Eight eager sophomore students left Chief Leschi at 9 a.m. on May 22, with four Quest advisors along to help out. The students of every class level are required to perform some type of community service each year as part of their graduation check list. The students were offered to participate as a group, and sand bagging a Leschi family’s property against the Puyallup River was chosen. Long time employee and tribal member Berta Lopez was the beneficiary of the students’ charitable efforts.
Although the weather looked threatening, it held off the entire morning and allowed the motivated students an opportunity to complete a lot of work. Two hundred empty sand bags lay in wait to be filled and placed in a wall. The group was divided into teams. Brian Castillo, Davey Keesy, and Devon Threadgill placed the bags as fast as Colby Wynne brought them over in a wheelbarrow. Meanwhile, Hannah Inskeep, Nick Nelson, Eagle Peters, Ralph Ahmad, Mr. Gamas, Nancy Haack, Orlanda Castillo, Tiffany Williams, and Mike Williams filled 222 bags as fast as possible to get the job completed. Next, an entire wall of misplaced bags had to be moved twenty feet. Some had grown into each other and the ground, providing quite a challenge to lift them. The final task was retrieving dozens of random bags from under brush and placing them into the flood wall.
Pizza arrived right on time at noon and everyone had a variety of pies to choose from. Buffalo wings and soda were also provided and the work party had some laughs and relaxing times before loading onto the bus. Mrs. Lopez expressed her heartfelt thanks and sent us on our way. Mr. Gamas also gives his praise to the Leschi Warriors that gave up part of their Saturday to do something for someone else. He was very proud of their efforts.
