Landscaping Volunteer Day at The Oaks Academy
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Being a lifelong East Sider, I’ve seen the good the bad and the ugly on my side of town… and there has been a lot of ugly. On Friday, May the 29th, a group of volunteers got together to show the beauty of the city of Indianapolis and her surrounding communities, the businesses that support her, and the people of the East Side.
The Oaks Academy is a charter school that is opening its third location on East 16thstreet that will be fed by the students from the other two Oaks Academy elementary school locations. The location on East 16th street will be the middle school and educate students that are in sixth through eighth grades.
Most schools are populated with kids from a specific area, the Oaks is different in that its population is deliberately a combination of races and backgrounds. The students come from different ethnicities and levels of affluence. It’s a concept that seems to be working well, and from the looks of it, shows no sign of slowing down any time soon.
We were told, during our introduction to the project, a little of the history of the area. The neighborhood was divided with the construction of I70. I70 cut the neighborhood in half, and it began its decline. In recent years, the surrounding area has seen a great deal of revitalization and now it’s going to proudly house a school in an old IPS building that is sporting new landscaping installed by Royal United Mortgage LLC as well as a few other companies.
Any opportunity to give back is embraced here at Royal United Mortgage LLC, and we as a company jump head first into giving back often. This was no different. We were divided into three groups, and keeping to our true form, the Royal United Mortgage LLC part of the project was done quickly, efficiently AND we were mulching and assisting the Home Depot group before lunch was served. We planted trees, shrubs, lilies and Liriope. We shoveled old top soil, new top soil, gravel and mulch. We laughed, we learned of fears of worms, we learned that we do not stomp the root ball to loosen it, and we proved to ourselves that we have stationary jobs and need to be more physical, but most importantly, we left the project with a sense of pride in ourselves, the community we helped and the company for whom we work.
Check out this 33 second time laps video of the landscaping service day. If you’re interested in volunteering for future events at The Oaks Academy, please register here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]