Some volunteers chose to pick up paintbrushes and Lysol wipes instead of hitting the snooze button Monday morning.
About 70 UF volunteers gathered at the Reichert House Youth Academy as part of the MLK Day of Service organized by Multicultural and Diversity Affairs and by Actions, which is part of the Center for Leadership and Service.
The Reichert House is an after-school program designed for 11- to 18-year-old males living in areas with high crime rates who need help making the transition from adolescence to adulthood, according to a press release.
Along with painting and cleaning, volunteers mopped floors, washed cars, vacuumed, reorganized sheds and put mulch around plants outside the middle school and high school facilities.
“It was one of those places we were really excited to help out because we know they have a lot a work that still needs to be done at the Reichert House, and we wanted to do that for them,” said Natalia Leal, chairwoman for the MLK Jr. Committee and assistant director of Multicultural and Diversity Affairs at UF.
Trimus Warren, 18, a member of the program, said his time at Reichert House has been a learning experience and has helped improve his attitude and grades.
“Since the time I’ve been here, it’s made me a better person — kept me off the streets, kept me out of trouble,” Warren said.
Byers Hickman, the executive director of the Reichert House, said the community’s attention to the project will help show how UF is helping east Gainesville.
He said the volunteers were unable to complete their initial plan of building a music studio due to lack of funds and equipment.
But volunteers like Tiffany Hofmann showed their passion for serving despite the setback.
Hofmann, a UF junior majoring in family, youth and community sciences, did not let the paint or dirt on her clothing bother her.
Hofmann said getting dirty is part of the price of community service.
The teens in the program were impressed by the handiwork of the volunteers.
Isiah Blount, a 10th-grade student in the program, said he was surprised the volunteers cleaned the sheds.
Before volunteers organized the sheds, he said, it looked like hurricanes had run through them.
Kristen Denson, assistant director of Actions, hopes the community service continues beyond the event.
“We just hope to get a very diverse amount of people to come out,” Denson said. “That way they’re able to experience not just the legacy that Martin Luther King left behind but the legacy they can leave behind themselves if they become active in their communities.”
Correction: In the Jan. 19 edition of the Alligator, Isiah Blount's name was spelled incorrectly.
