The Three Piggy Opera!

Yesenia Salas-Chavira, Supervising Teacher at Bellevue Elementary

You are all invited to join in the fun of our very own Opera!

The Three Piggy Opera
Presented by the CalSERVES AmeriCorps Program
and the Bellevue Elementary COOL Summer Program
Friday, June 26th, 7pm
Bellevue Elementary School

Do not miss this once in a life time event where you will enjoy singing and dancing by our talented youth! There will be lighting, costumes, make-up, props, scenery, and programs. It's almost as if you were going to a Broadway show, except (and this is the best part), it is FREE!

After all the hard work, the students want to see you there!

Program design and flier/poster team churning out colored fliers


Background and scenery team


Making brick- and straw-sellers carts

The Human Race

Jeremy King, Program Assistant, CalSERVES


Excitement filled the air as we crowded together at the start line. Looking to my right and left I saw white CalSERVES shirts surrounding me. The day was already warm at 8:00 in the morning, making me glad we would be done before noon. The race started and we were off! A wave of humanity rushed through past the start line and into the empty street. Onlookers cheered from the sideline as men, women, children, and even dogs made their way through the race.


I was walking with the knowledge that we at CalSERVES raised more than $15,000 to buy books for our kids this summer. It had begun a month before with emailing and asking friends and family to help support our students by donating money to our cause. By the race I had only raised $55.00, which is a small amount compared to some of our members and staff who raised more that $500 by themselves.


It was an amazing day!

Kristen Mowers, Nutrition Coordinator - CalSERVES



CalSERVES Roseland Elementary Program hosted Nutrition Olympics at their site. The mentors and students had loads of fun participating in a variety of nutritional booths. Some of the students’ favorites were Pepper Toss,



Citrus Tic Tac Toe,



and the “Food For Thought” ticket booth. Students answered trivia and riddles to earn tickets that they could take to other booths and play games.

*** As a note to concerned readers, no fruits or vegetables were harmed in these games... those that were tossed were made of Styrofoam, and those that were real were eaten by the children after the games. ***

Nutrition Olympics at Wright

Katie O'Looney, Supervising Teacher at Wright Elementary

STAR testing week is the perfect time to get the kids out of the classroom and outside having fun. Luckily, testing week also happens to be TV Turn-Off Week and the week we celebrate the Nutrition Olympics. With help from the Network for a Healthy California, we were able to participate in activities such as raisin picking, the pepper toss, supermarket shopping relay, coconut bowling, the carrot hop, cucumber javelin and the lettuce dribble. The students and mentors had a wonderful time, evident by lots of smiles and laughs. I would have never imagined that you could keep primary students entertained by throwing raisins and sunflower seeds onto the grass and tell them to find as many as they can. Overall it was a fantastic event and our students learned to eat more fruits and vegetables and to stay away from high sugar drinks!!

Enjoy the pictures!

The Imagine Bus Project

Jane Lang, Imagine Bus Project North

Students show their art created on the Imagine Bus.

For two hours every Tuesday after school at Sheppard Elementary, The Imagine Bus Project North parks its mobile arts studio out in front and gets ready to welcome kids who are in the CalSERVES after school program. With yellow "bus passes" in hand, the kids board the Bus to create whatever project is happening for that week. It might be making rainsticks or clay bird nests or even monoprints with our very own printing press. Or maybe we will learn about a school of art and do a project in that school's style.

The kids get to learn about the larger world beyond Sonoma County: be it folk arts from other countries, art influences from times gone by, or even principles of art making, while creating a project that they can take home and proudly share with their family. We, on the Bus, know how important art exposure and experiences are for these kids as they build self esteem and self mastery. And art can even improve academic grades! But most importantly, it teaches a child how to dream and imagine beyond his current scope of vision, creating a more hopeful future with broader options to explore as they mature.

To learn more about the Imagine Bus Project, visit their website: imaginebusproject.org

Gearing up for the Human Race!

We are getting ready for the Human Race! Every year, CalSERVES participates in the Sonoma County Human Race, a fundraiser organized by the Volunteer Center. Thousands of people raise money for non-profits and participate on Race Day. We will be among the crowd!

Please drop by CalSERVES' Human Race Donation Site to make a contribution and see how we are coming on our goal to raise $15,000! The money we raise goes directly to the children we work with - we buy books for our students and support Summer programs.

Our own talented Jeremy King put this video together. Take a look! You can also view other CalSERVES videos on our YouTube Channel.

The Dog House 3rd Grade Built!

Dani Deems, Part Time AmeriCorps Mentor at Kawana Elementary

It was a lot of fun developing a service-learning project with our third grade After School class at Kawana Elementary. The students worked in small groups to come up with at least five different service opportunities they wanted to help with. With a class vote, they decided to help the Humane Society. We facilitated small group discussions to see how they wanted to help. They chose to help stray dogs to have a home. We made sure the students understood that the class couldn’t keep the strays, but that maybe we could build a home for them and then donate it to the humane society. They really liked this idea and were excited to build a dog house.

Our Promise Fellow at Kawana, Jenny Gibson, was able to obtain a donation of wood so our kids could build a dog house. A mentor’s cousin volunteered to cut the wood for us, which was necessary for the safety of our students. The kids were so excited for the first day on the project. The first step was for students to draw markings on the wood so our helper would know where to cut the wood. While some kids were outside, the rest of them were inside following step-by-step directions in creating their own 3-D paper doghouse. This kept them pretty entertained and it was nice to see them working as a team and helping their neighbors when they couldn’t figure out what to do next.

Students painting their dog house.

Once the doghouse was put altogether, the next part was painting it. We did a primer coat first. They all got their chance to paint. While some of the kids were painting, the rest of them enjoyed a game of Frisbee, which they were calling a game of “fetch”. Our next step in the project will be painting the doghouse a shade of blue. That’s the color they had voted on. And finally the last step for our project will be finding a local chapter of the Humane Society that will accept our doghouse. We’d love for the next adopted dog to go home with our fabulous never-been-lived-in doghouse!