RL’s Irreplaceable Volunteers

This year, I have been consistently impressed with the volunteers at our RL Stevens CalSERVES program. They consistently have a great attitude, and are friendly with all of our kids. We regularly have volunteers stay after 6PM (when our program ends) in order to make sure the mentors have everything they need, and that all the loose ends from that day are tied up. One of our third grade class volunteers, Kristyn (who has volunteered over 100 hours), often volunteers for entire Wednesdays (12:30PM-6:00PM), as has led her own club. Giovanni (who has volunteered over 150 hours) has worked with several different grades, and knows every student in each class he works with.

Both Ericka (left) and Zully (right) have volunteered with CalSERVES for multiple years, and are looked up to and adored by the students they work with.

The tutoring program at CalSERVES requires such consistency and structure that volunteers are usually not formal tutors. At RL, however, we have two volunteers, Rebecca and Lan, who have shown not only a willingness to consistently arrive early in the morning, but also the understanding necessary to fully implement the tutoring curriculum. We are grateful for their time, as are the students and their teachers. 

I am unable to convey how important and meaningful volunteer support is to our program here at RL, though I have tried. Our volunteers are talented, kind, dedicated and intelligent individuals, and there are an infinite number ways they could spend their time. We are grateful they choose to spend so much of it helping our students.        

Former Americorps member Nick works on homework with a sixth grader. Nick has volunteered over 100 hours with Cool School, and has attended several service days.

Global Youth Service Day 2012

This past Saturday, Meadow View teamed up to tackle trash in sunny Spring Lake Park in honor of Global Youth Service Day. Everyone was excited to be off-site and doing something different for the day, especially in a location as beautiful as Spring Lake. We knew the weather would be sunny and hot, a welcome change after what seemed like eons of cold and rain. As it turns out, picking up trash is quite the entertaining task, especially when your teammates are as hilarious as the mentors and TL’s at Meadow View. There were definitely a lot of jokes and a lot of laughter to be had which made the day seem like nothing more than a walk in the park, literally.

Spring Lake is actually a very clean space compared to other heavily-trafficked parks in Santa Rosa. We all felt that although this made our job quite simple, the park-goers who put their trash into one of the park’s multiple trash cans deserve some major kudos for taking care of the environment. Even though there wasn’t a ton of trash, we still got a lot accomplished and walked about three miles in the sun. Nobody minded the heat, though, we were all just happy to be out of the house and getting some exercise on such a lovely day. Everyone enjoyed seeing the other groups who dedicated their Saturday to making a difference such as the March of Dimers and the Boy Scouts. Many park-goers thanked us for what were doing. It really felt like we were all in it together, and that even though had our weekends to be getting to, the day turned out to be productive and a great team-building experience for all who attended.  

RL Stevens Super Class

While I, without a doubt or a blink, love each and every student in RL Stevens Cool School, I have as of late been greatly impressed by the tenacious and spirited 4^th grade class. Under the nurturing and yet diligent care of Ms. Jimenez and Ms. Latta, 4^th grade has taken on several projects including: the Photovoice project with Network for a Healthy California, pen pal program with CSU Chico teaching students and a service learning project where they will be working with Heifer International to provide animals for others in need. Each student has invested time and care in taking a field trip to take photos of healthy foods and practices for Photovoice, writing letters about what they read and why, and discussing which animals they think would best help another family or community.

            A personal highlight has been working with 4^th grade on their letters. Working with them on how the genre of a letter is designed and then sending them to actual pen pals has been highly rewarding in that students see how writing can be applicable in the real world. In the letters, students focus on what they like to read and why, and their reflections on what makes a book interesting to them has been helpful in thinking through how to help students engage in learning. All in all, I am very proud of all of the extra work our 4^th grade students (through the hard and often extra work of their mentors) have done to think through ways they can enjoy their own education and how to make healthier choices. 

Global Youth Service Day

On this Saturday, April 21st, CalSERVES, in collaboration with Sonoma County Regional Parks, will be hosting its annual Global Youth Service Day (GYSD), the largest collective service event in the world. This year, our AmeriCorps members will team up with community volunteers to lend a helping hand at Spring Lake Regional Park in Santa Rosa. We will be removing invasive plant species and cleaning up the trails in the park from 8AM-1PM. Afterwards, we will have a nutritious lunch and photo slideshow at Kawana Elementary School. 

For GYSD, our projects focus on improving our local environment, in celebration of Earth Day (which is Sunday, April 22nd this year); past projects have included planting hedgerows at Laguna de Santa Rosa and cleaning up Santa Rosa City Creeks. We enthusiastically look forward to "getting things done" and "making a difference" at Spring Lake, a beautiful place cherished many Santa Rosa residents! 

SEE YOU THERE! 

-Patrick Link, Local VIP Leader

For more information on CalSERVES' project, and if you would like to RSVP, please visit our event page on Facebook.

For more information on Global Youth Service Day, visit their official page here.

Egg Hunt for Tots – April 7, 2012

For the second year, CalSERVES supported the Egg Hunt for Tots at Howarth Park, a low cost to families of children ages 3-5. The proceeds from this event benefit the Recreation & Parks Scholarship Fund for low income families to afford to participate in programs and activities. The morning began with setting up various booths, activities, and getting the eggs ready for hunting. CalSERVES mentors facilitated a face painting booth, supervised the egg hunt, and managed the Spring Bunny photo booth. All morning, young children and their parents were enjoying the arts & crafts, the animal farm and petting zoo, as well as the CalSERVES activities. It was a fun and successful day. Parents were smiling and children were laughing at this sold out event. Laneil Jorgeson, the Egg Hunt Coordinator, commented that she cannot do this event without the support of wonderful volunteers like ours. “Please send a big THANK YOU to your staff,” she said. "Once again they did an amazing job!.”

Written by: Kimberly Copperberg

Kawana Kids CAN!

Canstruction is an annual design and build competition among community organizations to construct creative structures made entirely out of canned food. This year’s event was sponsored by Whole Foods Market and the Redwood Empire Food Bank (REFB), and was held at Coddingtown Mall in Santa Rosa, where structures were displayed from March 4 to March 17. The goal of Canstruction is to raise awareness of hunger in Sonoma County and get canned food donated to REFB.

This year our 3^rd grade after school class at Kawana Elementary teamed up with Kate Briggs and Burbank Housing Development Corporation’s architect Toni Holland and project manager Chaney Delaire to create our very own Kawana Kids CAN! Canstruction 2012 team!

Our 3^rd grade after school class was a vital and enriching part of our team. For two months we led lessons involving Canstruction and the students learned more than they expected! In the first lesson, we talked about what “raising awareness” means, how we were going to contribute to raising awareness of hunger, and how Canstruction helps in that effort. We created nutrition lessons on the effects of being hungry and ways to prevent hunger, and the students gained a lot from this. Our students read books on hunger, homelessness, soup kitchens, and poverty after they finished their homework to gain background knowledge on the subjects. We led a lesson around the book Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen in which our students learned that people who are homeless are still people, soup kitchens make much more than soup, and volunteers can make a huge difference. The students met with Billy Bartz from the REFB to learn about the food bank, how it receives and donates food, and what they can do if they are in need of food assistance. Billy brought pictures of the food bank and of past Canstruction structures and the students were amazed! In thank you cards to Billy some students shared about how their families use the food bank weekly in order to have enough to eat and they were happy to learn all about it.

The students participated in an architecture lesson with Chaney, in which they learned what an architect does and how we would use architectural concepts to build our structure. In four groups the students designed their own Canstruction structures, coming up with a fruit basket, a soccer game between fruits and vegetables, Bugs Bunny eating a healthy snack, and a tree growing all kinds of fruits and vegetables. With a class vote, our students chose the fruit basket design. On Sunday, March 4^th we met up with Kate, Chaney and Toni at the Coddingtown Mall to build our “Fruit Basket” out of over 400 cans. Building a structure out of cans proved to be difficult but exciting and by the end of the build we were all proud of our work.

The following week the 3^rd graders, along with helpers Melissa Collins and Lauren Serpa, traveled by city bus to the mall to see their final product. After putting our hearts and souls into this project it was so rewarding to see our students’ faces burst with excitement and pride when our class approached “The Fruit Basket”. They were so proud and amazed by the structure. Emanuel M., who had the idea of the watermelon, was so happy he continuously said, “That is my watermelon, I drew that!” While reflecting on the project we asked the students what their favorite part of the project was and their answers were mature and meaningful. Answers to the question included, “My favorite part was learning about the food bank,” “learning about homelessness,” “seeing the structure,” “raising awareness of hunger,” and “designing the fruit basket.” On Saturday, March 17^th our building team gathered at the mall for an awards ceremony where we won the “Healthiest Meal’’award and brought a beautiful glass trophy back to CalSERVES, Kawana Elementary, and Burbank Housing.

As mentors we took on this project because we wanted our students to learn as much as they could about their surroundings, and the importance of raising awareness about hunger and any other issue they may be passionate about. Every day of this project was rewarding and meaningful. We had students go home and inform their parents about how to get food for their families. Our students learned how to work as a team to build a structure, and to be grateful for what they have. This project would not have been possible without the dedication of Kate Briggs, Burbank Housing’s Chaney Delaire and Toni Holland, the Redwood Empire Food Bank, the Network for a Healthy California, Coddingtown Mall, and the generous donations from Muir Glen and Whole Foods Market.

                                 Thank You,

                                 Samantha Southworth & Ruthy Sanchez                                                                          

Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.

While the motto “Passion. Potential. Power” may be emblazoned on our t-shirts, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go,” is the dictum to which I truly subscribe. Reading is the foundation of building knowledge, and the acquisition of knowledge is what enables us to achieve success in its many forms. By signing on to be a mentor, each CalSERVES member demonstrates their belief that every child deserves the opportunity to become a successful reader, and a successful citizen of the community and the world.

            

Most days, mentors work one on one with their assigned reading buddy, modeling prosodic reading, and monitoring students own reading journeys. However, on Friday, March 2^nd, mentors and students took a break from their tutoring routines to celebrate a certain literary hero. This great writer and thinker, who also espoused the belief that the ability to read will carry an individual far in all endeavors, was none other than Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. In honor of Seuss’s birthday, literacy specialist Mallori Thompson selected Seuss’s best work, which she had the full time R.L. mentors read aloud to small groups of students through out the day. Thompson also planned an activity to correspond to each book, which all mentors helped to facilitate.     

Highlights of the themed activities included a rhyme sort, with spell patterns found in the story The Sneetches printed on green stars. The green star cards were modeled after the ones on the Star-Bellied Sneetches, of course! Another game played, this one to accompany One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish, was a version of Go Fish, where students fished for digraph matches. A third activity had students writing and illustrating an alternate scene to And to Think that I Saw It On Mulberry Street featuring themselves as characters.

            

Overall Dr. Seuss’s birthday party was a merry celebration. The theme day was enjoyed by all who participated in the day’s events. We know Dr. Seuss would be proud!

~ Rachel Socia

Literacy Tutoring Team Leader at R.L. Stevens Elementary 

Cesar Chavez Health Fair a Success!

 

CalSERVES Cesar Chavez Health Fair 2012 is in the books as another success …and considering the rain!

Congratulations to all participants on a job well done! 

CalSERVES is privileged each year to provide free health services to the Santa Rosa community.  How successful was the impact of this years event?  Here are the numbers!

We had about 1,500 attendees

                            

60+ health care, education, and entertainment providers

Over 5,500 lbs. of fresh vegetables and food given to families

Over 110 free haircuts were given

          

Over 150 free bike helmets given

Over 100 free dental screenings

and over 50 free blood tests

Thanks to all of you that contributed! 

We couldn’t have done this without you!