For the neighborhoods surrounding Mountain View High School, commemorating 9/11 this year meant pitching in to make improvements at four local schools on the morning of Saturday, Sept. 10.
More than 400 volunteers gathered at Mountain View High School with chainsaws, hedge trimmers, rakes, leaf blowers, and at least one dump truck. They removed 900 feet of tangled vines and shrubbery intertwined in a chain link fence surrounding the school’s baseball fields.
Volunteer Shandiin Begay reflected, “It was overwhelming to look at the daunting task, but it was so satisfying to see all the progress we made as a whole group.
My thoughts turned to the feelings after 9/11 and I can only imagine how hard that was for the first responders and for those rescued. I felt tremendous gratitude for my life and the ability to serve in remembrance of the love and unity we felt during 9/11. We couldn’t be in New York City, but we could serve a neighbor or a friend and hold our family tight.”
A half mile away at Hale Elementary, volunteers touched up the paint on a U.S. map on the playground, repainted lines around the exit doors, painted colorful stools for the school’s STEAM lab, and pulled a summer’s worth of weeds from the garden boxes.
Just south at Field Elementary, families of all ages constructed two garden boxes, tilled the soil, power washed garbage cans, painted a bathroom, cleaned and organized a rock garden, and picked up trash around the campus.
And at the neighboring Poston Junior High, volunteers power washed and sanitized picnic tables, and pulled out weeds throughout the school grounds. Principal Michael Rapier was impressed with the turn-out of volunteers and soon realized he could include more projects to keep everyone busy. Cafeteria tables and garbage cans were added to the service to be washed and sanitized.
Kyera Hansen, a 12-year-old student at Poston Junior High, cleaned tables and pulled weeds at her school. She said she was grateful for the experience. “I felt like I was a part of a team for good. We came together to support each other like they did when 9/11 happened 21 years ago. Made me think that we can accomplish anything when we help each other.”
Izzi Beynon, a 15-year-old sophomore at Mountain View, started the morning by cleaning lunch tables at Poston and later was part of the crew pulling vines off the fence at Mountain View. She reported that, “It was hard work, but I’m really glad I got to go.”
The projects were inspired by 911Day.org, a national nonprofit organization that, according to its website, seeks to “transform the anniversary of 9/11 into a national day of doing good and in the process, rekindle the spirit of unity that arose in America in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.”
As a full partner of the 911Day organization, JustServe.org coordinated hundreds of volunteer projects all over Arizona and the Southwest, including the projects that took place in the Mountain View neighborhood. Mountain View High School Principal Mike Oliver thanked the volunteers for the more than 1,200 volunteer hours of service, saying, “We anticipated the project taking multiple days or even weeks, and this amazing group of dedicated community members knocked it out in just one day. This effort united our community during a season when our differences at times have unfortunately created a divide.”
For more information, visit 911Day.org and JustServe.org