Never Too Young : Ventura Students Help Community--and Their Image

By helping to plant trees at a Ventura elementary school, Joshua Morgan hoped to spruce up more than just the school’s playground.

The Anacapa Middle School student said he wanted to improve the image of all middle school students, everywhere.

“We’re not only making ourselves look good, but other junior high students” too, said the tall, lanky 13-year-old as he paused while helping to dig a hole for a California pepper tree at Will Rogers Elementary School.

Joshua was one of more than 380 students from the Gifted and Talented Education programs at the Ventura Unified School District’s four middle schools who spent Wednesday performing community service projects throughout the city.

Divided into groups, the students fanned out to clean beaches, visit with the elderly at local retirement homes, read stories to children, and even paint a map of the United States on a school playground.

Also, several groups helped plant trees and shrubs at local elementary schools.

Jesse Hagy, 12, who helped Joshua plant the pepper tree at Will Rogers, agreed that the reputation of middle school-age students needs improving.

“Junior high age tends to, I think, be shunned by the world,” Jesse said. “It’s an age where kids start to goof around and do all the things that annoy adults.”

But, he said, “just because we’re not yet adults doesn’t mean we can’t do anything for our community.”

School officials who organized the community service day said the event is geared to instill a sense of leadership and social responsibility in the youngsters.

The students began the day at Cabrillo Middle School, where they heard short pep talks by school administrators.

“You are our best and our brightest,” said Mary George, the district’s director of instruction and curriculum.

“We hope you’re going to be our leaders” someday, said Margaret Gosfield, GATE program specialist for the school district.

But many students said they didn’t think that the community service day should have been limited to students in the GATE program.

“Everyone should do it,” said Paige Imbrogno, 11, a sixth-grader at De Anza Middle School. “We just had the opportunity.”

Community service helps children feel good about themselves and get recognition from adults, Paige said.

“It makes kids stand up and say, ‘Look what we’re doing,’ ” Paige said.

She said, however, that students in regular classes need this recognition more than GATE students.

People already think “GATE kids are great. GATE kids are wonderful,” Paige said. “If it was the regular kids, it might help a lot more.”

Many of the children pointed out that young people have a lot to offer their communities, if given the chance.

Children are concerned about their communities and “want to help,” said Sabrina Gaumer, who spent Wednesday visiting elderly people at the Ventura TowneHouse retirement home.

“Most adults don’t think about it,” she said. “They just think about making money.”