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'Helping our community': Charter school students spend MLK Jr. Day giving back
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Thousands of Albuquerque students were out of school for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
But instead of staying home and sleeping in until 10 a.m., The Albuquerque Sign Language Academy students hit the streets Monday morning for a day of service.
鈥淚t felt awesome, because we鈥檙e not just sitting around at home, just sleeping (or) playing video games,鈥� said eighth grader Krista Cruz, whose group was tasked with cleaning up parts of the Los Griegos neighborhood. 鈥淲e鈥檙e actually 鈥� cleaning up and helping our community.鈥�
The charter school鈥檚 students had a variety of activities scheduled Monday morning, including restocking the area鈥檚 little libraries, preparing lunches for families at hospitality house Casa Esperanza and thanking firefighters for their service.
Cleaning up Los Griegos, eighth grader Kassandra Arundale said, felt like King鈥檚 鈥渄ream coming true.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e helping clean up in honor of him,鈥� she said.
Los Griegos Neighborhood Association board President Mary Beth Thorn said the students鈥� effort for their community 鈥渕eans a lot.鈥�
鈥淭he school 鈥� found us and offered to do this pickup,鈥� she said. 鈥� 鈥� We鈥檙e usually the ones reaching out to see if anybody needs help, and it鈥檚 just really nice to have that returned.鈥�
Even though they were there to work, students still found ways to have fun.
For about 10 minutes, three students fought to rescue an A&W Root Beer can from the other side of Valley Park鈥檚 chain link fence that always seemed to slip through the grasp of their trash grabbers just as they were about to bring it over.
But the middle schoolers were determined to collect their prize.
鈥淭his is our only mission,鈥� said Breckin Twitchell, a seventh grader.
Finally, they succeeded, cheering and holding the can up in triumph.
鈥淚t was three middle school boys, and we saw something and we thought it would be fun to do, and it was fun to do,鈥� Noah Garcia said later. 鈥淲e were also picking up trash, it was a win-win.鈥�
