Jenny Rodriguez plants a tree at MLK Service Day
Americorps members, Service Learning Academy students, and staff participated in the MLK service day January 16th beginning at Huston-Tillotson University; hosted by Hands on Central Texas. We listened to the main speaker, Dr. Richard Reddick, and other amazing speakers, ate free breakfast tacos, and saw a performance by Cipher, a group founded by Jeff Da’shade Johnson. Cipher is a street project for outreach to youth in our community. Also, we heard a speech from a 4th grader named Lamar, a little boy with a big heart. I must say he was an amazing speaker; his speech was about Dr. King and how proud of us he would be for the work we were doing that day. After the festivities, we went to a site and planted trees one by one. We also helped each other dig and break through compounded soil so we could plant the young saplings in their new homes in order to spread their roots through the foundation. In the midst of digging we learned an important lesson—team work. It was hot but we worked together in our efforts to help our community.
–Elais Laurila, Computer Corps member
