Youth help clean up Compton

A 12-foot-high wrought-iron fence topped with slanted spikes completely surrounds Centennial High School in Compton, which sits across the street from a boarded up fast food restaurant.

The tall fence that encloses the school was covered in rust and peeling paint when members of the Corona del Mar High School football arrived there about 7 a.m. Saturday.

About 15 members of the football team from Corona del Mar were up before dawn on Saturday to volunteer their time cleaning up the Compton high school. The athletes spent the morning scraping, sanding and priming the school fence, before covering it in a new coat of black paint.

Corona del Mar junior Clark Cashion, who will play quarterback and strong safety on the football team this fall, was inspired to recruit his fellow players to volunteer in Compton after he spent one day volunteering to clean up a house there last year.

“It kind of made an impact on me and made me realize how lucky we are,” Clark said. “I felt it would be a good thing for my friends to come up here too.”

The Saturday cleanup project was sponsored by the Compton Initiative, a volunteer program founded by a church in Paramount four years ago. The program’s “JustDoGood” work days are geared at cleaning up the city of Compton.

While Corona del Mar was listed this year as one of the best high schools in the country in 2009 by U.S. News & World Report magazine, Centennial High School once lost its academic accreditation in 2003, over its lack of instruction, shortage of textbooks and deteriorating facilities.

“It feels good to help people our age, because we can relate to them,” said 15-year-old Corona del Mar Sophomore Brent Lawson, who plays quarterback and cornerback with the football team.

Covered in black paint as the summer sun beat down, the players toiled for hours painting the long fence, along with volunteers from across Southern California.

“This was an easy way for us to get out and help the community and give back,” said Preston Risser, a 16-year-old Junior from Corona del Mar. Preston, who is a linebacker and receiver on the football team, helped Cashion organized the service project.

Clark’s father, Allen Cashion, who also volunteered on Saturday painting the fence, said he was proud of the team for giving up a Saturday to do a good deed.

“It’s a great thing for them to get out here in the hot sun, work hard, and at the end of the day say we’re glad we did it,” Cashion said.

How To Help

 The Compton Initiative was founded in 2005 by a church in Paramount to repair houses and schools in Compton.

 For more information or to make a donation, call

(562) 817-0822 ext. 12 or visit www.justdogood.org