On Saturday, March 5, Operation Progress, in partnership with Marymount High School’s Free the Children Club, will be participating in a twofold community service project that will benefit the Watts community. The students will begin their community service at the Southeast Police Station, helping LAPD officers clean, organize, repair, and beautify their station. Operation Progress pairs each of their student scholars with an LAPD mentor and this opportunity serves as a way to give back to the community of officers that diligently mentor them.
In addition to the Southeast Police Station beautification project, the students will also be completing service at Bradley Milken Family Source Center, which provides programs, services and partner developments that provide a social return that improves the community. To provide a more welcoming look for the community, students will help beautify the entrance by helping to clean, paint, and plant succulents around their Watts office.
Their local actions will qualify them to earn their ticket to We Day, an extension of Free the Children, an international charity started by Craig and Marc Kielburger. We Day is a free, full day, event that brings together world-renowned humanitarians on stage alongside local heroes, and celebrity ambassadors to inspire youth about social justice and celebrate positive change. Students must participate in one local and one global action in order to earn their ticket their through school or youth organization. Some of their ambassadors have included: The Dalai Lama, Demi Lovato, Magic Johnson, Selena Gomez, Orlando Bloom, Jane Goodall and Malala Yousafzai. WE Day has evolved from a single event nearly eight years ago into a series of 14 stadium-sized events held across North America and the UK. This past year, 200,000 students attended We Day and left inspired to create change at local and global levels.
In the past We Day California has been held in San Jose and Oakland, however this year the event will be moving to Southern California for the very first time and taking place at The Forum in Inglewood on April 7th, 2016. They are excited to announce that Charlize Theron will also be their honorary co-chair for this year’s event. Operation Progress looks forward to creating social change on local and global levels, and will be participating in a myriad of service work events throughout the month of March.
