The FC high school joined hand in hand to serve the Fresno community, March 6. Teachers, faculty members, and students participated service day, piling into busses to assist the community and serve those less fortunate or in need of assistance.

During a previous chapel, students were allowed to sign up for a variety of different service projects in the Fresno area. Cleaning up parks and graffiti, assisting at the community gardens, serving neighborhood thrift stores, assisting at rest homes, reading to children, and serving at the Community Food Bank were some of the options available for the students.

As students organized themselves into service groups in the FC gym, Journalism Adviser, Greg Stobbe, came in like wrecking ball of enthusiasm. Pumping his fists up in the air and creating catchy cheers. Stobbe perked the students up and made them feel excited to serve their community.

Those who went to the Community Food Bank were organized into an assembly line to pack food for a benefit a few weeks away. The availability of food in the valley has become scarce in recent years; it has become even scarcer for children. One out of three children in the central valley struggles with hunger.

Sarah Pedelty, the Volunteer Coordinator at the Community Food Bank, felt called to serve the people struggling with hunger in the valley.

“Hunger is a very big issue no matter where you are at in the country,” Pedelty said. “Here in the valley it?s a little different. There is a lot of food here, but the food is not going to the people in our community. So now we?ve noticed a large amount of people are suffering from hunger, and that?s what drew me to serve at the Food Bank.”

Alejandro Torres,?16, loved his job in the assembly line and knowing that his work was going to help those less fortunate.

“One of the jobs I had was to smash and flatten boxes for recycling,” Torres said. “It was actually a bit of work out, but it was satisfying. But the best part was knowing that me and my classmates helped to feed the hungry.”

Pedelty greatly appreciated the service the students provided at the Food Bank and noted that it could not help the community without volunteers.

“We love having volunteers here at the Food Bank,” Pedelty said. “We really couldn?t do what we do without volunteers. To see the younger generations coming and stepping up is always really inspiring to see. They are the future, without their commitment and support to service all of this would eventually disappear.”

Students also went to out into the community to help businesses struggling in the recession. Bryan Feil, manger of a local thrift shop, was very pleased with the service the students provided for the business.

“I thought you guys were very professional,” Feil said. “You were very helpful in spreading the word about the neighborhood thrift shop in the community and letting them know why we are here, so yeah you guys were awesome!”

Brooke Wood enjoyed the service she gave to the thrift shop and thinks that it will help in promoting future business for the local shop.

“For service day, I went to neighborhood thrift and passes out flyers to all the surrounding neighborhoods,” Wood said. “I think it will help the thrift store by bringing in a lot more people for the block sale on March 21.”

The streets of Fresno have seen much graffiti in their time. Junior Bryant Nguyen took part in painting over the graffiti on the railroad tracks near Ashlan and West.

“We had to paint over the graffiti on the rail road tracks,” Nguyen said. “They gave us gloves and spray cans and we just got to work. It was hard, but it was fun knowing that we were serving others and making the streets look nicer.”

Though all students were eager to help, some felt slightly cheated out of the service that they signed up for. Jennifer King, 14?, did not expect the change in service at the elementary schools.

“I went to one of the elementary schools,” King said. “It was a lot different than we expected or were told. They said we were going to read to children, but we really just helped clean up the school and do chores for the teachers.”

English teacher, Amy Deffenbacher, experienced a similar change at her site, the New Life for Girls.

“We were expecting to spend time cleaning inside the house with the girls,” Deffenbacher said. “But we ended up raking outside and cleaning up trash from the recent storm. It was still a good opportunity to remember that when we sign up to serve someone we sign up to serve their needs, not ours.”

At the end of the service day students enjoyed the change in the monotonous school hours and have the chance to go out and serve their community. Torres enjoyed his service to the Community Food Bank and is thankful for the chance to serve.

“I really liked being able to serve at the Food Bank,”Torres said. “School had gotten really boring, just same old same old, so its nice that were having a change in pace to go out and serve others.”

For more features, read the March 6 article Drama to perform ‘Bye Bye Birdie,’ make history (VIDEO).

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @RRoggenstein. Follow The Feather via Twitter: @thefeather.