Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Ronald Bridge, left, and James Ek, right, of Youthbuild Providence, join other members of their organization and other volunteers helping to paint lockers at Mount Pleasant High School this morning. Providence Journal photo / Mary Murphy

By Linda Borg
Journal staff writer

PROVIDENCE -- Mike Raposa, a '74 alumnus from Mount Pleasant High School, returned to his alma mater this morning to add a little luster to the dilapidated high school on Smith Hill.

Raposa was one of 65 employees from Home Depot to spend the day replacing door knobs, painting lockers and generally sprucing up the aging brick high school, a throwback to an era when high schools were neighborhood hubs.

"We're here to get the school back on track," said Raposa, who is 52 and lives in Warwick.

"I want to let students know that they can be dream-makers, not dream-breakers."

City Year invited volunteers from the city's schools, Home Depot, T-Mobile, Brown University and Youth Build to fix up the massive, three-story brick building in Mount Pleasant. Among the volunteer workforce were 100 middle school students, members of "Young Heroes," a community service program run by City Year. They were joined by 300 families and members of the community.

Students planned to spend the day painting a mural that will grace the front entrance of the school and include quotes from famous activists like Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Volunteers spread out through the school to do various jobs. Some painted the railings along the stairs gray. Scores of volunteers went to two floors of the high school to give tired looking lockers a fresh coat of light blue paint. One group helped to paint two murals in the gym. Other volunteers painted the walls in the corridors and at the entrance of the school with quotes from famous people in history that ran from Martin Luther King to Carlos Santana.

Anthony Rich, 15, a student at Mount Pleasant High School, who volunteered to paint, said he was delighted so many people volunteered to work on his school because it could use some sprucing up. "We need a better environment to learn. I don't want to see broken down stuff," Rich said. Mount Pleasant student Anaclariza Rivera, 14, said she signed up to paint to make the school better. "I'm showing people I'm not afraid to make a difference. All it takes is one person," she said.

Chijioge Nwogu, 20, a Brown University student, stood in the corridor on the first floor of the school with other volunteers meticulously applying light blue paint to a locker. He had volunteered along with about 35 other peer leaders (RAs) from the university. They had seen the call for volunteers on the internet and signed up. "You do your small part. People should help out more often even if it's a small thing. Nwogu said there was excitement in the air among the students volunteering on Martin Luther King Day and with the upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama. "It means a lot to have a figure of hope. You have to step back and look at the bigger picture. Obama is just a man. He is not God. He is doing his own part. We have to do our own part. Hope alone can't make change it takes action."

Jesus Isasis, of Cumberland, who works in customer relations for T-Mobile, volunteered with about 20 other people from his company. His 9-year-old daughter Veronica was helping him paint the lockers in the corridor. Isasis said this was the first time he volunteered and not his last. With the newly elected president there seemed to be a new willingness to pitch in, he said, for people to do their part to help. After work Tuesday, his wife and friends planned to put on their Obama t-shirts and gather at a friend's house to watch the inauguration.

 Tags  Brown University Martin Luther King Jr. Day Providence

Leave a comment

Please be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish.

Name:

Email:

URL:  

Remember personal info?

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.