Amazon, Life Remodeled team up to install Ring doorbells at Detroit homes

Detroit — Mansa Bey, 67,got a new flower pot and a new Amazon Ring doorbell installed at his Detroit home Tuesday as part of an initiative by a city nonprofit.

Life Remodeled, which focuses on repurposing vacant schools, has begun its six-day initiative to clear blight and beautify Detroit neighborhoods. Supporting the nonprofit in its volunteering efforts, Amazon donated $150,000 and 100 Ring home security devices to homes in the neighborhood near the former Cooley High School.

Bey has been living on Coyle Avenue for the last seven years and is happy he will have more information about what's happening around his home now that his Ring device can hear and see the front of the house.

Thousands of volunteers from Life Remodeled showed up to the former school to help with landscaping more than 1,000 nearby homes, delivering potted plants and clearing debris from vacant homes.

"We're also really taking pride in mobilizing Black Detroit volunteers," Steph'an Quicksey, the nonprofit's community engagement director, said. Quicksey said that every year, the organization mobilizes more than 6,000 volunteers after canvassing to find residents who would like to be supported.

Life Remodeled and Amazon's representatives were on-site to see the Ring doorbells be installed, and Mayor Mike Duggan stopped by the first home to get a device, the Coyle Avenue residence of Francis Rowland. 

Krystine Walker's home was one of the 100 installations that will happen this week on Detroit's west side.

Walker said majority of her neighbors on Lauder Street already have the device, so she is happy to finally have one too.

"This is cool, because I couldn't figure out how to do it myself, so I sent it back," Walker, 33, said. "I was going to get one ... I couldn't figure out the drilling, so this is awesome — everyone else seems to have one."

Each year a Detroit neighborhood is selected by Life Remodeled for its annual six-day project that has been going on for more than a decade. Amazon’s donation to Life Remodeled will also support youth programming at the Durfee Innovation Society, a formerly vacant Detroit public school building that nonprofit has repurposed and now serves thousands of Detroiters annually. Next, the nonprofit plans to acquire the Cooley building.

“Life Remodeled has been dedicated to strengthening our communities block by block,” Ian Conyers, Amazon's head of community engagement, said. “Amazon believes Life Remodeled has created a scalable revitalization strategy, and we are proud to support their efforts hand in hand with donations to Detroit block clubs and neighborhood-focused organizations.”