MLK Day

A National Day of Service:
Today began at 3:45am.  Yep.

My roomie's alarm clock rang bright and early at quarter to four in the morning, and I fought to stay asleep until at least quarter after four.  At last, I had to get up and take a shower.  Today was a big day!  Americorps NCCC celebrates National Days of Service such as Martin Luther King Junior Day.  My team contributed by beautifying a public/charter (a bit of a contradiction if you ask me) elementary school in a rough part of town.  The surrounding neighborhood is full of German Shepherds, Bull Dogs, and a freakish amount of Chihuahuas.  I will admit that I was a little uneasy sitting outside the fenced and chained up school for the hour and half that we did (the rest of our sponsors weren't quite as prompt as us) in the pitch black before the sun rose. 

The school's name is PS7, not overly creative.  Despite it's bland name, and sketchy location, it's actually one of the top performing elementary schools in CA!  Posted on banners infront of each classroom is that particular class' projected graduation day...not from elementary school or from high school, but from a four year college.  Starting in kindergarten they have parents attending college scouting and planning forums.  Pretty cool if you ask me.  The school itself was in rough shape, however, and the city of Sacramento felt that it was important to show the students and staff the respect they deserve by helping maintain the schoolyard and by doing a deep clean of the classrooms and cafeteria. 

My team, one other Americorps NCCC team, about 75 employees from a local health care company (that takes care of patients who have  no health care plan), and a few families of attending students showed up to help.  By the time it reached noon and we were wrapping up the project, we had already put in an 8 hour day! 

Here is a video of our work:  (The mayor Kevin Johnson...a former sports figure of some sort...and a ton of tv news crews kept us company.  Apparently we were at one of the more glamorous sites!)

http://www.kcra.com/video/26520442/detail.html

Needless to say, I came back to base and took a nap before doing P.T.  My team actually tried out P90X and got our butts kicked by the really questionable fitness guru guy who runs the workout video.  It was pretty entertaining.  Most of us actually stayed for a non-mandatory round 2 in which we worked our abs pretty intensely. 

Once that was over, I have to admit that I took a second nap for the day.  Then made dinner, and now here I am...about to go to bed.

I don't do early mornings.