Day Sprouts Young Volunteers -- and Maybe a Lifelong Habit

It was the last free Saturday of Dominic Mastromatteo’s spring break, but the 15-year-old sophomore somehow managed to drag himself out of bed early -- to help paint a fence.

Saturday was National Youth Service Day, when young people volunteer time and energy to their communities in the United States and 125 other countries.

Dominic had a certain incentive: He needs 40 hours of service to qualify for membership in the National Honor Society.

“I’ve done about 17 hours,” said Dominic, a 4.57-GPA student. “I’ve helped out at the Second Harvest Food Bank, did stuff for the shelter for abused women and children. Yeah, I know you’re supposed to do community service out of your heart, but .... “

Organizers of National Youth Service Day will take volunteers any way they can get them. In fact, at Carbon Canyon Regional Park in Brea -- where one of many Orange County service events took place Saturday -- Mastromatteo was the only student to show up.

He grabbed a roller and a tray of gray paint to help touch up the weathered fences that stretched through the park. He said he thinks that volunteering is inspiring him to do more for his community.

Requirements such as the one for the National Honor Society, and similar community service requirements for graduation, are inspiring a generation of volunteers, said Steve Culbertson, president and CEO of Youth Service America.

The goal, he said, is introducing young people to volunteer work at an early age.

In a Santa Ana event organized by the YMCA of Orange County, more than 200 children cleared trash near Willard Intermediate School.

“It was really nice to help instead of just laying around, lazy,” said 13-year-old Mayra Castro.

Gracie Oropeza, 19, picked up trash too. Now a Santa Ana College student, she recalls the years she spent at the YMCA and attending Willard.

When the YMCA needed summer camp counselors, Oropeza volunteered. Now it’s in her blood.

“I’ll be at the store and [kids] tell their mom, ‘That was my counselor,’ ” Oropeza said. “I get goose bumps. If they remember me after only a couple days, I know I made a difference.”

Studies have shown, Culbertson said, that adults who volunteer are likely to have begun as children. And there is often a correlation between youth service and philanthropic service years later, he said.

Consider Lindsay Freeman, 18, of Costa Mesa or Greg Martayan, 19, of Encino, who both tried to inspire the children gathered in Santa Ana.

Both are high-achieving students and volunteers: Freeman heads to Harvard in the fall with more than 350 volunteer hours and dreams of changing the world. Martayan is on the National Youth Advisory Council and hopes to become governor of California.

“Like I said in my speech today, life is a great thing, but a life filled with service is a meaningful one,” Martayan said.