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Thousands of Volunteers Converging in Silicon Valley This Weekend

April 25, 2012 By
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Roll up your sleeves, Silicon Valley. This weekend, April 27-29,  is possibly the biggest weekend for volunteer service projects, with an estimated 7,000 people expected to donate their time talents for local nonprofit organizations.

Volunteers are refurbishing, renewing and refreshing dozens of homes, neighborhoods, schools, and parks, as well as packaging food for the hungry and more, for groups like Beautiful Day, Rebuilding Together, 4Others , and Youth Community Service.

Add to those events the National MS Walk in San Jose on Saturday, as well as numerous other smaller events, and this is turning out to be a huge weekend for volunteerism in the valley. Continue reading for more information on how to get involved. [Read more…]

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Wow! Beautiful Day 2012 Statistics

April 20, 2012 By
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The folks at Beautiful Day released some statistics today about next week’s service event. If you’re interested in one of the 4,624 volunteer opportunities, see the Beautiful Day website.

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San Jose Council Recognizes Beautiful Day On Eve of Volunteer Event

April 18, 2012 By
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In recognition of next week’s large-scale Beautiful Day service event in all 10 districts of the city and neighboring communities, the San Jose City Council unanimously awarded the group a special proclamation at its meeting on Tuesday.

“I really think San Jose has the best cadre of volunteers in the whole country,” said Councilmember Rose Herrera, as she presented the proclamation to Beautiful Day Executive Director Jon Talbert and his team in honor of National Volunteer Month.

Herrera encouraged residents to sign up as volunteers for the dozens of Beautiful Day projects around San Jose and the Silicon Valley, most of which take place Saturday, April 28 and Sunday, April 29.  A few projects are available this weekend, April 21-22, and the week that follows. Thousands are expected to participate. [Read more…]

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Master Organizer Puts Tools Into the Hands of Thousands of Volunteers

April 13, 2012 By
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Get ready Silicon Valley. You’re about to get a makeover, thanks to more than 100 gallons of paint, 441 pieces of lumber, 113 pounds of nails, and a lot of sweat and elbow grease from thousands of volunteers.

It’s all a part of the large-scale April 21-29 service project called Beautiful Day, coordinated by the nonprofit group that goes by the same name. Organizers are working to recruit up to 6,000 volunteers to refurbish homes, neighborhoods, parks, creeks, freeways, an elementary school, and much more. Most of the projects will take place the final weekend, April 28 and 29.

As the recruitment effort goes on, one team within Beautiful Day is working to put the materials and tools into the hands of the volunteers. The Acquisitions Team is lead by a volunteer affectionately known as the “Master Shopper”, Wendy Laugesen.

Laugesen laughs at the reference, and adds that she likes to call herself the “Master Organizer”.

Master Organizer, indeed, as she and her team pull together more than 600 items on a master inventory list. Each line item may have multiples of each item, translating into thousands of materials and tools needed during the week.

From nametags to napkins, to tanbark and tetherballs, Laugesen has it on her list. [Read more…]

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High School Kindness Award Deadline Approaching

April 12, 2012 By
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CUPERTINO — The deadline for Fremont Union High School District (FUHSD) seniors to apply for a special award recognizing kindness and altruism is this Sunday, April 15.

The Sandlot Award recognizes students at Monta Vista, Cupertino and Lynbrook high schools who display kindness to others. It was originally launched in 2009 at Monta Vista as the Justin Perkins Sandlot Award in memory of former student Justin Perkins, who died of cancer in 2008.  An effort is ongoing to bring the award to all five FUHSD schools.

Award coordinators say that while other school awards measure academic, athletic, and extracurricular successes, the Sandlot Award measures altruism that is not necessarily well known.

The award shines the light on “invisible students” who don’t always get recognized for their efforts, said Lynbrook Associated Student Body President Kevin Tu. It’s about students who are, “doing something good, not just for the title and recognition; it’s people serving for the heart of serving,” he said.

“It’s what’s unique about this award, and something Lynbrook needs a little bit more of,” Tu said. “I really support what this award encourages and fosters. And I believe that if everyone would be more like a sandlot hero our school would be a better place.” [Read more…]

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Volunteers to Beautify Santa Clara School April 28-29

April 10, 2012 By
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The children and staff of Pomeroy Elementary in Santa Clara will leave their well-worn campus on an upcoming Friday to return on Monday to a brighter, fresher school, thanks to a full weekend of volunteer labor.

More than 300 volunteers are expected to descend on the campus in the Santa Clara Unified School District on Saturday, April 28, and Sunday, April 29, to clean, paint, build, and garden, in a project called “Beautify Pomeroy”. The group Beautiful Day is signing up people from all over Silicon Valley who want to invest in the children’s futures through the service project.

“Beautify Pomeroy” is part of an even larger community-wide annual Beautiful Day event that is expected to utilize approximately 6,000 volunteers between April 21 and 29. Projects include cleaning area freeways, refurbishing homes, cleaning parks and neighborhoods, helping the homeless, and more.

By the end of that weekend at Pomeroy, the teachers’ lounge will have a new look, as well as a refrigerator that actually works, replacing the old broken one. The school’s community garden will have new planter boxes and a solar-powered water feature. The playground will have some new equipment, as well as a recycling center to collect empty juice boxes and water bottles. And around campus some walls will sport fresh paint and murals.

“I think it’s just exciting to think about what you’re doing for the next generation,” said Lori Dabak, one of the project’s coordinators. “You don’t know how this investment will affect something down the road.” [Read more…]

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Eighth Grader Making Birthday Wishes Come True For Less Fortunate Kids

April 3, 2012 By
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Every child has a birthday wish. But some children from poor or homeless families don’t get those wishes fulfilled, which is why eighth grader Yasmine Davis decided to step in and make a difference.

Davis and her family are founders of the nonprofit  Make a Birthday Wish, which provides presents and birthday parties for more than 300 disadvantaged children and teens in the Silicon Valley.

Along with her mom, Nike McDonald, Davis shops for presents for children and teenagers, then throws a party complete with decorations and cake for all the birthday boys and girls of one month. The children and teens are matched to Make a Birthday Wish through West Valley Community Services (WVCS).

“The kids all have a wish list, so we try and get them what’s on the wish list so they’ll be happy with their presents,” Davis said. “And even if we can’t they’re still really happy with the birthday party.”

While not shopping, planning, and party hosting—a volunteer job that keeps her busy for up to eight hours every weekend and sometimes after school—Davis is a student at Kennedy Middle School in Cupertino, where she keeps up good grades and plays sports. [Read more…]

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Five Ways to Be a Good Neighbor in April

April 2, 2012 By
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It’s April, which means spring is now in full swing. Opportunities to be a good neighbor around Silicon Valley and the Bay Area are sprouting as fast as seedlings in the warm sun.

Here are five ways to do good for others (and yourself) this month.

1. Drive Focused: April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. The California Highway Patrol and other local departments plan on cracking down on distracted driving all month as a way to bolster public awareness of this dangerous problem. Using a cell phone while driving—hand-held or hands-free—delays a driver’s reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent, according to one university study. And text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted. Find out more at Distraction.gov. In the meantime, officials want everyone to take the pledge to drive distraction free, and to encourage others to do the same.

2. Knit for a Cause: A group of people who love to knit and crochet get together regularly to create hats and scarves for Sacred Heart Community Services. Called One Brink Knits, it’s a part of the One Brick Silicon Valley group that helps connect volunteers with service projects. Don’t know how to knit or crochet? [Read more…]

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Good Neighbor Tweets of the Week: March 25-31

April 1, 2012 By
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Some of the Bay Area’s best neighbors are tweeting all sorts of positive and interesting information. We keep track on our Twitter list, “Silicon Valley Heroes”. If you’re on Twitter and spreading good news, let us know. We might list you in an upcoming “Good Neighbor Tweets of the Week” list.

Here are some top tweets for last week.

Sunday, March 25

Save The Bay (SF) ‏ @saveSFbay

Looking for #environmental #policy experience? Volunteer with @SaveSFBay_Wonks this summer:

Monday, March 26

Peninsula Family Svc ‏ @PeninsulaFamily

Photos: Oracle Volunteers with the Young and Elderly – Redwood City, CA Patch http://redwoodcity.patch.com/articles/oracle-volunteers-with-the-young-and-elderly [Read more…]

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Pitch In to Take Freeways From Trashy to Beautiful

March 28, 2012 By
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With shrinking state coffers translating into mushrooming piles of litter along California freeways, one organization is collaborating with Caltrans to give residents a chance to pitch in and clean up at the end of April.

The nonprofit group Beautiful Day is organizing a massive week-long service event by the same name in the San Jose area April 21-29, including what organizers are calling Trash It, three days of cleaning up debris along Silicon Valley freeways.

“I hate driving on the highway and seeing all the litter there, especially when people from other states come into visit. I want to be proud of my state,” said Trash It team leader Kristy Espinoza. “I feel like I’m doing my part to be organizing such a large event to get rid of litter.”

Beautiful Day is looking for 600 adult volunteers to participate Friday, April 27 through Sunday, April 29. There are five total shifts that weekend, with one on Friday morning, and two each on Saturday and Sunday, morning and afternoon. Each shift is about three hours long. Volunteers will meet at one of four Caltrans yards in Cupertino, Milpitas and San Jose.

Trash It signups are underway now at the Beautiful Day website, along with signups for the group’s other projects during the service week. [Read more…]

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