The PA Mixtape

PA LA Service Day: MacArthur Park Winter Festival

thanks, ashleypala:

Hope everyone had an amazing holiday!

On December 21st, Public Allies Los Angeles attended their first service day of the program year. PALA partnered up with Los Angeles Housing Partnership to host their annual Winter Festival in MacArthur Park. Servicing over 3,000 community members in the area, the festival aimed to provide food and gifts to those who may not have the means to celebrate in the holiday season.

Service days are very important in the work that we do as allies. It is the few times out of the year where PALA partners up with local community based organizations to support their community project. In the past, PALA has assisted in the Cesar Chavez March & Festival, planted trees with the organization TreePeople, and partnered with L.A. Works in revitalizing a middle school through painting murals, constructing planters and so forth. Service days are important because it encourages us to support our communities and reminds us that we all have a stake in one another. Allies are directly servicing their particular organizations and it is a great way for allies to come together under one cause to lend a helping hand.

With over 44 allies in attendance to assist over 3,000 community members, it was a challenging service day. After working an entire day at placement, allies rushed over to MacArthur Park for five hours of hard work. We had allies running the registration booth, passing out over 500 bags of food to families, passing out over 1,000 toys to children and families, and some of us were fortunate enough to supervise children who were playing in the ‘snow area’. For some youth who had never experienced ‘snow’, it quickly turned into brown ice. The kids enjoyed it - that’s all that matters, right? Let’s not think about my premature frostbite..

It was a LONG NIGHT. But it was worth it. No family was turned away. Each childreceived a toy. Everyone went home with something. It is easy to complain about the cold; it is easy to question the logistics of the entire event. We were hungry. Some of us were irritated. But at the end of the day, we had to realize the purpose of the service day. We gave gifts to families who probably had nothing to unwrap on Christmas day. Food to those who wondered how they were going to feed their families for the holidays. At the end of the day, it wasn’t about US.

Next Service Day- Martin Luther King Jr. National Day of Service. More information to come :)

Signing off! - Ashley Smith