Kids show talent for helping out
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 01:14 p.m., March 24, 2008
Updated 01:14 p.m., March 24, 2008
The kids had three hours to perform the cleanup, and American Red Cross Director Liliana Heredia-Taylor didn’t think they’d finish it in that time.
She was right. They did it in an hour flat.
Twelve high schoolers from Educational Talent Search, an Emporia State University-sponsored TRIO program that just started last year, cleaned and cleared out the back storage area of the Red Cross building Saturday morning. Given a window from 9 a.m. to noon, the kids got done around 10, conquering every speck of dust, spider and cobweb in their path, and wiped the floor.
“They did (an) awesome job,” Heredia-Taylor said. “... They even did an extra job that I wasn’t even planning on. They helped me with some storage inside.”
The Educational Talent Search program includes 200 sixth- through 12th-graders and focuses on teaching them to prepare themselves for a post-high school education, coordinator Janice Perez said. She said the program focuses on first-generation students, “and maybe they don’t have the resources to continue their education. So we focus on helping them find their resources that (are) necessary to continue their education, stay in school and ... get a post-secondary education.”
The program also encourages the kids to perform community service, and Saturday’s cleanup was the Talent Search’s first such organized activity. Perez e-mailed the program’s 100 high schoolers to invite them to help with the Red Cross cleanup. A dozen showed up, and their efficiency in attacking their task amazed Heredia-Taylor — so much so that she’d like the group to come back to do some painting at the Red Cross building this summer.
“I was very, very impressed (by) the seriousness of what they were doing,” she said. “I’ve had youth groups before come in, and by the time they finish with their rough play, and kidding, and pouting, and ‘That’s not what I wanna do’ type of thing, half the day is gone. ...
“They came in, and they just took over. It was awesome — it was awesome to see their work.”
Sonia Lara and her uncle, Oscar Lara, both 15, helped with the cleanup. Sonia said they “killed most of the spiders,” as well as sweeping and cobweb-cleaning.
“It is fun to get a chance to do stuff like this in the community,” Oscar said.
Added Sonia, “If I was old enough and could drive and everything, I would be here (more). But now, I have to depend on my parents to bring me here.”
Perez says the goal is to have a maximum of 250 kids in the Educational Talent Search, and she’d like to regularly have the group do activities like the one on Saturday, possibly one per month. As a coordinator, she’s in her first year counseling seniors in high school. She said community service experience helps them in applying for college scholarships.
“The scholarships look for students that are leaders in the community, they have volunteer work hours, they have done community service projects ... There are so many scholarships out there,” Perez said. “But the students aren’t able to get those because they don’t have any participation, or they have never done any projects like this, or they’re not known as leaders in the community.”