Volunteers do landscaping work at Roosevelt High School in north Portland Monday as part of the annual public service campaigns observed on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday (photo by Mindy Cooper/The Portland Observer).
Thousands of volunteers give back
As one of several events held in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday, thousands of volunteers throughout the Portland area gathered on the Roosevelt High School in North Portland to paint and work on improvements to the campus.
Volunteers from all levels of education throughout the city attended the day of service, where Mayor Sam Adams, District Attorney Mike Schrunk and Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown attended the opening rally in the school gymnasium.
“It’s a great way to meet people from other schools,” said volunteer Sidney Davie, a student at Warner Pacific College, who helped her team build a new gravel path on a hill outside the high school throughout the cold day.
According to volunteer Matthew Speer, a graduate student at Portland State University and a student teacher at Roosevelt, the event is in the spirit of MLK because it’s all about service, community building and community action through positive forces.
“It’s a chance to give back to our community and meet people who want to do that,” he said.
Makai Gibson-Rivers, a 2003 high school graduate of Roosevelt, agreed.
The event is a way to give back to show there are people willing to help serve a purpose, he said. “I get to help bring my old school up to their excellent standards by helping make their campus look beautiful.”
