L.B.
service helps with home repair
By Sonya Smith
On-line Forty-Niner
More
than 75 volunteers from Cal State Long Beach
and the community united to enrich other
people’s lives and homes on Make a Difference
Day Saturday.
The all-day event was put on by Rebuilding
Together, a Long Beach service organization,
and coincided with Six Days of Service,
a project put together by CSULB’s Community
Service Learning Center.
These projects helped to renovate five homes
at the Del Amo Mobile Home Park in Long
Beach. Volunteers painted house exteriors,
bathroom ceilings, and fixed electrical
and plumbing problems. The homeowners selected
must be low income and elderly, disabled,
have families with children and are unable
to do the work themselves, according to
a press release from Rebuilding Together.
“We just want to make their homes more comfortable
for living in,” said Dave Medina, board
member for Rebuilding Together.
CSULB President Robert Maxson visited the
project site to commend the volunteers and
greet homeowners. L.A. Job Corps as well
as campus groups Sigma Lambda Beta, Alphi
Phi, Circle K and the American Society of
Civil Engineers were some of the organizations
present.
Make a Difference Day is an international
event coordinated by the Points of Light
Foundation and USA Weekend Magazine. Last
year, 62,000 people volunteered for Make
a Difference Day and organized 400 projects
in 77 countries, according to its Web site.
Medina said the idea for Make a Difference
Day came from a previous event they held
at the Del Amo Mobile Home Park.
Make a Difference Day was the culminating
project for the Six Days of Service, put
together by the Community Service Learning
Center at CSULB. The center previously hosted
events including an exhibition of artwork
created by students who worked with women
from a substance abuse shelter and a symposium
about how the university and the community
can better work together, said Carina Sass
of the Community Learning Service Center.
Senior recreation major Jamie Knutsen said
that volunteering for the event will provide
her with something in return.
“You give so that you can receive,” she
said.
An example of this concept can be seen in
the situation of homeowner Norma Reed. She
once volunteered for 11 years at an AIDS
hospice. Now, she is elderly and receiving
help from the community.
The work done on Reed’s house included checking
the plumbing and exterior painting. Reed
said that having the volunteers around brightens
the day for herself and her dog, Miss Murphy.
“This is going to help the volunteers in
the future because they are going to realize
that we cannot always do things alone,”
Reed said.
|
