LAGUNA BEACH : Service Hours Worth Many Students’ Time

Amanda Diamond needed 20 hours of community service to earn her diploma Thursday night. Instead, she accumulated 1,200.

One of 157 students scheduled to graduate from Laguna Beach High School, the college-bound senior said she just continued volunteering because it felt so good.

“I enjoyed it, I enjoyed it a lot,” Diamond said. “The feeling you get after doing it, that makes you go back.”

Last year, the Laguna Beach Unified School District became the first in the county to require that high school students perform 10 hours of community service each year.

Since this is the second year the requirement has been in effect, 1994 graduates were required to prove they had worked 20 hours.

Program coordinator Chris Krach said Thursday that the last student was completing his service that day.

“He’s our last one, and he’s worked the last two days,” she said. “I’m so excited. . . . They’ve all done it.”

The teen-agers served in a variety of ways. They worked in thrift shops, volunteered at the Laguna Beach Community Clinic and umpired Little League games. Many went beyond the call of duty.

“Many of our students had more than the 20 hours, and I find that real encouraging,” Krach said.

Diamond, who was honored for her efforts by the school board Tuesday, served in myriad arenas, from nursing homes to an elementary school where the children were unable to speak English.

“When you teach a kid how to count to 10 who didn’t know the numbers at all, that’s like the greatest feeling,” she said.

After some initial grumbling by students last year and a hectic scramble to meet 1993 requirements, Krach said this year’s students were more receptive to the program.

Generally, she said, the process went more smoothly.

“We’re in 100% better shape this year than last,” she said. “I foresee the future as this just being something the students do and there’s not going to be any resistance and, hopefully, they’re going to be some students like Amanda who get into it and really get the benefit from it.”

Diamond says she gained some new insights during her hours as a community volunteer.

“It makes you see that not everyone has everything handed to them,” she said. “I think it makes you realize there are people out there who need help. And every little thing you do (is appreciated). Just by going by and saying ‘hi’ to someone who’s been in a bedroom all day in a nursing home brightens their day.”

Last year, the Saddleback Valley Unified School District also adopted a community service graduation requirement.

In October, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the appeal of two Pennsylvania students who said that requiring them to perform unpaid community service to graduate from high school amounted to slavery.