AYLUS Oakland Gardens Playground Paint + Cleanup event (02/04/2024)

On Saturday, February 4th, 2024, AYLUS Oakland Gardens members went to an Oakland Gardens Playground to repaint the fences and swing sets, pick up trash, and rake the leaves. It was so cold that the water was freezing, but our members were still determined to help our world.

Due to the fact that a lot of kids came to help clean up our community we had to split up into three groups. One for painting, one for raking leaves, and one for picking up garbage. Kids from middle school and above painted because they were more careful than elementary kids. They could also reach higher places that we had to paint. The oldest kids raked leaves because they were stronger and could rake much more leaves than the younger members. The elementary school kids picked up trash because it was easier but still helped the community.

The older kids painted many things like fences and swing sets, but before they started painting, they had to put bags on the ground because the paint might drip and fall on to the ground, which is bad for the plants. It also made it look very dirty. They were very careful while painting and did their best not to get paint everywhere. To be extra careful they wrote signs that warned people not to touch those items that had wet paint on it, to prevent kids from getting dirty while they played.

We’d like to thank some of the parents that guided some of the kids who never did any of these things before. They showed kids how to paint and rake leaves so they could do this activity without any struggles. We’d also like to thank one of our volunteer’s parents for bringing us some more materials for painting when they realized that we needed more brushes and rollers to paint with. They also realized that even when the tallest kids tried to reach the highest places, they couldn’t reach them. They brought rollers that came from the nearby Ninety-Nine Cents store. These rollers had a longer range for kids to reach those high places. Otherwise, this would leave lots of gaps where there is old paint that is peeling.

We noticed that there were a lot of leaves on the floor. This could make people slip when it is wet. Our members also knew that these leaves would be used to make mulch. Mulch could help trees grow and protect them through cold winters like this one. Our members tried to find every leaf and put them in a pile knowing that the leaves we raked would be used in the future to help trees grow.

Some of our members noticed that there was very little trash to pick up, which made them proud of our community. Eventually, so some of our members had something to do, we had to leave and go to a nearby area filled with trash. In the end, our members gathered a few bags of trash, but we still did more work in other parts.

We’d like to thank Gary Martinez for providing us with the materials that we needed to make this event possible. He provided us with most of the rollers and paint brushes that we used to paint, the paint, gloves to wear, the garbage grabbers that we used to pick up the trash with, rakes to rake the leaves, and bags to put the trash and leaves in.

During this event we figured out that many people wanted to help our community become a better place. There were even lots of little kids that were very eager to help. We realized that many people try their best to make the world a better place for the people who live on it. Every little thing you do, and every little leaf you rake, is one huge step towards helping the world.

Our Volunteers:

Hong Hao (Alfred) Liu: 3 hours

Sophia ShiHan You: 3 hours

Stephanie ShiRan You: 3 hours

Albert Tang: 3 hours

Matthew Lin: 3 hours

Ling Yu Hao: 3 hours

Huizhen Piao: 3 hours

Vicki Lin: 3 hours

Ryan Wang: 3 hours

Iokseng Lin: 3 hours

Ioklee Lin: 3 hours