ACE News
Full Time Tutors Take Part in MLK's National Day of Service
January 2011
On the morning of January 15, 2011, over 700 community members of Austin volunteered in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s beliefs and philosophies of community service. Known as "a day on, not a day off", 30+ members of ACE gathered bright and early for a pep rally hosted by Hands on Central Texas at Houston Tilitson University. Here, we were graciously served breakfast while community member Gigi Edwards Bryant and State Representative Dawnna Dukes spoke about their beliefs and experiences of how service impacts the Austin community.
Despite rainy weather conditions, ACE tutors were ready to get out there and serve their community! This year, ACE partnered up with YouthLauch: Urban Roots, a youth development program that practices sustainable agriculture by farming a variety of organic vegetables. 40% of what is grown on their farms is donated to local families in need. Although the day's work was much different than teaching literacy to children, ACE tutors geared up with ponchos, rain boots and gardening gloves to jump in and help this worthy cause.
This time of year on the farm, cilantro is ready to be harvested and distributed. Tutors helped cut and wrap up over 370 bundles of this beautiful herb. Our Urban Roots directors for the day described these bundles of vegetables as a bouquet of flowers ready to be given to the families they serve. It was quite a rewarding feeling to be the direct link between the ground the cilantro grew in and the tables of the families it would soon lie on. After a quick break for lunch, the rainfall increased and the ground became muddier. However, this did not put a damper on the tutors' enthusiasm. In fact, our excitement is what got us through most of our rainy day!
As the rain fell harder, ACE's next task was to plant leaks in the farms' trenches. If you didn't already know, leaks have to be planted in a very particular way: Picture 12 trenches, all at least 50 yards long. Now dig little holes in the trench 2 inches deep and 3 inches apart, and place each leak in the little hole without having the dirt collapse over it. Repeat for each of the 200 or so leaks, making sure they're placed in an exact straight line. This was an interesting task in a mud-filled trench!
As always, the ACE tutors made the very most of their day of service by literally jumping into the wet and muddy field. With the hard work and dedication of our members volunteering all at once, this arduous task seemed effortless. Our work was recognized throughout the day many times by the Urban Roots directors vocalizing how surprised they were by our constant liveliness.
Near the end, all volunteers gathered in a closing circle congratulating and thanking each other for the day's accomplishments. Each and every one of us had the chance to share our favorite part of the day, from learning new facts about sustainable foods to becoming familiar with the Urban Roots organization, and even getting covered in the wet mud from the farm.
All in all it was another successful day of service that ACE was a part of. We gathered and planted vegetables to help feed community families, built friendships with familiar and unfamiliar faces, and served our community while representing ACE and AmeriCorps. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would certainly be proud.
Attia Lawrence
ACE Leader, Second Year Member