Si Se Puede collects donations for Emmaus House
Jeanette Acosta, the resident service coordinator at the Si Se
Puede Learning Center at the Villa Luna Apartments, used Jan. 19 as
an opportunity to teach her students a lesson. When she heard the
call from President-elect Barack Obama to make Martin Luther King
Day a day of service, she started searching for volunteer
opportunities online.
Si Se Puede collects donations for Emmaus House
Jeanette Acosta, the resident service coordinator at the Si Se Puede Learning Center at the Villa Luna Apartments, used Jan. 19 as an opportunity to teach her students a lesson. When she heard the call from President-elect Barack Obama to make Martin Luther King Day a day of service, she started searching for volunteer opportunities online.
“Obama called for service beyond what is normal,” Acosta said. “I went on the inaugural Web site and [also] looked around to see what was going on in Gilroy and Hollister.”
When she didn’t find an opportunity locally, she decided to plan her own event. With just a week to publicize it, Acosta set out to do a food and clothing drive to benefit Emmaus House, a home for women and children who have been victims of domestic violence.
She posted information about the drive online, and hung signs up at the Villa Luna office.
“These are women and children who are in a threatening situation,” Acosta said of the families at Emmaus House. “I was very pleased with the turn out from the residents on the property.”
Acosta acknowledged that for some of the low-income residents on site, they struggle themselves, but still many offered up clothing, canned foods and toys to donate to the women’s shelter.
“We wanted to teach the kids that it is very important to serve others,” she said. “We are fortunate to have a stable home life.”
During the after-school program, Acosta showed the students the Martin Luther King dream speech, and they talked about the food and clothing drive.
“Today we asked for a lot of donations because we want to give back to other families,” Acosta said. “Martin Luther King was always giving back. He fought for other people.”
Most of the students sat patiently through the speech and after it was over, Acosta asked them what it meant.
“He was trying to make all the people friends,” one girl said. “Black men and white men are the same.”
After the speech, Acosta asked the students about their own heroes and dreams. The students painted a mural with drawings of their heroes. Many of the kids painted smiling faces of their parents or siblings.
The drive netted a generous pickup truckload of donations. Acosta planned to drop the food and clothing off at Emmaus House before the end of the week.
“I was very pleased with the donations,” she said.
