How are Korean American teens spending their weekends? What do they do in their free time? Teens of the nonprofit organization, PAVA (Pacific American Volunteer Association) tend to spend their time traveling around Southern California on Saturday mornings performing community service in numerous cities.
One special event took place on Sat., Feb. 20, in Altadena, Calif. It was an early morning where numerous students helped with the planting of trees and flowers at the Peck Water Conservation Park. Over 300 trees and shrubs were planted in this park not only to beautify but to also improve the habitat of the birds.
In addition, not only did volunteers earn community service hours but they also learned new technique regarding gardening. Form learning the basics of the tools to planting the shrubs to learning the names of different varieties of plants, students had a great time working together to cover a huge area of the park. Ultimately, it was an overall enriching experience for all volunteers.
“I hope that many people will come and admire the beauty of this park, because I know I will when the trees and flowers begin to grow,” stated volunteer Sarah Kim.
Through this service event, many individuals came face to face with environmental issues of today. They began to truly realize the issues regarding wildlife in urban communities. Therefore, this experience brought an understanding and new enthusiasm to preserve the natural beauty of many more cities of Southern California.
