NY Cares volunteers hard at work, helping to beautify NYC public schools.
Students and teachers at 100 City schools arrived this week to fresh paint, new murals, and less clutter thanks to thousands of volunteers who visited the schools over the weekend.
The non-profit group New York Cares organized the school beatification event to encourage New Yorkers to give back to their communities.
“I have never seen such enthusiasm for volunteering before in New York City,” said Norma McPherson, a literacy coach at P.S. 81 in Brooklyn. Volunteers at her school cleaned out and organized storage closets, painted new hopscotch lines in the schoolyard, and decorated the walls.
“Before, we couldn’t even get into some of those closets,” McPherson said. "To see what it looks like now is amazing. They were willing to do anything we asked them to do. And we found things we didn’t even know existed!”
“It was extremely rewarding to see a total transformation of the teachers’ closet,” a volunteer, Benjamin Blackwood, said. “The effort really provided the teaching staff at PS 81 a breath of new life, reducing the administrative burden placed on them and making their jobs easier and more effective.”
Volunteers managed not only to get a lot of work done—but to enjoy themselves. “I had a great time volunteering. It was nice to see our hard work pay off,” volunteer Anastasia Korolkova said.