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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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Free Tax Help Available in Bay Area; Use Our Interactive Map

March 19, 2012 By
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Hundreds of volunteers are being deployed throughout the San Francisco Bay area to help the region’s poorest tax payers prepare their taxes this year, thanks to regional United Way agencies, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and local nonprofits and businesses.

The tax help for those making less than $50,000 a year is available at 200 locations. Below is an interactive map created by Good Neighbor Stories showing locations in Santa Clara County. Clicking on the map links to a page that includes a full list on the left-hand side of the page.

According to the Earn it!Keep It! Save It! program led by United Way of the Bay Area, less than five percent of those eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) are not taking advantage of the free tax preparation. Many turn to commercial tax preparers paying between $150 and $300, which officials estimate costs $2.2 million annually in the Bay Area alone.

“Unfortunately, thousands of low-income taxpayers are not taking advantage of our free, expert tax preparation,” said Kelly Batson, director of Earn It! Keep It! Save It! [Read more…]

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Peace Cranes for Japan Update

February 17, 2012 By
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One of our more popular posts last year told the story of people folding thousands of paper origami cranes to raise money in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11, 2011.

More than 700,000 cranes were received from all over the U.S. and other parts of the world in just six weeks. In honor of those efforts, a foundation donated $400,000 toward rebuilding efforts.

We’re happy to report that money is going to good use today through the organization Students Rebuild. Read all about what they are doing in Japan on the organization’s website.

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Five Ways To Be A Good Neighbor In February

February 1, 2012 By
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February is the month most famously known for a day of love. Why not spread the love throughout all 29 (Leap Year!) days? Here are five ways to be a good neighbor this month. If you think of more ways, tell us in the comments.

1. Get to Know Muslim Neighbors: Silicon Valley Reads recently kicked off its new campaign, “Muslim and American — Two Perspectives.” Every year Silicon Valley Reads chooses books for all of Silicon Valley to read together. This year organizers chose The Muslim Next Door; The Qur’an, the Media, and That Veil Thing by Sumbul Ali-Karamali, and The Butterfly Mosque by G. Willow Wilson.  A whole host of events are happening in February, all the way to the end of the campaign in April, including lectures, film showings, art exhibits, and small group discussions. Author Ali-Karamali will speak at two special events, 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 5, at the Saratoga Library, and 2 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 12, at the India Community Center in Milpitas. She’ll also be speaking at other events around the valley through April. In all there are more than 100 events happening in conjunction with the reading program. For more information see the Silicon Valley Reads website. [Read more…]

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Rooted In Justice: MLK Day Tree Planting in East Palo Alto

January 16, 2012 By
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About 90 volunteers descended on two schools in East Palo Alto today to plant a variety of fruit trees as a way to commemorate the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

The nonprofit group Collective Roots organized the event at the East Palo Alto Phoenix Acadamy and the East Palo Alto Charter School. Volunteers came from all over the valley. There were high school groups, families with small children, Americorps volunteers, and residents from the neighborhood. Together they planted about 40 citrus and avocado trees around the playgrounds and parking areas of the Phoenix Acadamy, and another 25 on the grounds of the charter school, where Collective Roots operates an educational garden.

According to Executive Director Kris Jensen, the group will maintain the trees while they become established, and later will help coordinate harvesting fruit from the trees. In addition to running a creative hands-on learning program, Collective Roots also maintains the East Palo Alto Community Farmers’ Market and the Backyard Gardener Network. [Read more…]

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MLK Day of Service Events Around The Valley

January 12, 2012 By
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Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. Visit MLKDay.gov.

Although Monday, Jan. 16, is a national holiday and for many a day off, the National Day of Service organization is encouraging us to make  it a “day on” by volunteering to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. There are several organized volunteer events around Silicon Valley on Monday—or create your own service event right in your own neighborhood. Even something as small as picking up trash, or performing an act of kindness for a neighbor or stranger, can be your own way of remembering Dr. King.

Below is list of organized events we’ve heard about. Use our contact form or comments section if you’ve heard of other events. And if you do your own act of service, share that with us, too!

United Way Silicon Valley – San Jose

Would you like to help local children get a quality education? Want to help teachers? [Read more…]

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Five Ways To Be A Good Neighbor In January

January 2, 2012 By
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Happy New Year! Here’s to this being a great year for all of us. What better way to start the new year than with a resolve to be a good neighbor all year long."Fourth of July" Rose

We’re kicking off 2012 with a list of five ways to be a good neighbor this month. If you know of some more ways, please share with us in the comments!

1) “Prune!” at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden: Here in the Bay Area, January is the month to prune roses to ensure beautiful blooms this spring and summer. Doable if you have a few rose bushes in your garden, a monumental task if you are the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden, which features more than 4,000 plants on 5 and a half acres. On Saturday, Jan. 7, join hundreds of people for this one-day event. It starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 12:30 p.m. There’s a brief training included. Wear long sleeves, long pants, and close-toed shoes. Bring gloves, pruning tools, and a filled water bottle.

2) Donate Blood: No, not at the pruning event! January is National Blood Donor Month, established in 1970. The holiday season usually means less blood donations, because of holiday schedules, [Read more…]

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Company’s Employees Skip Holiday Party For Largest-Ever Service Event

December 12, 2011 By
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Last weekend NVIDIA’s employees chose hammers and shovels over hors d’oeuvres and Champagne, forgoing a holiday party and instead taking part in one of Silicon Valley’s largest-ever employee volunteer service events.

About 1,500 employees, their families, and other volunteers descended on the nonprofit Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale Friday and Saturday to saw wood, swing hammers, shovel dirt, paint and more. The result was a huge boost to the farm’s ability to provide nutrition education to students and fresh produce to the community.

On Saturday morning about 1,000 grownups, teens and children were busily tilling soil, building new structures and planters, and painting murals on the 11-acre farm located on land leased from the Santa Clara Unified School District.

“I think parties are kind of selfish and this is selfless,” said Chris Pedersen, a content developer for NVIDIA, who was busy digging raised beds with his wife and two kids on Saturday. “I think it’s awesome; you always go home with a really good feeling.”

The technology company stopped having holiday parties 11 years ago, and had been doing annual community service on a smaller scale, until 5 years ago when employees organized under the banner Project Inspire, said spokesperson Tonie Hansen.

The Project Inspire events started with about 500 employees and other volunteers, but over the years has continued to grow, peaking at this year’s 1,500 participants. [Read more…]

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30 Ways to Be A Good Neighbor This Holiday Season: Part 1

December 1, 2011 By
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Thanksgiving is behind us and we now start the march to the December holidays. Last year I ran a three-part series on ways to be a good neighbor during the holidays, and those ways remain as evergreen asPlate of cookies for neighbors. well, holiday evergreens. Today I’m reposting part 1 about how to be a good neighbor in your own neighborhood. Parts 2 and 3 talk about how to be a good neighbor in your greater community, and in the world.

Hope you enjoy these ideas, and please, share your own with us here! And if you do follow through on a good neighbor action this holiday season, share what happens with us here, too.

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Remembering 9/11 Good Neighbors Part 3

September 11, 2011 By
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9/11 Memorial

By Vincent Desjardin

 

One more inspirational story of Good Neighbors from 9/11 on this 10th anniversary.

“Sanctuary at Ground Zero”

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