More imprint stories

Here's another glimpse into what happened on Saturday's Workday. Stories like this about actual projects and personal impact are the essence of ShareFest. Thanks again to our 8,000 volunteers and 100 partner organizations who helped complete 255 projects.

This is from Clark Custer who worked at Torrance High School.

At Torrance High (THS), some paint and willing hands came together to add a sparkle to the campus.  This was the third year that Lighthouse Community Church and Coast Christian Fellowship have partnered with THS and ShareFest.  Lighthouse Community Church meets at the annex at THS.  After working on other parts of the campus in previous years, this year it was decided to paint the annex.  The walls were scraped clear of peeling paint and painted a light beige. The doors were painted a shiny maroon, and the surrounding bushes were trimmed and the grounds cleaned.  The effect was to turn around a forgotten building and make it something that the church as well as the students could feel good about.

In addition to the annex, other tasks including the following:  filling planters with a dump truck load of mulch, painting metal doors throughout campus, painting benches in the front of the school, trimming more bushes and painting the railings of the stairways.  We had several students help out.  They felt good to leave their mark on campus (and it was not a graftiti mark).

We had a wonderful lunch made by a team of volunteers.  Much of the food and drinks was donated by area merchants.  In all we had about sixty volunteers.  We had terrific support from Mitch Tabaldo, site supervisor, and his team.  Steve Park led the Lighthouse Community effort.

The team that came together for this project was born of a cancer recovery walk.  After his surgery for lymphoma cancer, Ben Tang would walk during lunch with co-workers.  On one such walk, I told Ben that his church planned to do a Sharefest project at THS.  Ben connected me with Kim Kira, senior pastor at Lighthouse Community, and the partnership was born.  

We thank God for his grace in allowing us to work together for good

—Clark

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