Pali High Student Aims to Recruit Volunteers to Step Up to SIT

LA Ambassador Samantha Guzman Seeks Babysitters to Pair with Essential Workers Who Need Child Care Assistance

By LILY TINOCO | Reporter

Palisades Charter High School rising senior Samantha Guzman is Step Up to SIT’s Los Angeles ambassador—actively working to recruit high school and college student volunteers to babysit children of essential workers who need child care assistance through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Step Up to SIT is a national student-led organization launched in March that functions as a matching service with a goal to “minimize interactions that can spread the virus and keep our community’s children and workers as healthy as possible,” according to the organization’s website.

Students who volunteer sign-up and offer their availability, driving capabilities and preferences. Parents who are seeking child care, list the ages of their child(ren) and their needs.

Guzman said she learned of the organization after feeling helpless at the earlier stages of the pandemic. She took to the internet to search for ways to help or get involved, and came across Step Up to SIT. At the time, there wasn’t a program established in LA.

“There are a lot of essential workers who can’t afford child care and … since I’m part of a minority group, I’m Hispanic, I understand how that feels,” Guzman said to the Palisadian-Post. “I have family members who are working, who are essential workers, but they can’t afford child care and … this is just something that I knew right off the bat that I really wanted to do. I wanted to be part of the solution.”

Guzman became involved with Step Up to SIT in mid-May and has since taken on the responsibilities of an ambassador. She said her favorite thing about becoming LA’s ambassador is the opportunity to work and grow with the team.

“The founders are from Minnesota and … getting to know them, getting to work with them, creating a community and family with them has been so amazing,” Guzman said.

She said the team has Zoom meetings to discuss how the programs are going in each state or city.

Her responsibilities as an ambassador revolve around recruiting volunteers and spreading the organization’s message.

Since school was still in session at the time of her involvement, Guzman was able to contact the leadership committee at Pali High and post information on Schoology to her classmates. She also shared information on social media platforms like Instagram.

“We’re just looking for anyone who is passionate about giving back to their community,” Guzman said to the Post. “Looking for a diverse group of teenagers, high school or college students, located in Los Angeles, who are willing to try to make a change and try to do something good for the community.”

For more information to sit or request a sitter, visit stepuptosit.com or contact Guzman directly at stepuptosit.la@gmail.com.