Despite the dreary weather, more than 200 students piled into buses Saturday morning and ventured off campus to a part of town many University students have rarely seen.
The students, representing about 25 student organizations, were volunteering as a part of the Martin Luther King Commemorative Day of Service, sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Affairs. They spent the day cleaning and repairing four predominantly black, poor schools in south Baton Rouge — McKinley High School, Polk Elementary, University Terrace Elementary and Buchanan Elementary.
Volunteers came from diverse backgrounds. At one school alone, Buchanan Elementary, there were volunteers from Spectrum Alliance, Student Government and the African Student Organization.
At the elementary school, volunteers scraped dirt off hallway walls, cleaned chairs, sanded base boards, sanitized the cafeteria and powerwashed exterior walls and bathrooms.
Custodians from the school were on hand to direct volunteers in their work. Rudy Snell, a zone manager who oversees facilities for East Baton Rouge Parish Schools, was at Buchanan helping students fix the school for its kindergarten through fifth-grade students.
Snell said she watched in delight as volunteers powerwashed an enclosed wall outside of the school gym. That morning, the wall was black from grime and dirt, but by the afternoon, it had returned to its original orange color.
“I think it’s awesome, kids volunteering to make sure the younger kids get what they need: a clean school,” Snell said.
Earlier that morning, before students had left for the schools, Pat Smith, president of the East Baton Rouge School Board and coordinator of the Community University Partnership program that helped plan the day, spoke to the volunteers in the Union.
She told the students the importance of what they were doing, and their work would be appreciated by the elementary-school students.
Her participation did not stop there. She visited all the schools and met with the volunteers throughout the service day.
“Martin Luther King was very much engrossed in service, and for the students to dedicate a day of service in memory of him is great,” Smith said. “It’s an opportunity for students to see the schools, and connect to [them].”
Rachel All, a psychology senior, was a team leader for the group at Buchanan Elementary. After organizing and helping delegate tasks, she removed wax from hallway walls. She said the wax had been collecting dirt and making the bottom of the walls “gross.”
“It’s important for us to come out here and feel like a part of the community,” she said as she scrapped away the wax. “LSU is so close to old south Baton Rouge, and it feels like a lot of people ignore the poverty that is out here, as well as the community.”
Many volunteers said they were thinking of the Baton Rouge students their work would help. As hallways began to shine, and classrooms became cleaner, some volunteers wondered what students would think when they came back Monday.
Laurie Pennington, a social work graduate student, said the students were what prompted her to get up and volunteer on an early Saturday morning.
She said she was helping to “make the school environment a better place and more conducive to learning.”