Carter Elementary School Clean-up

Date: 1 Apr 2007

Oakland, Calif. – Capture the Dream, Inc. volunteers participated in an eight-hour Carter Elementary School clean-up on Sunday, April 1, 2007, to prepare the temporary school for Peralta students to return to instruction after Peralta Elementary was fire damaged.

“We volunteered at the cleanup because we wanted to foster hope within the affected children,” said Janine Lee, CEO of Capture the Dream, Inc.

“[The parents] were amazed that we were not in fact directly related to the school, but rather part of a non-profit organization.”

Besides Capture the Dream, Inc. volunteers, many Peralta parents and teachers went to clean up the school. They were cleaning up the main patio, gardening, organizing supplies, setting up and decorating classrooms. Students worked on Peralta banners to personalize the school.

The volunteers tried to decorate the classrooms similar to the Peralta School’s so the children would not suffer from a large change in their learning environments.

With the community support, Carter Elementary was ready to open within a little over a week of the Peralta fire. The school thanked and sent personalized thank-you notes to the volunteers.