Now that the Netflix sitcom “The Upshaws” ended earlier this month, Khali Spraggins, who plays Aaliyah on the show, spends her time volunteering, a trait she gained from her aunt who co-founded her own nonprofit organization.
As Spraggins, a 20-year-old Inglewood native, prepares to start her own nonprofit later this year called Khali Cares, Dawn Hendricks-Milhouse, Spraggins’s aunt, brought her to volunteer Monday at the ninth annual Martin Luther King Day of Service at the Bridge Teen Center in Orland Park.
Both Spraggins and her aunt were a part of more than 200 volunteers.
“We’re always willing to help out, give out a hand at events like this,” Spraggins said. “They just gave me a tour of the place, I’m smiling the whole time, it’s amazing. I’m always willing to help, I love stuff like this.”
Two sessions were held for volunteers to sort clothes and shoes for the center’s thrift shop and deep clean the center.
Members of a Girl Scout troop, Milhouse Charities, Orland Park Meijer, Joliet Area/South Suburban Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and Chase Bank volunteered at the morning session.
Family groups and other volunteer organizations including Crate & Barrel and Jack & Jill Club, helped at an afternoon session.
With schools closed and some parents off work on the holiday, Priscilla Steinmetz, founder and executive director of the center, said she wanted to bridge the gap and have a day to volunteer.
“The power of a student and a parent or someone from their family serving together is very transformative,” Steinmetz said.
More than 230 people signed up to volunteer at both sessions, she said. From starting the volunteer day nine years ago and having multiple people reach out was humbling for Steinmetz.
“The Bridge Teen Center is just really trying to be a light in the community, and then when you’re able to organize and coordinate a day around Dr. King and his call for unity and his call to let the lightness come through the darkness, it just really shows you when a group of people come together, on a small scale, if we all do our part, we can make a difference,” Steinmetz said.
One of the principles of the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority is service, which is why Jennifer Rush-Carthron, a 40-year-old Auburn Gresham resident, joined the organization a little over a month ago. Aside from just enjoying service work, she also wanted to find other ways to give back to the community.
“This is just very new for me, but it’s something that I wanted to do,” Rush-Carthron said. “I have children, but they’re older and I wanted to do something that was for me and something also kind of give back and do things with purpose.”
The Bridge Teen Center is a nonprofit organization that opened in 2010 and has art, music, welding and culinary activities for students. It’s free and open to students between seventh and 12th grade. Since its opening, more than 14,000 students have visited the center. It serves 128 communities from the Chicago area.
Steinmetz encourages others to volunteer when they can to combat the darkness in the world.
“For us, for a community, for a nation, we got to keep volunteering,” she said. “We got to keep giving to each other and that’s where we’re gonna value each other.”
Cam’ron Hardy is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
