Patch Give 5: School on Wheels

Here in our breezy seaside community called Hermosa Beach, children walk to school along the peaceful pathways of the Greenbelt, or venture through the side streets of Loma or Monterey where neighbors know their name.

But just about a 45-minute bus ride from Hermosa Beach, there are children who walk to school along the littered streets of L.A.'s Skid Row, where the air smells of urine and drug peddlers and users are a common sight.

Many of these children live in various South Los Angeles shelters or move from one apartment to another with their families.

Some of my fellow Patch editors, AOL colleagues and I visited children in similar situations last Friday while volunteering with the nonprofit organization School on Wheels.

The organization provides consistency and a safe place to gather and study for homeless school-age children in Southern California.

When I arrived at School on Wheels' downtown learning center with my co-workers, regional coordinator Paula Buxbaum handed us informational pamphlets about the organization, whose goal is to shrink the achievement gap in education for homeless children, the pamphlet said.

To achieve this, it offers free tutoring and after-school services to young people at the group's learning centers, or at public libraries or homeless shelters, traveling to wherever the students are—hence, the name "School on Wheels."

As part of a nationwide initiative called Give 5, Patch editors across the country devote five paid workdays each year to volunteering in the communities they cover.

Although School on Wheels is not located in Hermosa Beach, I thought their services might be of interest to the same Hermosa Beach families that rally for education in our community.

As part of my previous Give 5 day of service, to a kindergarten class at Hermosa View School, where the young students smiled and laughed at the pictures of red fish and blue fish.

It was no different at School on Wheels, where a young, skinny boy about 5 years old (whose name I can’t reveal to protect his safety) also expressed the same enthusiasm about reading.

Other children at the learning center snacked on yogurt and chips and colored with crayons, some even playfully throwing crayons, while the older kids and teenagers played on computers. I even helped one 13-year-old student complete an online test.

But the young boy sat bashfully by my side—asking me to read a children’s book about alligators. He pointed to pictures in the book of a large gator, adding his own commentary of “oohs” and “aahs.”

I would point to various letters on the book’s pages and ask if he knew them.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“B! O! Y!” he replied.

“Yes, b-o-y makes the word booooy, like you,” I said.

He then quickly turned the page to marvel at another picture of an alligator, pointing at the animal’s large teeth with a quiet “ooh.”

The boy’s mother, who appeared young, arrived at the center to pick him up. One of his small hands fit into hers, but his other hand wouldn’t release the alligator book.

The young boy is just one of more than 1.5 million children who are homeless each year in the U.S., according to statistics from the National Center on Family Homelessness that are cited in the School on Wheels pamphlet.

As I traveled on the 405 during the long drive back from downtown L.A. to Hermosa Beach, I wondered where else that young boy could enjoy the thrill of reading if he didn’t spend his after-school hours at School on Wheels?

To learn more about School on Wheels and volunteer opportunities, visit the organization's website.