Saturday
May022009
Share stories about your imprint
Saturday, May 2, 2009 at 4:05PM | Jeremiah Dobruck
We want to hear your stories from the Workday. We had at least 8,000 volunteers, but each one had a unique experience.
Whether they were painting murals at schools all over the South Bay or building a community center in Harbor Gateway, we all have stories about what happens when the community comes together.
Leave a comment on this entry or any entry about what happened on May 2 to share the imprint you made with the rest of us.
Whether they were painting murals at schools all over the South Bay or building a community center in Harbor Gateway, we all have stories about what happens when the community comes together.
Leave a comment on this entry or any entry about what happened on May 2 to share the imprint you made with the rest of us.
in Workday
Workday 
Reader Comments (14)
On behalf of the Wilmington Community, I want to personally thank each volunteer that worked so hard on projects throughout Wilmington.
Each of you has left your imprint on a community and on my heart.
Thank you, Thank You, Thank You.
I would like to thank Mary Gant, our ShareFest coordinator, who made my school, Hawaiian Ave. Elementary in Wilmington such a successful project. We painted a beautiful mural by the students' eating pavilion, painted the staff lounge and restroom, painted about 60 outside doors, cleaned, scrubbed and beautified the Pre-Kinder, Kinder and upper grades playground equipment, auditorium, etc. It was a great day and we owe it all to Mary and all the volunteers she personally organized. Thank you so much in the name of all my students, parents and staff. We'll see you again next year, at our next ShareFest event.
I was at Hawaiian Ave. Elementary also. There was a wonderful man named Chuy who came by to help. Though he wasn't "officially" in charge and had a blue shirt (not a red one), he almost single-handedly organized the painters who painted the doors blue. Thanks Chuy!
Also, as a small note, there were exactly enough hot dogs for everyone who was in line to eat. We weren't sure if it would be enough, but the hot dogs didn't fail until the line did. Praise God for His provision.
Banning High Church Announcement. This actually occurred the Sunday before "Work Day". Five students, all members of the Leadership group at Banning, and their Assistant Principal, Windy Warren, came to Rolling Hills United Methodist Church on Palos Verdes before 8 AM. They each gave a short presentation at BOTH the 8:30 and 10:00 AM serices and then greeted the members on the patio after each service. The response from the membership was so very positive as many signed up and/or made donations to the effort. Every member I spoke with commented on how impressed they were with the students and how meeting them "put a face" to the "Work Day" project. Our pastor made a special effort to thank them for coming to our church so early and extolling his being impressed with them. To say the least, each of the students left on a virtual cloud full of Banning Pride and carried that back to their classmates. I feel it was their enthusiasm that trickled across the campus students and families during the week and the net result was over 500 students and parents, teachers, LAFD firefighters, volunteers, working together for over 8 hours May 2. And seeing and talking to many of the students during the event only solidified my thinking that "Change is not only coming to Wilmington and Banning...it is here!!!" You could hear it in their voices and see it in their tears of joy!!!
The theme this year was "Leave Your Imprint."
This year, I was involved in 2 sites. I was part of Victory's team originally, but my fellow BASIC leaders, Lisa and Darcy, accepted the challenge of being project managers for the first time, so I wanted to help them out as much as possible since they had never even attended a Sharefest event! They are such awesome servants of the Lord!
I ended up getting donuts for both sites. I dropped off donuts and bagels for 40 people at Hickory Elementary in Torrance before heading over to Wilmington Park Elementary. There were 114 people scheduled for that site. I had picked up donuts, bagels and drinks for this site.
My jobs included sign in (help people sign up for a specific project, get them a tee shirt and make sure they knew about the donuts and bagels! I also was in charge of the chair cleaning project. That involved us collecting all of the fabric chairs from the classrooms (these were mainly the teacher's chairs), bringing them to a central location, then spot cleaning and then steam cleaning the chairs. Then we had to take the chairs back to each classroom. I was happy to get to know Christina and Shiloh, who helped me collect the chairs. I also had other helpers such as Amy, Amber (who was very pregnant but still worked!), Brandon, Jan and Sheri and a few others that helped us.
A big part of the day at our site was the landscaping job. Mimi headed it up (we were lucky to have a professional landscaper help us) and everyone did a great job!
Although I was exhausted when I left, I was really satisfied with the work that we did. I really love helping this organization. What really amazes me is that most of the projects are in my home town which has seen hard times since I left after high school (Banning Alumni 1992). It's nice to see that the Banning mural was repainted (it was originally done when I was a sophomore) and that all the various projects will have an impact on the community and hopefully bring hope and joy through Christ through the experience.
Check out my blog for a few pictures (I couldn't figure out how to do that here!).
My blog is http://www.lexykinslifehappenings.blogspot.com/
Thanks.
Being "Missional" is all the rage now. It seems every church, bible college, seminary, and Christian is talking missional. But what is it? Being missional I mean? You need look no further than ShareFest Workday! Many of us from the faith community partnered with schools, other non-profits, our communities to take what we have, the love of God, to others with our actions. We didn't preach with our mouths or carry "Spiritual Laws" tracks but we simply offered our time and effort to proclaim the Gospel without words. And Gospel proclamation it was!
I worked alongside folks from our church, COAH, at Wood Elementary in Torrance. I spent 6 hours fixing up handball backboards. I couldn't help but think what kids would think when they gathered to play. Wood's principal, Theresa, was there all day with us. It really was great to see her enthusiasm. Can't wait till next year!!!
I worked as a volunteer from Rolling Hills United Methodist Church at the Banning High School site. I was so impressed with the students there and their willingness to help including heavy duty work digging in cement-like hardened soil to plant flowers. I also was impressed by the smiles and welcome attitude of the students to this old, but energetic grandmother. Magnet students that I met were so proud of their school and readily talked about their hopes and dreams after graduation. The faculty on site pitched right in with the hard work and you could tell the students considered them special. I was particularly pleased to see the father of one of my former students. He was scraping gum off the cement courtyards because his son's wheelchair wheels get "sticky". He praised Banning H.S. for giving his paraplegic son so many wonderful opportunities and recognition. More positive publicity should be circulated about the wonderful job our city schools are doing!
On behalf of the City of Redondo Beach and the youth and families we serve we would like to say thank you to Sharefest. Two of our facilities,
the Knob Hill Community Center and the Anderson Park Scout House, were the Sharefest Projects for this year. Both facilities were given an "Extreme Makeover" by your awesome volunteers. Thank you so much!
Dan Smith
Recreation and Youth Services Manager
City of Redondo Beach
We had eight volunteers from Sukyo Mahikari, Centers for Spiritual Development participate in the Mayor's Day of Service. Sukyo Mahikari is a non-profit community service organization that promotes positive attitude, energy and a lifestyle that is green and supportive of our environment. It's motto is "Improve yourself; improve the world." The eight volunteers helped to plant trees at a school in Wilmington. All of the participants were enthusiastic about offering their support to the community. Three of their stories are below:
Mayor’s Day of Service—May 2nd
"It was so inspiring to see people of so many different backgrounds, even tiny toddlers come out and volunteer at the Mayor's Day of Service event. I personally helped plant 2 trees and was thankful for the impeccable arrangements that were made for all this to be possible.
People were helping each other, lending tools and even a hand. This one gentleman came on his own and helped us lift the tree as we had mostly women in our group.
Cheers to the volunteer spirit of LA. I am sure we will reach the million trees goal soon with all this volunteer activism."
- Yash Sharman, member of Sukyo Mahikari, Centers for Spiritual Development
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Local weather forecasts called for rain, but it ended up cool and a bit breezy when we eight volunteers from Sukyo Mahikari of America showed up for the Mayor's Day of Service tree planting, May 2, 2009, in Wilmington. As the event progressed, the morning haze gave way to a dry, warm sun.
Altogether, we worked on planting three young trees --- the last of which we named "Wonder." As several of us have stayed active in regional tree-planting efforts, we generally knew exactly what to do and how to do it.
The tree planting gave us members of Sukyo Mahikari an opportunity to put into practice our basic beliefs about respecting, appreciating and doing what we can to conserve the Earth beautiful, truly amazing natural environment.
--Erik Derr, member of Sukyo Mahikari, Centers for Spiritual Development
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Yesterday I went down to the city of Wilmington, a port town between Long Beach and San Pedro, CA, and we planted 35 or so trees in a sea of concrete and shipping containers.
As we dug the hole to plant, I found some turritella shells (spiral snail shells typical of ancient shores). This discovery led me to believe it was Pleistocene sediments we were digging into. However, the shells may have been dredged up from the sea floor to make roads to the harbor.
The day was nice; eight folks from Sukyo Mahikari, Centers for Spiritual Development were there, and four from the 4Rs group. We helped plant several trees with some kids from a fraternity. Since our group was trained by TreePeople, we knew what to do, and added a "spiritual" side to the process. That simply entails naming the tree and welcoming it to its new home with a loud voice after watering. It has been statistically shown that this process increases a tree's survivability, but not everyone has heard of these techniques.
What's great is seeing a group of frat boys get into naming the tree they had planted. They called it "Sigma Chi" and enjoyed loudly welcoming the tree to its new home with a "Trees need people, people need trees, welcome Sigma Chi! Whoo-hoo".
I'm sure Sigma Chi will take root. It chugged the water we gave it!
--Ron Schmidtling, paleontologist and member of Sukyo Mahikari, Centers for Spiritual Development.
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A friend of mine asked me to check out a place where he works as a possible shareFest project. He said they needed a garden. It is called Pete’s Place, a residential care facility for dementia patients.
When I called to speak with Pam, who runs the place, I said I was from ShareFest, and she said she knew ShareFest. She had volunteered the past few years, and last year helped plant trees in Wilmington. When I told her my friend thought we should help her, she was a little confused, and to be honest so was I.
After meeting Pam, there was no confusion. This wasn’t a school in a low income neighborhood. This wasn’t a park that needed cleaning. This was a woman dedicated to the Lord, and serving people in the same situation as her father, Pete. If we had the opportunity to support Pam in her efforts to care for and maintain the quality of life for those suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s, we would.
The project was small; clear a small section of hill for a garden, and install about 12 feet of raised planter boxes so patients can garden while standing or sitting on a stool.
As spring rolls on and summer nears, the residents of Pete’s place will have a place to grow some vegetables and herbs and a few new rose bushes to admire as well. And just as importantly, a woman dedicated to others, knows her community is dedicated to her and her work.
I met Ken B. about six weeks ago. The Mayor of Lawndale, Harold Hoffman, had submitted Ken’s house as a possible work day project. When I first met Ken, I thought he was a gruff ol’ dude. He was angry at the city for taking him to court more than 9 months ago to force him to fix his house.
Saturday, Ken said thank you and God bless you to all the volunteers that helped him out.
If he could afford to paint his house he would. If he could afford to have it treated for termites he would. If he could afford a new roof he would get one. He can’t. He is 66 years old, retired early due to a disabling car accident. He has a stent in his neck and one in his heart. If you met him, I don’t think you would guess his age at a mere 66. He lives on Social Security income.
A lot of work had to be done before hand; carpentry, tree clearing and 2nd story painting. But this past Saturday, a small crew of about a dozen volunteers showed up at 8:30AM to finish the work that needed to be done. It was a slow start, but by 10am the yard surrounding the house was buzzing with activity, people were painting, building, patching, removing and rebuilding.
Ken was there all day. He saw all the work being done. He had the chance to speak with each of the volunteers. Some told him about their church and their faith, others talked to him about aerospace and electronics engineering. People on the street would wave to workers on the roof. Others would stop to ask what was going on. We had a half dozen cars double parked in the alley, and the Sherriff smiled at us as she drove by.
We did what we could to help a man none of us had met before last month, because that is what we are instructed to do, following Jesus’ example. We pray that he saw the love of Christ in the work we did, and that it brought glory to God.
Ken’s actually not that gruff, he’s really a nice guy. You just need to get to know him.
ShareFest ROCKS!
Dear Joe:
On behalf of Billy Mitchell Elementary School, I'd like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to you and the ShareFest team for your generous donation of supplies and volunteers for our new school garden. Under the supervision of Mike Collins, our "Garden Work Day" was a huge success.
September 2009 is our garden debut and we would love for you to visit our school and see first hand, the important work ShareFest contributed to our school garden.
Sincerely,
Kris Lauritson
Garden Coordinator
It was a blessing to be the hands of Christ to someone in need in our community. Along with a number of coworkers we were able to transform Ken's home as Joe McMahon mentioned above. Just taking one day out of our busy schedules made an impact. It also was a wonderful way of giving back and letting others know that people care.
I look forward to these venues and the chance to meet other like minded people in our community. The fruit of our labor was a blessing to see unfold. We were fortunate to have someone like Ken nominated for us to do for him what he could not do own his own.
Thanks,
Jim Johansen