Members of the George Read and Frelinghuysen Chapters give back to the Philadelphia Region for Philly Cares Day, October 16th, 2010

Members of the George Read and Frelinghuysen Chapters give back to the Philadelphia Region for Philly Cares Day, October 16th, 2010.

(From left to right) George Read Chapter: Pete Tsoflias, Ashley Talley, Akwa Etuk, Andrew Quietmeyer, Dan Ritterbeck.  Frelinghuysen Chapter:  Lexi Gee, Ellen Roberts, Kio Chapesh, Clint Atkins, Gillian Cooper, Jennifer Kim, Elizabeth Keith-Olsen.  (Not pictured - Kirsten Samantha Rønholt)

brought to you by the letter "C" - for Coffee, Caffeine, and Carbs

Law students are no strangers to sleep.  Or rather, the desire to sleep.  Believe me, when we get the opportunity to sleep - we take it.  But, as many of the world slumbered earlier on Saturday, October 16th, 2010, a few law students fought to open their eyes, and ventured out to Philadelphia.  Members of the George Read Chapter at Widener Law School and the Frelinghuysen Chapter of Rutgers Law at Camden rose up from their beds, piled in their cars, and met up at the J.F. Reynolds Elementary School to eagerly participate in the 17th Annual Philly Cares Day event.

Philly Cares Day is one of the largest community service-based events in the region put on by Greater Philadelphia Cares organization, with over 6000 participants every year.  Their mission is to, "support the creation of vibrant communities by motivating people to volunteer their time, talents, and resources. [They] provide a clear path to service for all, enhancing the impact of non-profit agencies throughout the Greater Philadelphia region."

J.F. Reynolds Elementary

George Read and Frelinghuysen took this opportunity to live up to two of Phi Alpha Delta's most important tenets - Fraternalism and Service.  This was perhaps the first time these two chapters have joined forces and used their collective elbow grease to give back to the community which supports us all.  Moreover, the two chapters, haling from two "rival" schools, decided to get together to show that no matter where your J.D. comes from, we're all in this together!

Arriving at the elementary school, we were met by the site's coordinator, Reynolds Elementary Principal, Cheryl Hackett.  Even though we were still a bit groggy from being up so early (for law students on a day off that is), she was full of energy and had a ton of improvements for us to do around her school.  We set off, each of us paired off to get the job done.

Ashley Talley and Andrew Quietmeyer were in charge of stenciling "DOWN" in the, well, the DOWN staircase.  Up and down 4 flights of steps the two trudged with ladder, paint, stencils, etc.  Finally, a student of J.F. Reynolds, Lianna, took pity on their plight and helped out with the painting.

Andrew Quietmeyer

Ashley Talley and new friend, Lianna

Akwa G. R. Etuk and Pete Tsoflias had the arduous task of writing, free-hand, block letters to form the sign "Bully-Free Zone" in the cafeteria.  Pete got so into his job that when we concluded at the end, he still had one letter left.  He was adamant at finishing his task, and I honestly think he would have sneaked back in to the school during the night just to finish.  Luckily, Ms. Hackett let him finish so no breaking and entering charges had to be filed.

Akwa Etuk

Pete Tsoflias

Dan Ritterbeck and Ellen Roberts were the jack of all trades for the day.  Ellen was shuffling stacks and stacks of books from floor to floor.  As for Dan, well, if you could find him he was always doing something different.  He was entrusted with a walkie-talkie for the day by Ms. Hackett, and he took his job seriously. What his job was exactly is unknown, but we never saw him stop doing it.

Dan Ritterbeck

Ellen Roberts

Gillian Cooper, Jennifer Kim, Elizabeth Keith-Olsen, Kirsten Samantha Rønholt, Lexi Gee, Clint Atkins, and Kio Chapesh were also on paint duty, but this time in the hallways of the school.  J.F. Reynolds elementary calls themselves a "college school".  Everywhere on the walls, there are reminders to the students that college is always a possibility for them.  Encouraging words such as "Role Models", "Respect", "Learning", etc. were tasked to this group to stencil up on the wall.  Lexi, in the spirit of the playoffs donned a NY Yankees jersey for the day in the hopes that it would be ruined with paint.  I don't know if she succeeded, but she and Kio did manage to get more paint on the wall for their stencils than themselves.  Jennifer and Clint, worried about misspelling words, nervously traced each letter, and must have re-read every word five or six times before painting to make sure they nailed the old grammar rule of "I before E".

Clint Atkins and Jennifer Kim

Lexi Gee and Kio Chapesh

Pete, Akwa, and Elizabeth Keith-Olsen

Kirsten Samantha Rønholt

Finally, after tons of paint, tape, and only a few "oops", we concluded for the day.  Ms. Hackett thanked us profusely for our work.  However, it was us that wound up thanking her.  Sometimes it takes being completely out of your element to understand another person's plight.  Here we were, students in Law School about to enter into what is called a highly profitable field, sitting in a school where an army of volunteers is still needed.

Everyone's elementary school looks like this, right?

Politics aside, is there a valid reason as to why any student in America should go to a school that has lead-based paint?  Peeling walls?  Ancient HVAC systems?  In a country such as ours, why should any child ever go to a school that isn't on par with the law schools we go to?  Doesn't a child need to have an excellent education background/experience just to have the opportunity to advance?  Why isn't their school, a fundamental building block of their futures, as "new" and "shiny" as ours?

This is indicative of the condition of thousands of schools across the country.

I leave you with these thoughts, and I hope that you, as a member of the legal profession, take the time to seriously think about why any child in the country should be forced to go to anything other than a modern, clean, and up-to-date school.  It has been on my mind since we drove away from J.F. Reynolds Elementary, and I never want it to leave my mind as I venture into the Bar.

 

Posted by:  Andrew Quietmeyer