Nearly four decades after Harvey Milk spoke out for gay rights by telling his audience "I'm here to recruit you!," the school that bears his name is doing the same.
Tomorrow, August 3rd, from 1-4pm, the Castro's Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, a public elementary school for grades K-5, is hosting a one-day training session for new volunteers. Anyone who can donate at least one hour a week of their time is encouraged to sign up.
"The Milk School's mission is to provide quality education with diversity, acceptance and celebration of everyone," volunteer and longtime HIV survivor George Kelly told Hoodline. He credits his two decades of volunteerism at the school as a contributing factor to the good health he currently enjoys.
Since 1996 (when it was renamed from the Douglass School), HMCRA has become an educational role model for welcoming and embracing LGBT-identified students, teachers and parents, along with all cultures, religions and ethnicities.
Volunteers can work with students on an individual basis, or help out in the classroom. Tomorrow's training session will include the fingerprinting and background checks that the San Francisco Unified School District requires, and a nurse will also be on hand to screen potential volunteers for TB, another school district requirement. All fees normally charged for the screenings will be waived for the day.
"It's very exciting that the San Francisco Education Fund is offering this training to a local public school," Kelly said. "These kinds of trainings are usually held at the Fund's Bryant Street location. They're doing this special training at the Milk Academy in order to encourage community members to volunteer."
Kelly has been able to work with Milk Academy students on projects that benefit the wider community. This past December 1st, which was World AIDS Day, he teamed up with 80 students, as well as their teachers and parents, to memorialize community members lost to AIDS with the profoundly moving Project Inscribe along Castro Street.
"People who help other people are happier, healthier people," Kelly said. "I am a much happier, healthier person because of my involvement with the Milk Academy."
For more information on volunteering at the Milk Academy, go here.
