuben Jones reflected on the depth of the experience with unmistakable joy. He spoke about the athletes’ willingness, their eagerness to show up wholeheartedly. He wasn’t talking about their times, their stride, or their strength. He was talking about their hearts.
“To see our athletes serve with this level of intention shows who they are becoming,” Coach Jones said. “This experience strengthens not just our team but also our character.”
Track teaches movement forward, upward, sharper, faster, like a beat building on the track and pushing you to hit the next stride. But service teaches a different rhythm: movement toward one another, a slower, deeper groove that asks you to listen, connect, and show up. I’ve watched our team discover this dual rhythm not just in practice lanes or competitions, but in the neighborhoods of Trenton where stories gather in doorways, where resilience hums like basslines through the streets, and where beauty appears in unexpected corners.
These partnerships for Thanksgiving on the Block, Beauty to the Block, and the network of churches and community organizations that anchor this work become classrooms where our athletes learn what excellence sounds like when measured in the space of humanity.
This work is deeply shaped by the vision and grounding presence of Executive Director Diane Bellamy of Beauty to the Block. Her vision is rooted in compassion. When I asked her what it meant to witness this year’s turnout, her words carried both gratitude and resolve:
“I am truly grateful to see the amazing support from our community partners and volunteers for Thanksgiving on The Block. It's deeply inspiring to witness so many dedicated individuals and organizations coming together to feed the least, the last, and the left out in our community!
We especially thank Princeton Women’s Track and Field, along with all the volunteers who serve annually to ensure that those who need it most receive a warm meal on Thanksgiving. Their dedication highlights the importance of community, especially during the recent ‘snap gap’ crisis, which impacted many families in the Trenton area. The government shut down, but the community showed up, and for that I am grateful.
Collaboration among our community partners is essential for making a real difference. By working together, we can change our city and ensure that no one is left behind. At BTTB, we believe nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something. Together, we are not just providing meals; we are partnering as a movement to show the world what Trenton Makes!”
Her words echo the heartbeat of the event: a belief that shared responsibility creates shared transformation.
Another essential voice in this story is Tajae Lewis of Hidden Pain Outreach, whose organization centers healing, emotional restoration, and safe spaces for young people. His presence on the block was not simply service; it was care reshaped into action. In reflecting on the day, he offered a message grounded in purpose:
“Hidden Pain Outreach was honored to be a part of Thanksgiving on the Block, standing side-by-side with our community to make sure families felt seen, supported, and cared for.
At HPO, we’re committed to healing, restoring, and empowering our city through real love, real service, and real impact. We center on mental health, emotional healing, and the creation of safe spaces where people of all ages can grow, speak openly, and feel supported.
From outreach events and support groups to the youth programs and community centers we’re building toward, our purpose remains the same: to break cycles, restore hope, and lift our city together.”
His vision adds depth to the work, reminding us that service is not just about presence, but about healing what has been carried in silence for too long.
Through every meal, every greeting, every moment of shared joy, every song that was played by the DJ that brought a collaboration of sweet melodies and dance moves, this team has become something deeper than a roster or a program. They have become a community woven into another community, discovering who they are by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the people around them.
It is a relationship. It is the daily practice of choosing curiosity, choosing connection, choosing care. It is the melody created when people decide to move toward one another instead of moving past.
Excellence is belonging. Excellence is purpose. Excellence is community. And together with Beauty to the Block, Transformation Church, Hidden Pain Outreach, and every community partner, with every family, every volunteer, every student-athlete, we are building something like a song.
A melody shaped by education, engagement, empowerment, and an unwavering belief in what can emerge when people decide to show up with intention.
And if I listen closely, I can hear the city humming back in harmony.
