Ceres teens Pay It Forward with good deeds for youngsters, soldiers, homeless and elderly

Freshmen at Central Valley High have a busy week of good deeds ahead, tied to Pay It Forward Day (Thursday) and an urge to show the world that teens can be awesome.

Kids in Success 101 will spend first period making sandwiches for the homeless Tuesday. The 49 kids will don food-prep gloves and slather on peanut butter and jelly, assembly-line style.

The classes, taught by Natalie Rowell and Beccy McGlinchy, will spend Wednesday making blankets to send to deployed soldiers with Central Valley High connections.

Thursday’s project is to work with FFA floral students to create 45 flower arrangements to give to residents at the Hale Aloha Convalescent Home in Ceres, to be delivered by class members after school.

Teen mentors who have worked with Hidahl Elementary first- and second-grade classes through the year will say goodbye with deliveries of treats and activities that morning.

Raquel Alfaro is one of those who have worked with the younger kids, using her Spanish skills to help English learners around the hurdles and over the bumps she still remembers from her early years. “When you’re there, you probably help some kids who know how you struggled, at least a bit,” she said. “I know that problem because it’s hard to understand English when you’re trying to speak both – Spanish to your parents and also to teachers that only speak English.”

She likes the Pay It Forward idea. “This helps us show adults, and also kids, that we’re doing something different and that we’re not that mean and selfish as how they think of us,” Alfaro said.

“We get to help other people who really need help,” said Leo Villanueva.

Mentor Jorge Trujillo said it mattered that Hidahl kids got to see an older boy helping out. “It’s really important for them to have a male role model as well,” he said. The teens worked with students to create storyboards and build Lego models of their ideas. “Some of them did struggle, but they helped each other out,” he said. “It was neat to see how they interacted and how they were, compared to us.”

Maria Veliz said she liked working with children. “I get to see how they learn. It’s different from how we learn, but we’re kind of the same because they struggle in some of the subjects that we found hard as well,” Maria said.

Success 101 was tailor-made for students with that kind of insight. The first-period class includes study help, speakers on teen subjects and an overall focus on looking past high school, figuring out the steps to create their future, Rowell said.

“Some kids need that little push. In this class, that’s what we do, we give them them that little push,” she said.

“Success would be beneficial for all ninth-grade students,” McGlinchy added. “Since the start of the year, I really see a change in them.”

“We see a lot of kids stepping up,” Rowell said. Even making the Pay It Forward plan happen took going that extra mile with a once-shy student like Alfaro stepping up to address the Lions Club, asking for a donation to buy the yarn for the blankets and treats for Hidahl youngsters.

“It’s giving her that voice,” Rowell said. “Her mom was able to watch her present in front of all those people.”

This story was originally published April 27, 2015 at 8:54 PM with the headline "Ceres teens Pay It Forward with good deeds for youngsters, soldiers, homeless and elderly."