Student at Work – Volunteering!

This is a guest post by Loren Carrillo, Senior, Lincoln High School

Paint Tacoma-Pierce Beautiful offered me an opportunity to beautify my community and hone my leadership skills at the same time–so I took it! As I attended Paint Tacoma preparation meetings and learned more about the program and how it functions I was faced with the responsibility of assembling a team of volunteers who were just as eager as I was to give some serious makeovers to families’ homes.

So when it was time, I called to my fellow Lincoln High school students to fit the job. As always, they delivered.

I was able to manage a list of around eighty volunteers by the time of our first project. Eighty students who made the whole experience most memorable and most feasible too. That year not only did families get their houses rejuvenated, but so did the Paint Tacoma-Pierce Beautiful program with a wave of enthusiastic youth, passionate to leave a legacy in their community.

This experience with the Paint Tacoma-Pierce Beautiful program has re-ignited my desire to improve my community. The hands-on experience with chipping, taping, and painting houses that is offered allows you to see tangible evidence that you are here in this city, making a difference. Your actions through Paint Tacoma-Pierce Beautiful are not forgotten. They are treasured and admired by every passerby who gets to see your work.

And if that isn’t enough, you also grow as a leader in your community, pushing for change and creating bonds with people you might have otherwise never known. For these reasons I enjoy putting a helping hand into my community and above all, enjoy making families smile alongside all of my friends.

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Loren’s first leadership and community involvement began with Paint Tacoma-Pierce Beautiful and Art of the Ave.  He is currently a senior at Lincoln High School where he is one of the three Key Club Presidents, involved with the ASB and a recipient of the Act Six Full Need Scholarship and will be attending Gonzaga this fall. He has been an avid wrestler, tennis player, in drama and consistently involved in community event at Lincoln and in our community. It is thanks to people like Loren and his mom Marlene that Paint Tacoma-Pierce Beautiful has continued to be successful.