Volunteer helps kids of the Mission get in touch with their inner writer

By Asbjorn Andersen

You immediately become aware that this is special place when you get to 826 Valencia. A strange-looking mural decorates the façade, and when you enter you reach the pirate store, which offers all that you would need for your pirate endeavors - from seasick tablets to both mermaid bait and repellent.

But this no pirate store. Founded in 2002, 826 Valencia is dedicated to helping local students develop their writing skills - something the organization believes is essential to the kids’ future success. It takes its name from its position on the well-know street that cuts through the Mission from north to south.

826 Valencia is where Marisa Gedney, 26, has been working as program coordinator for the last one and a half years.

Born into education
Gedney is Mexican-American, and her family has lived in Los Angeles for three generations. A life in education was always the obvious choice for her:

“My father and sister are both teachers so I practically grew up in the classroom. But after college I felt like I wanted to try out some other aspects of education, so that’s what I’m doing here.”

She started as a volunteer at 826 Valencia in 2006, but in 2007 when the position of program coordinator opened up, she applied for it. Since then she has been in charge of the organization’s volunteer recruitment, the school newspaper at Everett Middle School and lately the newly released book “Show of Hands: Young Authors Reflect on the Golden Rule”.

The greatest experience
“This has really been my greatest experience in my time so far at 826,” Gedney says about this book. “Show of Hands” is a collection of stories and essays, written by 54 juniors and seniors at Mission High School reflecting on the Golden Rule, that we should act toward others as we would want them to act toward ourselves.

“The process working with kids on this has been just great. In their evaluation many of them said: ‘I didn’t know that I could do something like this, this has taught me that I’m writer, that I have all these ideas and even though it takes time to get them down I can do it.’ It’s has been wonderful to help them to come to this realization,” Gedney says.

Reaching out to both students and their parents
The main function of Gedney’s work is to help the students who use the organization do better in school. Especially those who might otherwise have a difficult time in school :

“Our role here in the Mission is that we are able to support a lot of the students, which come from the low-income families that have immigrated here from different parts of the world and are just trying to make it. And we are able to support a lot of them through our different programs.”

But it’s not just homework and writing, Gedney explains. It is also about helping the parents - a place where her own Mexican-American background comes in handy:

“Often we also reach out to the parents who come here. We provide a space for them to feel comfortable and where they can feel that they have someone to talk to and someone who can help them for instance with translation.”

An influential person
“Marisa is incredibly influential here in the organization and in the Mission as a neighborhood,” says her 826 co-worker Emilie Coulson

“She knows her way around and really know a lot of people,” Coulson says. “And I think that is very important in a community like the Mission that is very close and sometimes has this small town feel to it and where people look out for each other.”