Bakersfield.com

Saturday morning… for most, it’s a time for pajamas, lazing around or having fun with family and friends.  But for one group of community conscious young people, Saturdays are an opportunity to be of service.  

As is the case in many areas of our city, our apartment parking is accessed by an alleyway that runs behind it.  The multi-colored tagging, trash and potholes that plague this strip of road have caused my children to dub it the "ghetto alley.”  It is something that we are embarrassed to have to warn visitors about.

Some of the potholes have become so large that it is necessary to veer into the parking stalls to avoid them and one, can no longer be missed.  The trash, weeds, discarded furniture, broken glass and who knows what else, make the alley an obstacle course that many a tire has been lost to.

            Early on a recent Saturday, my son Stephen, the Jr. High leader at Calvary Chapel Westbrook, came in and gathered up brooms, shovels, rakes, loppers and the Hula Hoe.  He said, "The kids are here to clean the alley.  You should come and see."  I remember church “work days” and they were about as much fun as finals week, but my curiosity was aroused.  I threw on some of my grubbiest clothes and headed out the door. 

There were kids and leaders everywhere... nineteen to be exact.  They were digging; chopping, sweeping, picking up trash and moving dirt to fill one of the potholes.  Foliage that had grown through the fence was cut and thrown into a dumpster.  A very petite, but brave girl, jumped in to stomp it down.  She stood, smiling, tall and proud in her self-proclaimed “observation tower.”  When the loppers weren’t strong enough to cut through the larger branches, a team would bend them down and stomp on them until they broke off.  In less than two hours the alley looked better than it ever had in the six years that we have lived here.  These kids made a huge difference!

 I was surprised by the reaction of the "trash-pickers" who as usual, were steering their carts from dumpster to dumpster.  They smiled, gave quick hellos and passed almost respectfully around the hard working young people.  One ragged looking gentleman stopped to pick up and return an unused trash bag that had blown away from the work area.  Even the adolescent residents, whose silent roaming sometimes caused tension, returned our greetings as they passed by.

 With the news full of gang shootings and troubled youth, the opportunity to spend some time with this group was a refreshing and uplifting experience.  The icing on the cake… they are considering making community clean-up an ongoing project.  Kudos to the youth and leadership of Calvary Chapel Westbrook.