With the guidance of the Dallas Concilio and SLANT 45, Dallas students tidy up their school campus

By Steve Pate

April 22, 2010

When they could have been out tossing balls and flying kites and hugging their television sets, about 70 students of Dallas’ Oak Cliff’s Rosemont Elementary School reported to campus one Saturday.

To work.

More than half were from grades 3 through 5 but all ages and sizes and ethnicities showed up to put a new face on their dear old school and its rather large campus.

They swept the sidewalks, rid the campus of sticks and fallen debris, picked up the trash in and around the school buildings, scrubbed clean the huge glass doors, mopped, dragged the snarling leaves from the drainage ducts, jerked weeds from the campus’ garden, and on it went for three hours.

The parents were there, too. But they had their own projects. The cleaning and beautification project was strictly the work of the students. It was their contribution to the SLANT 45 program affiliated with next February’s Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium.

As the students dug holes with shovels and put in new plants, their school truly did take on a bright appearance. And the students themselves caused it.

The project was accomplished through the guidance of the Dallas Concilio, known formerly as Dallas Concilio of Hispanic Services Organizations, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has wrapped its arms around Greater Dallas since 1981.

Big Thought contacted Dallas Concilio to provide information on how to participate in SLANT 45. That’s when Rosemont Elementary of the Dallas Independent School District stepped up big time.

Gina Marisa Salinas, Concilio’s Director of Education, was on campus that day and watched the clean-up project enrich an entire community.

A follow-up project is already planned to plant a community garden, probably to the back of the school near the courtyard area. This garden will include vegetables.

And as the garden grows, the children will grow.

Of her Saturday at Rosemont, Salinas said, “I felt excited and joyful. To see young kids take some kind of responsibility and ownership in their school, and then to see that transformation to… ‘Oh, wow, this really is cool, our school really does look better.’

“You might think that as long as the students are learning in school, that’s what counts. Well, that’s not necessarily true. The way the school looks nurtures that child’s soul and nurtures that child’s mind. We saw that nurturing take place at that community event.”