Making a Difference: Sonoma County

This is the final post in a series of 4 in which we will be highlighting the amazing efforts of CalSERVES Programs in their Make a Difference Day projects. Each project involved a host of AmeriCorps members and volunteers and provided needed services to the communities in which are programs are hosted.

October 26th was Make a Difference Day, and CalSERVES AmeriCorps members throughout Sonoma County enthusiastically joined together to create a change in their local communities. In projects that ranged from renovating school gardens to supporting a local charity, our members volunteered their time, their energy, and their resources.

The morning and early afternoon was busy and productive for all CalSERVES AmeriCorps members, but we weren’t done for the day. Instead, we joined forces with the Santa Rosa YMCA to help support a Halloween carnival that evening, where thirteen of our members from all over the county, welcoming local families to celebrate the holiday in a safe and fun way.

Some members manned the haunted house, where they could scare gigging children, or helped set up squishy spaghetti guts, gooey grape eyeballs, or spooky skeletons. Some kept a close eye on the silliness that was flying off the walls, ceiling, and floor of the bouncy house. Others designed bright and colorful posters, or artfully organized and restocked a crafts table. Even more spent the evening helping the multitude of game booths, setting them up so families could knock ‘em down! Our members were invited to dress up while volunteering, but in an embarrassing coincidence, they all wore the same costume: an eager and committed AmeriCorps member. Next year we’ll have to make sure we coordinate our costumes more efficiently!

 Two weeks later, Bellevue Elementary got to have a slightly delayed Make a Difference Day! Team Leader Vicente Sosa said:

Make a Difference Day at Bellevue was by far one of the most successful and rewarding experiences I have ever encountered in my service with CalSERVES. The most inspiring aspect of Beautify Bellevue was having Bellevue teachers and staff, along with Stony Point Academy Students, join our vision. One of the other CalSERVES sites, Kawana Elementary, even came to pitch in! We worked in sync and attacked every part of our school site in teams, from painting murals and repainting playground guidelines to weeding and planting our garden. The laughs, smiles and hearts of our community came together on Saturday, November 9th to help our school site.

 We would like to thank a few organizations and individuals that donated to helping us succeed on our many Make a Difference Day projects: Sherwin-Williams, Kelly Moore, Café des Croissants, Cavalier Bakery, and Clara Crews. It takes a whole community to make a difference, and we're grateful to have joined them in that effort.

By Elizabeth Sheffer, Sonoma County AmeriCorps Regional Leader

CalSERVES Students learn to Go Green

During the week of April 15th, our STEM tutoring groups took part in a national week of Greening STEM. We partnered with the National Environmental Education Foundation for resources, ideas, and support. The National Environmental Education Week  focuses on hands-on environmental education through enriched STEM projects. Several CalSERVES students were able to expand their STEM knowledge while learning about important environmental issues. The week was a complete success and each of us is ready to live greener!

Taylor Mountain explored vampire appliances and how to save energy.

Bellevue helped the students learn how to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Also, Team Bellevue spent some time in their school garden learning
about composting and soil.

Kawana ventured through their school garden looking for insects and other living things.

Meadow View’s older students learned about different forms of energy
and how to conserve each type.

The students at Meadow View were awarded with the
Greening STEM Week Certificate of Participation.

 by Katie Gill, CalSERVES AmeriCorps STEM Content Leader

Meet the Team Leaders: Sara Craige

Sara Craige, CalSERVES Team Leader at Bellevue

Hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sara Craige is the Team Leader at Bellevue Elementary School and this is her second year working in the CalSERVES program. She graduated in 2011 from Penn State University with a degree in Elementary Education and applied to CalSERVES in order to make a difference in children’s lives.

This year, Sara hopes to gain new relationships with her team members and pass down her experience as a veteran AmeriCorps member to the rest of her team at Bellevue. Sara is also striving to grow professionally in the education field and gain experience working with kids for her future career goals.

As for her new position as a Team Leader, Sara states that she loves everything about her job, especially getting to bounce from grade to grade and work with kids of all ages. Sara likes both the creativity and the challenges that come up in her position - she loves coming up with new ideas, activities, and different ways to present information to the classroom leaders and the AmeriCorps Scholars.

Additionally, Sara immensely enjoys working with the entire Bellevue team. She appreciates how different each AmeriCorps member and classroom leader is and how much they have to offer the students at Bellevue. She states that every team member is always looking out for each other and always supporting each other which makes for a coherent and friendly team dynamic. Sara is also grateful that she gets to work with such an inspirational, dedicated, hilarious, creative, and determined supervising teacher. She says that they have a great partnership that is always keeping the team and students’ best interest at heart.

During her time in CalSERVES, Sara hopes to inspire the students she works with to become the best possible version of themselves. She wants to show her kids that there are so many opportunities out there for them and that high school isn't the end, that there is a whole world out there filled with possibilities and opportunities. She wants to show her students that they can achieve any goal or dream that they have with hard work, dedication, and confidence in themselves.

As for advice for future Team Leaders or Service Scholars, Sara says:

• Wear sneakers on Wednesdays because you will be running the mile
• Dance whenever there is music playing because kids will join you and it will always put a smile on your face
• You will encounter "garbage juice" from the trash cans at snack so just remember to wash your hands
• Color coordinate with your team (it’s fun and shows unity)
• Pick a Starbucks near you and learn to love it cause you will stop by every morning
• If you go home with marker on you, chalk or remnants of snack it means you had a good day
• Appreciate your team members every day, cause you'll need things from them and the more you show them love the easier it is to work with them!

By: Jacquelene Bennett, AmeriCorps Content Leader and Sara Craige, AmeriCorps Team Leader, Bellevue Elementary

Make a Difference Day Part 1: Bellevue School

Make a Difference Day, October 27th, 2012, saw some amazing projects around the CalSERVES school sites as AmeriCorps members joined together to provide a day of service. What follows is the first post in series of 3 outlining the projects competed by CalSERVES AmeriCorps members. Each post is written by a Team Leader who worked on that specific project.

I consider Bellevue to be my home away from home and getting the opportunity to add some color and zest to it definitely sparked my interest. This being my second Make a Difference Day, my first being last year, I had high expectations for yet another exciting, fun, energetic, and rewarding service day, and let me tell you something... I was not disappointed!

 I had such an amazing day at Bellevue and was lucky to be able to work with such a diverse group of people. We had the honor of having Community Action Partnership (CAP) AmeriCorps members come to Bellevue to experience what it's like to be a BV Bulldog and we were to excited to have had both our Literacy content leader, Jacky, and our STEM content leader, Katie here as support! It was amazing to look around our school site to see all the members elbow deep in paint, tape stuck everywhere from their backs, sneakers, elbows, etc, and every person had a huge smile on their face.

Caption: Ms. C, the 1st grade Classroom Leader at Bellevue, focuses as she paints the boundaries for recess lines.

With the faint sound of 90's pop in the background, each member was divided into four projects: painting a map of the United States, creating new lines as boundaries for recess, creating and painting a mural for the wall ball courts, and adding classroom numbers on the blacktop for fire drills. Everyone took the projects head on and went right to work! I checked in with each project and there was nothing but the exchanging of smiles and boisterous laughs heard through out the Bellevue Elementary campus.

Laura Sanchez, AmeriCorps member at South Park Community Center, works hard in the sun to help beautify Bellevue.

 I found myself grinning from ear to ear while looking around at everyone giving back to Bellevue and realizing that each and every single member really is making a difference, whether they realize it or not. I am so excited that our Make A Difference Day went off without a hitch and the most rewarding part of the day was coming into school Monday morning and seeing the kids playing games on the newly painted United States and practicing with their classmates lining up at their classroom number painted on the blacktop. I think I can speak for all of the people that were here at Bellevue that we really made a difference at Bellevue on Saturday!

Team Leader at Bellevue, Sara Craige, does her best to paint in the east coast states.

By: Sara Craige, Team Leader at Bellevue Elementary

Ms. Y's Secret Blog: A Tribute from the Bellevue Team

^{The Bellevue Elementary CalSERVES Team}

The Bellevue Elementary CalSERVES Team wanted to take a minute to appreciate Yesenia Salas-Chavira, their Site Supervisor. What follows are quotes from team members expressing appreciation for her leadership. Ms. Y, as she is known at Bellevue School, has been serving with the CalSERVES programs for many years, first as an AmeriCorps member and now in her 5th year as a site supervisor.

Yesenia Salas-Chavira, you are one AMAZING person. In a little over a year you have taught me so much about myself and how to be a leader, I wouldn’t know where to begin to thank you. Your zest for life, and your attitude coming into ‘work’ everyday giving it 110% is inspiring. You have built yet another amazing team this year at Bellevue and we all want to say thanks in our own special way! Enjoy your secret blog, and thank you for everything you do for us. Go Bulldogs! – Sara Craige, AmeriCorps Team Leader

I appreciate Ms Y for her positive abundance of energy. She can really motivate people and get things going. – Lavonne Toso, Literacy Scholar- 2nd  Grade

Almost a year ago, Ms. Y was frantically running around with a camera at my grandparents' 50th anniversary celebration, trying to take the pictures of all the sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews. I was among them. I hid. But as we all know, Ms. Y is very persistent, hard-working, and she perseveres even through the most challenging circumstances, which has allowed her to become an excellent, probably one of the bests, Site Supervisors in CalSERVES. And of course, she eventually found me at the anniversary celebration. – Alejandro Tinajero, Literacy Scholar- Kindergarten

This is my first year working for CalSERVES and without Ms. Y I would be completely lost. She welcomed me with open arms and has guided me through everything. She is always at 110% and nothing less with her positive and outgoing attitude. Ms. Y puts the COOL in Cool School everyday and her staff and students love her! – Nikki Goeppert, 4th Grade Classroom Leader

Ms Y has been very patient with helping me write effective lesson plans for the kids. She has given me specific ideas on how to make them better. She has also helped my class run more smoothly with the idea of a chore's list so the kids aren't constantly asking to help with different tasks. – Jesse Bevan, 5th/ 6th Grade Classroom Leader

To Ms. Y.: I would like to let you know why I truly appreciate you. I love the way that each and everyday when I walk into room C-3 I know that you will be there always with a smile and a "Hi" and asking, "how are you doing Ms. Candelaria?" When I have difficult days, as well as crying days, you are there with a hug and kind words of encouragement. You are not afraid to be a "friend" and for that it makes me feel like I have been placed well with an amazing supervisor! Much love and thank yous for always being great to me! - Teresa Candelaria, Literacy Scholar- 1st Grade

Ms. Y is a highly energetic person that really knows how to get the crowd roaring. In the first assembly she had the kids screaming with excitement to see how happy they were to meet the new service scholars. It was a wonderful feeling and I automatically felt accepted from Ms. Y's introduction. It made me feel welcome to Bellevue Elementary. And it's very nice how she always brags that I was in the After School program in my younger days. – Endy Valdovinos, STEM Scholar

Ms. Y (soon to be MRS. Y): I honestly don't think there are any words that can describe how amazing she is! As one of my six graders said, "She's the mama lion and we're her little cubs!" We're the best but it wouldn't be this way without Ms. Y! Thank you for everything so far... because we still have a long way to go. –Vicente Sosa, Healthy Behaviors Scholar

Ms Y is always ready to listen and has an open mind. She has such an imagination that always keeps us on our toes. We never know what to expect but it always something great. I love my job because of her; she makes it a pleasure to come to work everyday. – Carmen Hernandez, 2nd Grade Classroom Leader

Ms. Y's energy and personality makes this job so much easier and fun to do. I love her positivity; its contagious. I can't help but to want to be around her hoping that some of that positive energy will rub off on me. I know if I need anything, have an issue, or I just plain want to talk to someone, I can go to her. – Gabbi Diaz, Kindergarten Classroom Leader

Yesenia in one of the most positive and energetic people I have ever come into contact with. Since first meeting her over 4 years ago, she has done nothing but encourage me to do what I love and pushed me to become a better mentor and person. -Megan Cockrum, 1st Grade Classroom Leader

Ms. Y is a wonderful Supervisor. She always gives everyone the benefit of the doubt. She is willing to take on any challenge,. Working under her leadership has been and always is very rewarding. She has a great personality. I admire her love for her job and the kids she works with. She recently said something that inspired me-- she said "This doesn't feel like work. I love to be here... if it ever starts to feel like work then I'll know it's time for me to go somewhere else". I found that I feel the same way. CalSERVES is a community, not a job. Ms Y plays a HUGE role in making is as COOL as it is!” – Alejandra Franco, 3rd Grade Classroom Leader

Ms. Y having fun with students.

Getting Geared up for Make a Difference Day

 After a successful day Bellevue team takes a moment to document and capture the day.

 With the help of CalSERVES's Classroom Leaders, AmeriCorps Service Scholars and staff, students and families at Bellevue Elementary are getting ready to make a difference on October, 27th. For the past several days, CalSERVES Classroom Leaders and AmeriCorps Service Scholars have been working together to promote this important day and make a positive impact at our school site! Last Friday, all the students in our After School Program got together outside of our school black-top to create and decorate more than 30 colorful posters!

 These are the supplies that were set-up for all the students to get creative!

Bellevue 3rd grade students work together as a team as they follow the four Tribe agreements.

Our 5th and 6th grade students are adding finishing touches.  As  part of their "COOL School Student Council" commitment, they've been working hard to promote this day during regular school hours.

From kindergarten to 6th grade, all of the students in our After School Program at Bellevue have worked together to make this year's "Make A Difference Day", on October 27th, the best service day that students and families from Bellevue have ever seen and attended! Our AmeriCorps volunteers, alumni, Classroom Leaders, staff, students and parents will be working on beautifying Bellevue's playground structure, re-painting recess border lines, and painting four mini murals on wall-balls. There is no doubt that the students and CalSERVES staff from Bellevue Elementary are dedicated to making a positive difference in several weeks!!!

 Our Kinder class takes a pose for the camera.

Ms. G. our 4th grade Classroom Leaders engages with her students as they finish up their
Make A Difference Day posters.

Off to a Great Start at Bellevue!

AmeriCorps Service Scholars make their formal introduction to all of the students in the After School Program.

The CalSERVES After School Program is up and running. Classroom leaders have been doing a fantastic job taking attendance, running physical activity centers, leading literacy and math lessons and supporting their students with their daily homework. After School students have also been working hard on maintaining good attendance, practicing and following our school wide Tribes agreements and school rules, and making sure they’re ready to learn everyday!

As a way to acknowledge the hard work that both Classroom Leaders and After School students have been displaying for the past several weeks, the Bellevue CalSERVES After School program has been having fun during their bi-weekly assemblies! During assemblies, students have the opportunity to participate in various re-lay races against other grades to earn extra physical activity time!

The students from third and fourth grade work together to be the first class to get their hula-hoop through every student and win the “Student Relay”. Their Classroom Leader, Ms. Goeppert, helps her students by cheering them on and helping them out when they get stuck!

And AmeriCorops Service Scholar, Mr. Valdovinos, helps third grade by being the first one to start off the race!

In addition, all Classroom Leaders and AmeriCorps Service Scholars compete against each other in unique and fun relay races to earn their class and grade level weekly physical activity incentives as well! The entire After School Program performs a cheer and towards the end, students (three girls and three boys from grades k-6) get recognized for demonstrating “Outstanding Behavior” during After School. Students who are recognized receive a “Star Student” chair cover that they place in their chair and they are also the first to receive snack everyday throughout an entire week. They also decide what physical activity their class will play and receive a special treat.

These are four of Bellevue’s “Outstanding After School Students” displaying their certificate of recognition.

There is no doubt that the students, Classroom Leaders, AmeriCorps Service Scholars, and Site-Supervisor at Bellevue, have a great time creating After School spirit and enjoy displaying their Bulldog pride.

Go Bulldogs!

by Yesenia Salas-Chavira, CalSERVES Site Supervisor at Bellevue

Meet the Bellevue Full-Time Mentors!

2011-2012 Bellevue Team

The early start-up program has been very productive. Our 2nd grade students like our program, especially students who attended our After School Program last year. My favorite part of our schedule is helping kids with their homework because everyone gets to complete their assignment.

–Full-Time AmeriCorps mentor, Hector Morales

My name is Megan Cockrum and I am a full-time AmeriCorps mentor at Bellevue. I am originally from Modesto, Ca., but have been living in Rohnert Park for the past five years. So far, things have been going great! I have been getting to know the other mentor at my site and I am excited to get to know the kids!

-Full-Time AmeriCorps mentor, Megan Cockrum

Hey everyone! My name is Amy McConnell and I am so excited to be in sunny California. It is very different from Kentucky where I am from. The first few weeks have been so much fun. It has been great getting to know everyone and making new friends. I can’t wait to meet the children and starting working with them.

-Full-time AmeriCorps mentor, Amy McConnell

My name is Sarah Forzley and I biked out to California from the high desert of South East Utah. Besides loving the ocean, the mild temperatures, and all the beautiful food that grows hear, I’ve been getting to know the 4th graders I’ll be working with this year. I’ve also been cleaning up the school garden, sowing seeds from fall crops and scheming up fun ways to let our students get their hands dirty while learning about nutrition. Finally, our CalSERVES team leaders have been training us to be the best tutors and mentors we can be.

-Full-Time AmeriCorps mentor, Sarah Forzely

My name is Juan Pablo Carrillo, I go by "JP". This is my 3rd year at Bellevue; normally I'd have 5th or 6th grade, but this year I started off with Kindergarten and it's such a TRIP! In the past seven days I've dealt with slips, spills, cries, and a fair amount of both stress and laughter. I'm super excited to work with my 6th graders again, once we start regular COOL School. I can't wait for another great year... Wow! It feels good to be a Bulldog!

-Full-Time AmeriCorps mentor, Juan Pablo Carrillo

Programs get Started at Bellevue

Yesenia Salas-Chavira, Supervising Teacher at Bellevue Elementary

The Full-time AmeriCorps Leaders at Bellevue. From L-R, Julianna Whittaker, Katie Berg, and Sara Craige

Program Start-Up this year has been filled with excitement and anxiety! The majority of my team are new to CalSERVES and they have brought so much sunshine to our new room already. They’ve been working hard in learning their new roles, getting to know our Bellevue staff, and supporting one another in completing all their trainings. It has been a pleasure to see them grow so much in the past several weeks and especially see their excitement when they help out students in need. I look forward to this year and all the wonderful learning moments that are yet to come, especially from both out students and members.

Nutrition Olympics in the Rain

Bellevue Elementary School

Our wonderful day of Nutritional Olympics, a day filled with physical activities that concurrently educate our students about healthy choices, almost came to a screeching halt when it began to pour down rain. Nevertheless, our Bellevue Bulldog crew came together to figure out a quick solution. We packed up the activities into transportable crates, and each mentor rotated through all six grades. We played Berry Relay Races, Pepper Toss, Carrot Hop and all sorts of games. Nayeli, a first grader, said that her favorite activity was learning about tropical foods while playing Coconut Bowling. 

This day was really important because many of our kids are overweight. By teaching them about healthier choices to make with their food, we could potentially be saving their lives. I’m so excited for our next day of Nutritional Olympics (hopefully it’s outside next time)!

Making Great Strides in Tutoring

Ruby Willmann, AmeriCorps Team Leader at Bellevue Elementary

As the Team Leader for the Bellevue Tutoring Program, I have been collecting all of our end of the year data. Getting feedback from teachers can be intimidating, but I have really enjoyed reading all of their notes. Comments like “what an effective program” and “the mentors are great role models for our students!” are wonderful to read. We also had one teacher share a success story about one of our tutees. It read:

"Jennifer has made great strides with her tutor. She is so excited when she returns from tutoring and always shares with me what she did and her newest book. Her level of self-confidence has increased immensely since the beginning of the school year, which I attribute in part to her improvement in reading."

When I showed Jennifer’s tutor, Ms. Jenkins, the note she was extraordinarily touched. It is always amazing to see a mentor’s hard work validated in such a clear way.

Pie Day for Bellevue Literacy Students

Ruby Willmann, AmeriCorps Team Leader at Bellevue Elementary

After six weeks of reading to collect pie tickets, our After School students were finally able to experience the Bellevue Pie Day! Students were able to turn in their pie tickets for whip cream pies, and one after the other the students slammed their pies into their mentor of choice. One first grader read so much she got to pie seven mentors! The day was so much fun and the kids loved it. They especially loved it when they got to pie our Principal! After making hundreds of pies, Pie Day proved to be a fantastic success.

Tutoring Success!

Ruby Willmann, AmeriCorps Team Leader at Bellevue Elementary

I’ve been tutoring the same kid for almost two years now, and he’s absolutely amazing. He’s a wonderful kid, and having worked with him one-on-one for so long, I feel like I’ve been able to learn how to relate to him. Today was amazing. Lately, we’ve been working on focusing and not wasting time by complaining, and today he sat down and just got straight to work. He read, we worked on our curriculum, and practiced our reading fluency. We had a whole ten minutes for me to read him The Trumpet of the Swan (which is his incentive to finish his work quickly). Walking back to class we talked about Pokemon and Digimon – his two favorite cartoons – and we tried to describe them using some adjectives from our “Word of the Day” activity. Overall, best tutoring session ever!

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 Bulldog Challenge

Katie Stone, AmeriCorps Promise Fellow at Bellevue Elementary

One of my favorite components of our after school program at Bellevue is our weekly Bulldog Challenge. Every Wednesday, our students are in after school for two extra hours. With part of this extra time, we have a program-wide physical challenge we call the Bulldog Challenge. Every class is divided into two teams, blue and white (our school colors). During recess, mentors help our students put either blue or white face paint on. When recess ends, we divide all of our students, 1st through 6th, into the two teams and announce the game(s) we then play for 45 minutes. We have had track and field center, crab soccer, basketball drills, and even Pumpkin Olympics after Halloween. 6th graders cheer on 1st graders. Students look forward to physical activity. Mentors get pumped up. The Bulldog Challenge brings everyone in after school closer together.