by Jean Milan
“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Santa Monica Chapter Safe Corps Crew had a very rewarding experience at our Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. MLK’s message was one of justice, peace, and brotherhood. That spirit was alive during our day of service at the Rosemont Elementary School in L.A. on January 17, 2011. Jun Kim, Jonathan Quintana and myself of the Santa Monica Chapter, along with John Vidaurrazaga from the West Los Angeles Chapter, were able to volunteer through L.A. Works, an organization that gets the community involved in hands-on service projects throughout the Los Angeles area. We signed up to help restore the Rosemont Elementary School. Three-hundred and thirty people were registered and expected to volunteer. When we arrived, it was obvious right away that the amount of people in attendance greatly exceeded this expected number. What was supposed to be a couple hundred volunteers turned out to be nearly 1,400 volunteers. We were all very impressed with the enthusiasm everyone brought to this event.
Many were painting murals, building gardens, creating a new game room and teacher lounge, cleaning and organizing storage spaces, and much more. We were part of the crew organizing storage space and were placed in a group including another AmeriCorps program – The National Civilian Community Corps. We were fortunate to do service alongside some fellow AmeriCorps members and to learn about their program and how they serve the west coast. We made some new friends and have kept in touch with them.
The transformation of the school within only four hours was pretty impressive. The L.A. Works staff commented in a follow-up e-mail, saying that the work the volunteers did that day “brought fresh color and exciting energy to this wonderful campus community.” What an extremely rewarding experience! It was truly wonderful to see how a community of people can come together to accomplish a positive goal.
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