Some Baltimore city schools got mini facelifts this week—courtesy of nearly 200 volunteers from Catholic Heart Workcamp. The faith-based, non-profit organization sends more than 13,000 youths across the country and abroad to work on various projects. Nearly 200 of them spent this week cleaning up more than 20 schools in Baltimore.
At Edgecombe Circle Elementary School on Virginia Avenue, about 10 Catholic Heart volunteers and their chaperones sorted through supplies, filled buckets and mixed paint for their cleanup work on Wednesday. Several cleaned up the tops, insides, and outsides of a long line of lockers. Gianna Limeri, of Morganville, New Jersey, said she was shocked by the condition of the school and the vulgar graffiti on some of the walls—a big difference from her own school. “Our school has graffiti but nothing like this,” Limeri said. “I was a little upset that students had to see the graffiti every day and be in an environment surrounded by awful words on the walls.”
But graffiti aside, Limeri said she’s glad she volunteered for the week—long program. “I know having a clean, safe and nice school to be in for six hours a day is important, so I’m glad I got to have a little part in making this school look prettier and be a nicer environment to be in.”
Jason Wimelt, director of the Baltimore Catholic Heart Work Camp, said the school cleanup project is representative of the organization’s effort to expose their youth volunteers to the diverse needs of communities different from their own hometowns. “A lot of these youths come from private schools where they don’t see public school systems in need of major repairs, so we wanted them to have this kind of exposure,” Wimelt said. “Baltimore city schools need a lot of help, so this is important work that they’re doing.”
Wimelt said the Catholic Heart volunteers not only gave up a week of their summer vacation to work here, but they paid a $500 registration fee and paid for their transportation to get here.
Sixteen-year-old Carter Whalen of Lexington, Kentucky, and other volunteers were down the hall from the locker cleanup, painting their fourth bathroom. Whalen said the lost vacation time and expenses, which many of them raised through church donations and fundraisers, was a small price to pay to help others.
“I was privileged to have a good school that was just made,” he said. “I like helping people and it makes me feel good to help a community. I was thinking of my school and this is a big school but it’s like run down and everything and a lot needs to be done. … I’m glad I’m here and it makes me feel good to help a community this way.”
This is the second summer that Catholic Heart Workcamp volunteers have been in Baltimore and it's also the kick off for a two-month effort of volunteers coming to district schools for cleanup projects. Lois Gorman, a Baltimore County teacher and Catholic Heart Workcamp manager, came up with the idea of bringing the campers here. She said she received a good education in Baltimore city and wanted to give something back.
“Being a teacher, I know the importance of having a safe environment for my students,” Gorman said. “I know funding is limited in any system and figured if we could get schools to look a bit better the students would be excited to go to school.”
Billie Malcolm, the school district’s partnership coordinator, said the Catholic Heart volunteers’ free labor comes at a time when budgets are stretched. “Many of our schools have ‘a’ custodian, so you’re imagining one person trying to do this,” Malcolm said. “It also takes the weight off the schools trying to rally people to do this when they can also use those folks throughout the school year to do other things like tutoring.”
Edgecombe Circle’s principal Sharone Brinkley-Parker said she is pleased with the work that the Catholic Heart volunteers did painting bathrooms and cleaning up her hallways this year and last year. “Last year they came in and painted the teacher’s lounge and an area leading to the portables, so they have helped to make the school’s environment cleaner and more brighter for the students,” Brinkley-Parker said. “I probably would have had to pay overtime for someone to do the work that they did.”
The volunteers said they believe their work will make a difference to students next year, but Limeri said they benefitted from the experience as well. “I’ve never been exposed to this kind of environment. It will make me a less judgmental person. Instead of judging people who come from less fortunate parts of towns, I definitely want to be able to go forth and do anything I can to make their lives easier and more pleasant,” Limeri said. And she said she would “absolutely” do it again.
Baltimore city district officials say they hope the Catholic Heart volunteers will return next year. “Sometimes school officials feel they’re in this alone,” Malcolm said. “They have a daunting task and are often overwhelmed with short staff and resources, so when people come from all over the country to say, ‘We’re here to support you,’ that means a lot.”