Global Youth Service Day 2009

Two hundred and fifty youth joined forces to volunteer throughout New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish for Global Youth Service Day on Saturday April 25, 2009. During the course of one day, millions of young people in cities around the world participated in and lead service projects for the benefit of their neighborhoods, schools and community centers.

For the Greater New Orleans community, Global Youth Service Day is an annual day of community service that highlights the talents and manypositive contributions of our young people ages 7 - 24.

HandsOn New Orleans, City-Year Louisiana, InterFaith Works, Ponderosa Stomp Foundation and The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation, Inc. sponsored the full day of community service; providing opportunities for volunteers to become a part of the largest day of youth action in the world!

In essence, Global Youth Service Day 2009 served as an outlet for direct and meaningful community action. This year's service projects afforded volunteers the opportunity to stain a wooden fence surrounding a Battered Woman's Shelter and re-mulch a Memory Garden in St. Bernard Parish. Volunteers were also tasked with beautifying Delery Park in the Lower
9th Ward, repainting the playground at the Columbus Street Children's Center, and planting seeds for produce at Samuel J. Green Elementary School's Edible Schoolyard.

The largest service project of the day took place at The John Dibert Elementary School where 100 youth came together to repaint the school and give its interior and exterior a fresh and uplifting new look! Volunteers did everything from repainting the stairways and hallways to re-striping the basketball court in the school's colors and placing tennis balls on the bottom of every chair on the 3rd floor.

Volunteers began the day with a Morning Celebration at The John Dibert Elementary School and were provided with breakfast, commemorative t-shirts, and a boxed lunch for the road. Middle school students tutored by City-Year Louisiana did an outstanding job of motivating the large group of volunteers with a lively presentation on the history of Global Youth Service Day. Their presentation included a reading of our mission and goals for the day and an overview of what 7 countries around the world were doing to engage their youth in service on that day.

Special thanks to all the volunteers, volunteer leaders, and project sites that made the day possible! The day would not have been complete without the support and generosity of The Staples Foundation for Learning, HoneyBaked Hams and First Student Bus Service.

Thanks to funding provided by The Staples Foundation for Learning, HandsOn New Orleans had the unique opportunity to expand our support of Global Youth Service Day beyond the projects that we hosted by subgranting out a total of $4,000 to 4 agencies across New Orleans.

High Voltage Youth Camp provides education and recreation programs for economically disadvantaged youth. High Voltage is dedicated to helping youth realize their potential, build character, and function effectively as contributing members of society. In honor of Global Youth Service Day, HandsOn supported High Voltage's Mother's Day service learning project. During this project, 34 students volunteered alongside students from UNO / Nelson Charter School in order to create colorful flower pots for seniors living in John J. Hainkel, Jr. Home and Rehabilitation Center. Following the day of service, students returned to the senior center in order to give an oral presentation to the community about what the learned from the gardening activity and in order to present seniors with the plants.

Friends of City Park supports the New Orleans City Park in preserving and improving park spaces that may be used and enjoyed by all New Orleanians. HandsOn supported Friends of City Park in hosting 50 12 - 17 year olds from the Coalition of Independent Schools. These youth got down and dirty planting shoreline grasses as a part of the Big Lake Trail and Meadow Project. The grasses will serve not only to beautify the area for park patrons, but they also improve the habitat for fish and prevent soil erosion along the shoreline.

The Community Center of St. Bernard is dedicated to empowering Hurricane Katrina survivors by providing them with local access to essential recovery resources, including canned food, clothes, hot meals, medical care, and legal aid. HandsOn partnered with the Community Center of St. Bernard in order to help complete renovations onthe Community Center's Annex. In honor of Global Youth Service Day, volunteers assisted with the installation of floor time, windows, and trim in the Annex. Once complete, the newly renovated Annex will provide additional client serving space, offices, a free laundry for low-income residents, and inventory space for the Community Center's Food Pantry.

Green Light New Orleans enables low and fixed income households to switch from incandescent light bulbs to energy efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) which reduce carbon emissions and utility costs. In honor of Global Youth Service Day, Green Light New Orleans hosted a day of youth volunteerism in which youth travelled to homes in order to install energy efficient light bulbs across New Orleans.