Angles Bring Renewal On An April Day

rmed with brooms, paintbrushes and hardware, Kristin Whitehead and her classmates from San Francisco’s St. Ignatius High School marched into the crime-ridden, littered streets of East Palo Alto five years ago and rehabilitated the home of a 70-year-old woman.

The daylong renovation was sponsored by Christmas in April U.S.A., a national non-profit organization. Whitehead, now a senior at Gonzaga University, says the service work left a lasting impression on her.

“It all happens on one day in April, and you can really see the results,” she says. “It’s a very rewarding experience.”

After arriving at Gonzaga, Whitehead tried to bring Christmas in April to Spokane. But she found the organization unwilling to support a college student’s effort. Instead, she and a team of peers designed their own spring volunteer project.

They called themselves April’s Angels. The student leaders selected West Central’s Trinity Elementary as the location of their first daylong restoration project, which took place in April of 1995. They solicited donations from the community and recruited more than 200 volunteers.

Whitehead’s fire ignited the momentum for Gonzaga junior Jennifer Carr to organize this year’s larger April clean-up at Camp Dart-Lo, a day camp run by Camp Fire Boys and Girls.

“That project was a huge success sheerly in terms of participation. It was unprecedented at Gonzaga,” says Sima Thorpe, the university’s volunteer services coordinator. Thorpe beams because April’s Angels, and a second student-run neighborhood clean-up group called Quake, are “good examples of how student empowerment can work.”

Thorpe celebrates the fact that these students defy the lazy, apathetic Generation X stereotype commonly associated with young people. “Given the opportunity, they will bend over backwards to make a difference,” she says.

Community leaders at Gonzaga currently need fund-raising advice for this year’s service projects. If you can help, or if you have a community project and would like Gonzaga students to participate, call 328-4220, ext. 2224. , DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: Created in support of the Spokane County Health Improvement Partnership (HIP), Discoveries highlights people working to improve community health and well-being. If you have a discovery that deserves recognition, call Elana Ashanti Jefferson at 459-5419. To get involved with HIP, call 482-2557.