honoring dr. king at eagle tree// recap of a memorable workday

After the rain cleared up this Monday, Sharefest and Eagle Tree Continuation High School students teamed up to provide some much needed, and appreciated, color to the small Carson campus. Along with two groups from California State University, Dominguez Hills – the Bellas and a few brothers from Lambda Theta Phi fraternity, Eagle Tree students donned bright red Sharefest shirts and took to their garden, planters, basket ball backboards, and volleyball posts with paint brushes, tools, and enthusiasm.

It was inspiring to see the students file in, even though it was their day off and it was still a bit drizzly in the earlier part of the morning, to beautify their campus. When students take ownership of the spaces that they inhabit, then it is more likely that these spaces are taken care of and preserved.

Local artist Vanessa Andrade was also there, instructing the more artistically inclined students on necessary painting techniques as they filled in a pre-outlined mural that she designed specifically for the school. As the day wore on, the mural took shape and became a sort of round window looking out onto a picaresque scene of an eagle landing onto the branches of a splendid tree.

Darcy, a 20 year old student at CSUDH, says she came out to help the community – something she felt is an important part of anyone’s experience as a member of the neighborhood. The work done on that day, she said, will provide a better environment for the students, one that she hopes improves the students’ attitudes about their school. Many times, continuation high schools are neglected parts of larger schools – this is something that Darcy does not want to see happen at Eagle Tree.

Desiree, 17, a student at Eagle Tree, said she decided to come down to spruce up her school so that it would look better and so that hopefully her peers would want to actually come to classes. She says that the students will be proud of the work done on campus because they put the effort in to complete the beautification. She believes that there will be a decrease in graffiti, because the students know the hard work that went into painting the mural and other items on campus. She also added that she’d be more inclined to volunteer in the future because of the experience with Sharefest.

She summed up the experience with a simple and concise quote that I feel lends itself well to the spirit of volunteering: “Knowing that you helped gives you a good feeling, it’s like ‘I did that!’”

Additional photos can be viewed here.

Written by Rosie Parra // YDA Tutor

Comments

[Kathy Barron]

I enjoyed helping. My specialty is weeding, and I got lots of enthusiastic fellow weeders!