Mark Schaefer remembers one girl, in particular, impatiently waiting for her eyeglasses.
“She kept asking me what time it is, how much longer,” Schaefer said. “Finally after she got her glasses, I told her to look up at the clock. She said, ‘I can tell what time it is.’ She had been waiting for months for glasses.”
Schaefer is an AmeriCorps volunteer spending this year facilitating partnerships between Margaret Brent Elementary School and community groups, universities and businesses that offer resources to the Charles Village school.
“I wanted to do something socially valid,” Schaefer said, “rather than spend another year bartending.”
Along with the 170 pairs of eyeglasses Schaefer helped deliver, he coordinated a coat and clothing drive this winter for students, and brought in 10 computers from Johns Hopkins University, completing the school’s computer lab.
Nicole Stanton, a University of Missouri graduate stationed at Barclay, said the job is “overwhelming.”
