NEWS Walnut Valley Unified School District
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 880 S. Lemon Avenue
May 5, 2015 Walnut, CA 91789
Contact:
Kelli Gile, Office of Community Resources
(909) 595-1261 ext. 31204
Chaparral students are making a difference in communities
DIAMOND BAR, CA—Chaparral Middle School’s HUMANitarian Club is dedicated to serving.
For the past nine years, members have reached out to area homeless through local shelter programs.
On Global Youth Service Day, the 30 students continued their good deeds by making lunches for a shelter in San Gabriel.
The project was funded through a $400 Sodexo Youth Grant written by sixth grader Srijani Krishnan.
“It’s great that everyone is here to help the homeless,” she said to club members. “All the food will go to the St. Vianney Food Pantry today.”
Over 30 members met after school on April 17 to make sack lunches with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit snack, candy bar, and bottle of water. Volunteers from the United Cougars assisted with the project.
“It’s awesome that you’re taking your time to make this happen for 144 folks,” said Principal Ron Thibodeaux.
A hunger awareness video was also created to share with classmates.
“I like helping people,” said sixth grader Lydia Worku.
“It makes you feel good and it’s fun too,” seventh grader Darren Lo. Club members also volunteered at the San Gabriel Valley Winter Shelter and sung Christmas carols at a retirement home in Walnut.
President Sydney Robinson was awarded a $500 grant from Disney’s Friends for Change program to make improvements at the Center Street community garden in Pomona.
“My dad helped start the garden and I’m going to build a new sign,” the seventh grader said.
Other HUMANitarian volunteers and their families joined the service project on April 18.
“They harvested food, painted a structure to hold garden announcements, and wrote inspirational messages on rocks to beautify the garden,” said advisor Sherry Robertson.
The members helped paint and shovel mulch at the garden earlier in the month.
“The kids worked so hard!” Robertson said. “It was a cool experience, and we’re eager to go again!”
A police report stated that crime decreased by 50% with the addition of the new garden.
“It’s pretty impactful,” she said.
Shown:
Chaparral students met after school to make lunches for area needy on Global Youth Service Day. Sixth grader Srijani Krishman wrote a grant that funded the project.
Chaparral students made improvements at a community garden through a Disney Friends for Change grant.
Chaparral seventh grader Sydney Robinson is making change in the community through a grant funded through Disney’s Friends for Change program.