DOING SOME GOOD DEEDS 500 VOLUNTEERS SHOW UP TO WORK ALL DAY MAKING A DIFFERENCE FOR THEIR COMMUNITY.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Armed with paintbrushes and shovels and a lot of enthusiasm, more than 500 volunteers descended on 16 Palmdale schools Saturday as part of National Make a Difference Day.

Put on by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. and sponsored by Home Depot and Dunn-Edwards Paints, volunteers painted railings, doors, and buildings as well as did landscaping and cleanup work during the all-day event.

``I'm just interested in the education of our children and their environment,'' said Mary Sue Batchelder, a Lockheed employee and retired schoolteacher. ``I think it will be a sense that their school is taken care of. That it matters to people. When things are in good condition, they (students) feel better about where they are.''

Palm Tree Elementary was one of the smaller projects with a only 15-person work crew from Lockheed Martin and Edwards Air Force Base plus the volunteers' friends and family. Schools like Juniper Intermediate had more than 130 volunteers painting the trim around the entire building, the school's sign and the numbers on the street and buildings.

The project marked the first time Lockheed Martin participated in the Make A Difference Day program and the first large-scale volunteer effort in Palmdale, officials said.

National Make a Difference Day is the largest national day for volunteers to help in their communities. Every year, community organizers pick a project and organize volunteers to complete it. The national event was celebrated Oct. 26 by the rest of the country but, because of the Edwards Air Force Base Air Show, the local event had to be postponed locally until Saturday.

Initially, organizers were expecting about 400 people but that number increased to more than 500 by the day of the event.

``We had quite a few sign-on at the last minute,'' said Josh Matlin, a Lockheed subcontractor who served as team captain for the Palm Tree volunteer crew.

Like several of the other volunteers in the Make A Difference Day program, Matlin spends a good deal of his time volunteering to help the community and its children. He recently volunteered at the flight simulator held at the Aerospace Walk of Honor last week.

``I'm just interested in helping the kids,'' said Jeremy Gridler, a Lockheed employee who came to work at Palm Tree Elementary. ``That's what I spend my time doing. My wife's a teacher so we do this a lot.''

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) A crew of volunteers from Lockheed Martin spent their Saturday sprucing up Juniper Intermediate School in Palmdale.

(2 -- color) Lockheed Martin volunteer Bill Schneider scrapes peeling paint on Make a Difference Day.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer

(3 -- color) no caption (woman working on Juniper Intermediate School sign)