Education: AmeriCorps, Community Building Partnership for Youth in Transition.

Students in Action: Continuing the Legacy

Last year marked the first annual Students in Action: Continuing the Legacy day of service for high school students at Bruce Randolph School in Denver, Colorado. On the last Friday in April 2011, a total of 750 students, teachers, staff members, and community volunteers went out into Denver and provided approximately 3,400 volunteer hours. This year, on Friday April 27, 2012, the tradition of service continued. In addition to Bruce Randolph, 13 other high schools in the Denver community participated in their own small scale service projects on this day. An estimated 7,000 students, teachers, staff and volunteers participated this year.

CBPYT AmeriCorps Member Rachel Ogorek, placed with the YMCA of Metropolitan Denver, planned the first and second annual Students in Action: Continuing the Legacy day of service for students at Bruce Randolph High School. Rachel's primary goal in developing this day was to help the students of Bruce Randolph find meaning and appreciation in volunteerism. She wanted to students to feel empowered to create change and improve their neighborhoods instead of viewing community service as a punishment. Rachel's passion for service, and vision at Bruce Randolph, has inspired community leaders and students throughout Denver to join in this day of service – in only one year this project has grown by nearly 6,000 participants.

The services students provided included visiting with military veterans at the VA Hospital, putting together food baskets to support the work of Food Bank of the Rockies, helping the GrowHaus and the Urban Farm at Stapleton with community gardens, park clean-up in conjunction with Denver Parks and Recreation, decorating meal bags for terminally ill patients with Project Angel Heart, rebuilding elderly homes with Rebuilding Together and many other projects.

Jennifer Esquivel, a junior at Bruce Randolph, had this to say about the service day, “Last year I volunteered at Fuller Park. I picked up trash and put wood chips around the trees so the water would stay around the tree. This year I am lucky enough to be able to volunteer at The Urban Farm. I am very excited because I love animals. The reason why I volunteer is because I like to help others. Whenever I have the chance to volunteer I take it because at the end of the day I know I have accomplished something big. Service is a very important thing at Bruce Randolph School because we like to show how much we care about our community. The Students in Action day of service at our school gives us the opportunity to help people and organizations in our neighborhood. After the service day, I will continue to be involved in service by helping my community and by volunteering at places that need my help the most.”