Will Jones, 13, Adopts a Tunnel

Seventh grader Will Jones, 13,  has single-handedly adopted a tunnel. He is involved in the clean-up and reparation of a pedestrian tunnel in Sherman Oaks organized as the Adopt-a-Tunnel Project by the Millikan Middle School Civics Academy over the period between January to April.

The Pedestrian Tunnel on Ethel Avenue in the 4700 block of Ethel in Sherman Oaks leads to Riverside Drive across from Riverside Drive Elementary School, and the local student has decided to take care of this area, and keep it clean.

"My goal for change is to do four things regarding cleaning up the tunnel in my neighborhood," he said. 

"My first goal is to clean up the trash in the tunnel. I will also work with my community to sweep the tunnel’s garbage up. After this is done, I would like to put a trash can in there, though I'm not sure who would take this out. I might be able to get someone who lives next to the tunnel to do this," he said.

"My second goal for change is to fix the lights."

He added, "My third goal is to bring the community together. Hopefully the cleanup day will accomplish this.My last and most important goal is to get rid of the graffiti."

The cause was a personal one.

"I chose this cause because I used to go to Riverside Drive Elementary School," he said. "I always walked through this nasty tunnel and saw graffiti on the walls, floor, I saw litter, broken lights, glass, you name it. I got fed up with this in 4th grade and my dad took me to the store and we bought spray paint. What we did was we covered up the graffiti with gray blotches and did this for several months. Eventually the taggers stopped tagging as much."

The project involved removing graffiti from the walls and floor and cleaning up trash and inviting all of the neighborhood between Coldwater and Fulton, Moorpark and Riverside to get involved. He  wanted to have the community put in a mural as well, but that requires meetings and paperwork with the Public Art & Cultural Affairs commissions.

Jones said, "When I left Riverside for sixth grade at Pacoima Middle School, I did not touch this area for over a year. When I left Pacoima for seventh grade and went to Millikan Middle School, I joined the Civics Academy. In the Civics Academy everyone has to do an activism project. I thought of the tunnel and I picked this after a few other things where deemed too hard because of budget cuts in Los Angeles."

He added, "Another reason I picked this was because our family and neighbors use that tunnel a lot, and my now my little sister who goes to Riverside uses this tunnel as well. I think that this project will benefit my local neighborhood a lot. I hope that people will remember this with happiness."

On an event he held on April 17, he held a clean-up day and Mazzarino’s donated pizza for the volunteers and they had a big super sponsor – Go Green Pressure Washing ( www.gogreenpressurewashing.com). Go Green showed up at 1:15pm and left at 7 p.m. and donated 100 percent of their power washing services.

When they all left, the tunnel sparkled.