EVERETT — Payten Redwood pulled on a pair of rubber gloves, then picked up a sponge and a bottle of cleaning solution.
The Voyager Middle School eighth grader started scrubbing the dining room table of the woman she had just met. Some bubbles dripped onto the floor near where another teen volunteer was busy mopping the kitchen floor of the mobile home.
“We’re helping Miss Joanne,” she said. “There are some things she can’t do so we’re doing those things.”
Payten, 13, was one of seven teens who dusted furniture, mopped floors and washed dishes on Monday at the home of Joanne Roper at Carriage Club Estates on Highway 99.
“It’s all so wonderful,” said Roper, 72. “They’re all so happy and they’re laughing and talking. It’s just great.”
More than 250 teen and adult volunteers took part in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service on Monday throughout Snohomish County. The event is a partnership with United Way of Snohomish County’s Youth United program, the YMCA’s Minority Achiever’s Program and seniors from Catholic Community Services’ Retired Senior Volunteer Program to make the holiday more than just a day off from school and work.
Volunteers 55 and older from the Retired Senior Volunteer Program were paired with groups of teen volunteers. The groups visited clients of Catholic Community Services and did household chores for them for several hours.
Payten’s sister, Paris, said she was looking forward to helping others on Martin Luther King Jr. Day after she found out about the day of service at an after school program.
“It seems nice to do something for other people and not just yourself,” said Paris, 12. “It’s fun to meet people from different schools. We obviously have a similar interest in that we like helping other people.”
Volunteers registered for the day of service through United Way of Snohomish County. Teens and adult supervisors met at the Everett, Marysville, and Mukilteo YMCAs on Monday morning to form groups and receive their assignment locations.
“The clients are so grateful, it’s a blessing for them,” said Debra Bordsen, a volunteer recruiter for Catholic Community Services Volunteer Chore Services.
Volunteers helped 38 people in the county who need help with everyday household chores in order to continue to live independently, Bordsen said.
“Lots of times it’s like your grandma or my grandma where they have arthritis and they can’t lift anything above their shoulders so even dumping the garbage into the dumpster at their apartment is something they can’t do that easily,” she said.
Austin Southerland, an eighth grader at Cavelero Mid High School in Lake Stevens was in a group that helped clean a woman’s apartment in Everett.
“We’ve been helping her clean the blinds because she can’t reach the blinds, helping wash windows and cleaning up her bedroom,” said Austin, 14. “She’s appreciative. She’s sorry (her apartment) is not clean but that’s what we’re here for.”
Groups who finished their assignments before 1:30 p.m. returned to the YMCAs to write letters of thanks to soldiers in Iraq.
At the Everett YMCA, Alyssa Morris, 15, and four other Everett High School students in Girl Scout Troop 40043 lay on the gym floor and wrote their letters.
“I wrote that it’s my birthday today and that we just helped clean a person’s home and that I’m glad they are protecting us,” Morris said.
Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491; adaybert@heraldnet.com.
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