Because We Care

“Because We Care” is our  Annual Beautification Project.   Every October, STS teams up with volunteers representing churches, businesses, community organizations, and schools from across California to serve alongside STS’s fatherless young men to complete beautification projects at schools in North Sacramento.

This past year, 400 volunteers were inspired, equipped and mobilized to complete service projects at six Twin Rivers’ schools. Shoulder To Shoulder’s event brings the community together to beautify some of the area’s most aging campuses.

There was a great turn out this year for “Because We Care.”  Our next beautification project will be in October and then another larger one in 2012.

On Saturday, October 23, 2010, Shoulder to Shoulder (STS) partnered with the Twin Rivers Unified School District  (TRUSD), local businesses, churches and colleges from throughout California for the 4^th Annual Because We Care (BWC) school beautification project on six Twin Rivers district campuses: Rio Linda High, Grant High, Rio Tierra Middle School, Madison Elementary, Babcock Elementary, and Smythe Academy K-6.

This beautification effort was the largest in the event’s history.  Despite rainy weather, volunteers were able to complete over 52 detailed projects established by TRUSD, including planting trees, laying sod, laying bark, and extensive weeding and trimming.  Due to the large number of volunteers and the speed in which the projects were completed, Twin Rivers representatives were able to assign more projects at each site and many volunteers were even able to come back to Martin Luther King Technology Academy (MLK) and provide some clean-up.  Community clean-up also took place in the neighborhoods around Grant High and Rio Tierra Middle School with thousands of pounds of trash hauled off by Sacramento County.

While the visual transformation to the campuses is impressive, the personal transformation of the volunteers and transformation to the community is just as impacting.

“My blindness to what’s out there became transparent.  Living in So Cal and Irvine, I see I’m really greedy and selfish.  This opportunity opened my eyes and teaches me to give back.”

-Tim from UC Irvine

During the event, over 400 volunteers descended on the TRUSD, serving for 8 hours each, providing over 3200 man hours.  This event was predominately youth-driven, as more than ¾ of the volunteers were under the age of 21.  Over 150 of these volunteers joined STS from Navigator groups from the campuses of CSU Long Beach, Rio Hondo Community college, San Diego State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UCLA, UC Irvine, USC, UC San Diego, and UC Riverside. These students drove great distances and slept on the MLK gym floor in order to serve the North Sacramento area.  Students groups also participated from UC Davis, Simpson University, California Baptist University and Jesuit High School. Recognizing the impact they could make for their school district, students from Highlands High, Foothill High, Grant High and various other campuses in TRUSD also joined the effort to clean-up their own school district.

I brought two individuals.  They were amazed that college students would, of their own choosing, come up and help to improve someone’s else’s community this way.  They also commented about the volunteers just working and working. I think everyone was amazed as they walked the campus at the end of the day just how changed the place was.

- David, STS Site Coordinator

BWC kicked-off at two locations, MLK and Madison Elementary, with breakfast, safety instructions and a group picture before volunteers began work on six designated campuses. After the service projects were completed, volunteers returned to MLK where STS provided a barbecue dinner, encouragement and a fun evening for all volunteers who stayed.

This event could not have been completed without the contribution of many community partners. TRUSD provided project oversight, materials, tools, transportation of volunteers as well as breakfast and lunch for all volunteers on the day of the event.  The tool kits they created allowed the volunteers to be highly efficient in completing the projects. Joining Because We Care for the fourth year, Teichert Construction provided equipment and manpower that was crucial in completing several projects, and Sacramento Food Bank provided food items for the volunteers.  Sacramento County picked up all piles created in the community clean-up and allowed us to dump for free.  These partners, among many others, made the event possible.

Thanks to the efforts of our many volunteers and community partners this event was a huge success! STS sincerely thanks all who were involved in the effort and we look forward to partnering with the community for this event in the future.

 

 

Please check back for more information on our next “Because We Care.”  Thank you!