Seven-year-old Kerem Sanli painted some leaves beneath a dancing bear mural Sunday at Serrania Avenue Elementary.
Among the more than 100 volunteers working to clean up, garden and paint the school during the Big Sunday Weekend volunteer bonanza, he knew that the work was good.
"It's really good," said Kerem, a second-grader at the Woodland Hills campus.
"The bear. The butterfly and the bird.
"I want my school to be very clean."
Kerem joined an estimated 50,000 volunteers across the state to clean, paint, make arts and crafts or otherwise help the needy at 500 different projects.
The Big Sunday Weekend, founded 13 years ago in Los Angeles, is now the largest regional community service festival in the nation.
Over the weekend, volunteers worked to fill 20,000 potholes across Los Angeles.
Held an indie-rock concert on Sunset Boulevard to buy musical instruments and lessons for poor kids.
And fanned out across the San Fernando Valley to donate time to 59 projects ranging from a party at the L.A. Family Housing homeless shelter in North Hollywood to making quilts for U.S. veterans in Tujunga.
Volunteers also spruced up the Off-Leash Dog Park in Encino, in addition to spay/neutering 50 unfixed dogs for free.
It wasn't enough for Eric Price to attend Saturday's event. On Sunday, he was there, just as he is for five days a week to scoop up chewed tennis balls, trash and poo.
"Hi ho!," said Price, 69, of Lake Balboa, a retired United Airlines data analyst with his malawa dog, Mattie. "I always volunteer.
"I just do it."
And do what a small army did at Serrania Elementary, where volunteers clad in Big Sunday T-shirts toiled near a sign saying, "We shine," designating it a California Distinguished School.
Out front, kids and parents planted lavender and other drought-tolerant plants, in addition to watering 50 ornamental pears and other trees.
"It's just for the good of it," said Jessica, 16, of Woodland Hills, a Serrania grad and Taft High student who declined to give her last name, among the gardening squad. "Plus, it looks good on the college resume."
And in back marched a brigade of brooms, sweeping the entire campus.
"I'm planning on being a teacher, so this is really a great opportunity to give back," said Susie Chon, 23, of the CSUN Art Department, dotting the eye of the dancing bear.
Meanwhile, art students from Cal State Northridge guided platoons of painters to remake two campus murals, while other students fashioned crepe flowers to give to seniors.
"It looks great," said Andrew Weisser, a Serrania parent and team captain of the Big Sunday school spritzer, energized with pop music via the school P/A system. "People are having a blast.
"This is an entire community event."
Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_18070175?source=rss
Veronika Vaeková Virginie Ledoyen Alessandra Ambrosio Ana Hickmann Carla Campbell
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