City Year spruces up school

• By CHANTE DIONNE WARREN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 3, 2009 - Page: 1B

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A group of City Year Louisiana Corps members landscaped campus grounds and built picnic tables Friday at Broadmoor Middle School, where they briefly met with the students they soon will be mentoring and tutoring.

Principal Rebel Ellerbee thanked the team for providing the extra attention his 750 students will soon gain.

“We’re very excited about this. What’s most important is what we’re going to do to utilize them academically,” he said. “It can’t help but make a difference for our kids.”

Ten corps members will service the school daily, providing eight hours of academic and after-school assistance, Ellerbee said.

City Year team leader Justin Herbert, 23, said Friday’s service work was part of the group’s transformative service project to improve the outside campus. Herbert directed 20 volunteers who worked three simultaneous projects — building picnic tables, clearing debris from the courtyard and planting foliage.

Their volunteer efforts Friday were preceded by a noon ceremony at the State Capitol, where 73 City Year Louisiana Corps members pledged their commitment to serve a year of full-time community service, leadership development and civic engagement, Herbert said.

Starting on Monday, corps members will serve in four Baton Rouge schools — Progress Elementary, Magnolia Woods Elementary, Glen Oaks Park Elementary and Broadmoor Middle schools — where they will tutor, mentor and help run after-school programs, said Herbert, a former teacher in Dayton, Ohio, who joined the civic corps this year.

Corps members ages 17 to 24 receive a stipend for living expenses and basic health coverage.

“I grew up in urban schools. I taught math and reading at a second-chance school. I like what this program will do and I like my team. I think we’re going to go a lot of positive work,” Herbert said.

Corps member Roxanne Pfeil, 22, of Hammond, said she wanted to serve after she graduated from Southeastern Louisiana University last spring. Friday, she helped build Broadmoor’s new picnic table.

“I’m ready to help and learn and I’m passionate about City Year’s ideals and I’m excited about making a difference in the lives of the students here,” Pfeil said.