City Year ‘Heroes’ pledge their service to Boston

Serghino René

“Everyone can be great because everyone can serve,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said.

More than 200 City Year teenagers have taken those words to heart, as they joined with 150 middle school and 80 high school students to pledge their commitment to social justice by agreeing to work every Saturday for the next five months.

The “Heroes,” as they are called, will complete over 20,000 hours of community service through 20 different community projects, allowing each member of the middle school “Young Heroes” and the high school “City Heroes” to receive the Presidential Volunteer Service Award.

“For City Year, Martin Luther King Day is a day on, not a day off,” said City Year Boston Executive Director Sandra Lopez Burke during Monday’s ceremony at Roxbury’s Timilty Middle School. “We are uniting the idealism of these diverse students and the tangible power of service to honor Dr. King’s life and legacy. The day reminds us that we each have the power to build a better world.”

More than 1,500 City Year youth across the nation pledged to serve as Heroes. Martin Luther King Day marked the introduction of the first City Heroes program in Boston and the Heroes’ public commitment to their communities.

Alima Sesay, 14, of Roslindale is a City Hero and says doing service is a privilege and an honor.

“It means a lot to me to be a part of this,” Sesay said. “I’m making a change throughout my community and hopefully to others as well.”

Several elected officials attended the event and helped guide students in their pledges.

Gov. Deval Patrick preached the power of idealism and its potential to generate change.

“Idealism is not fashionable these days,” Patrick said. “Today, we are awash in cynicism and there are all kinds of ways in which the idealism you are feeling right now, and [which is] so celebrated by this program, is viewed as unsophisticated.”

But he encouraged the young people to not let their idealism be a causality of their confrontation with reality. “Idealism is what built this country,” said Patrick. “Idealism was what Dr. King was all about.”

Mayor Thomas M. Menino talked about choices and encouraged the Heroes to reach out to their peers.

“Help some of your friends that you know are making the wrong choices,” said Menino. “I have all the police I can get. That helps, but it takes a community and you, the young people, to get involved in the process.”

State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson talked about the reality of the civil rights movement and how young people played an integral role in spreading the word.

“We talk about the civil rights movement of Dr. Martin Luther King, but in order to really appreciate what was there and understand what this call to service is all about you have to take off your two-ways, you have to give up your pagers, oh you would have to give up your cell phones and for most of you, you would have to give up the telephone that is in your house,” said Wilkerson.

She said that when King came to a town, the churches helped spread the word. The minister would call upon the secretary, and he or she would relay the message to the young people.

“They called on young people partly because adults believed the police wouldn’t arrest them. They sent them out to knock on doors, make handmade flyers and post them on trees,” said Wilkerson. “Had it not been for young people, white or black, there would never have been such a thing known as the civil rights movement. Young people were the legs, the telephones and the telegraphs for Martin Luther King. Almost every good thing I can tell you when I think about today came from young people like you.”

In addition, Robert Gallery, president of Bank of America Massachusetts, promised to contribute $1 million again towards the City Year program.

“Building and supporting thriving neighborhoods is a commitment Bank of America and City Year share,” said Gallery. “We are proud to make this event possible and to work with the Young Heroes and City Year corps members as they exercise a leadership role in making this community a better place to live.”

The new Heroes acted on their pledge of service immediately.  Following the Heroes kickoff, they joined 140 City Year corps members and over 50 volunteers in showing the power of physical service by painting educational and inspirational murals on storage lockers and benches at the Timilty School.

Young Hero Bernard Lynch, 13, of Boston says he will keep King’s message of equality in mind when he does his service.

“[King] is my role model and I hope my efforts are worthy enough to be connected with his cause,” said Lynch. “I’m looking forward to the next five months.”