By C. Anne Vitullo, 2013-2014 Communications VP
Like many women here in Silicon Valley, my summer reading has included
Sheryl Sandberg’s "Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead." Although
her book is largely about our roles in the workplace, one passage struck
a particular chord with me—and the work we do as League members in the
community.
Here it is:
"At Facebook, we work hard to create a
culture where people are encouraged to take risks. We have posters all
around the office that reinforce that attitude. In bright red letters,
one declares, “Fortune favors the bold.” Another insists, “Proceed and
be bold.” My favorite reads, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”
When it comes to League members, I think it’s safe to say we’ve
never been afraid! Risk-taking is part of our organizational DNA.
Consider some of the ways in which League members have contributed to
our community over the years: mentoring teens to help them build
personal growth and self-awareness ... working with children whose lives
have been touched by addiction … teaching life skills to formerly
homeless families … educating parents on the importance of reading to
their children.
We’ve never been afraid to tackle the hard,
seemingly intractable problems in our community: illiteracy,
homelessness, drug addiction, at-risk youth. With nearly 50 years of
service here on the Peninsula, we can point with pride to programs begun
by our League, such as Rebuilding Together Peninsula and the Daybreak
Program for Homeless Youth, that are still going strong more than 20
years later. We roll up our sleeves ... contribute our skills and
abilities … make time to volunteer even when our days are squeezed and
our commitments many. In short, we lean in! Indeed, we were leaning in
long before Sheryl’s best-selling book!
The summer issue of Piper features a special
“Year in Review”, highlighting our involvement and celebrating our
impact over the past year. You'll find a copy on our web site at www.thejuniorleague.org.
I hope this report renews your commitment to the League—and makes you
proud to be a member of this wonderful organization.
Showing posts with label Rebuilding Together. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rebuilding Together. Show all posts
August 02, 2013
April 26, 2013
Done in a Day: Rebuilding Together, April 27
By Noelle Santamaria, Communications Committee
National Rebuilding Day is on Saturday, April 27 and Mrs. Herron cannot wait for the 50+ volunteers who will show up on her doorstep (including myself!). The daughter of a sharecropper in Louisiana, Mrs. Herron moved to Berkeley after high school graduation to be near her brother. Four months later, she met her future husband through an introduction by her brother. In 1968, Mrs. Herron and her husband purchased their first home in San Mateo. Along with raising three sons and a daughter, they could be found most weekends working on updating and maintaining their cherished home.
In 2005, after 49 years of marriage, Mr. Herron passed away. Soon after, Mrs. Herron’s health began to deteriorate with multiple health problems. Keeping up with maintenance on her home became difficult and fell to the wayside. She made the decision this year to seek support for help on her home. She applied for renovation assistance through Rebuilding Together Peninsula to repair, restore, and upgrade safety features of her large, two-story house.
For the second year, George P. Johnson, an experience marketing company in San Carlos, has donated $5,000 for supplies and will be providing 40 company volunteers to this Rebuilding Together project. Junior League of Palo Alto • Mid Peninsula will be joining George P. Johnson again by lending support with 12 league volunteers. Rebuilding Together Peninsula was founded in 1989 under the leadership of the Junior League of Palo Alto • Mid Peninsula and a community-based advisory board. The league is proud to continue their long time support of this popular Done in a Day project.
The pictures below are the “before” photos of Mrs. Herron’s home. Stay tuned as I share post-renovation pictures in the next two weeks. I am Iooking forward, along with my fellow League members, to rolling up our sleeves, getting dirty, and doing what we do so well: bringing communities together and helping to rebuild lives.
June 06, 2012
Getting Dirty for a Great Cause
By Cynthia Munoz, 2011-12 Piper Editor
Rebuilding Together DIAD – April 28, 2012
“Oh please, oh please, oh please, don’t let it be weeding.” This is what I kept thinking to myself as I headed towards the Rebuilding Together Peninsula site for my Done In a Day (DIAD) volunteer shift on Saturday morning and wondered what would be on the to-do list. Weeding and generally any kind of garden work are not high on my list of things I enjoy to do. It was just the previous weekend that I decided to go out into the blazing heat to prune roses and pull weeds as our front yard was looking totally unacceptable. When I was done, I vowed that was the first and last time this year I would be doing that much yard work. Unfortunately, my plan was about to fall apart.
Joining about 12 volunteers from this Rebuilding Together Peninsula project sponsor, George P. Johnson and four other Junior League of Palo Alto•Mid Peninsula volunteers for the morning work shift, it was announced that while a couple of volunteers would help with scraping paint off of a railing to receive a new coat of paint, the rest of us would be in the backyard… weeding. Ugh.
So the majority of us headed down the side of the property towards the terraced backyard which I can only describe as a weed bonanza. With work gloves on and an array of gardening tools to choose from, volunteers got to work. Weeds and dirt were flying, rocks and gravel were being cleared out and lots of good jokes and camaraderie helped keep the energy high. The group did an amazing job of clearing virtually all of the weeds in less than an hour.
Every so often, Elsie, the 87 year old resident who has called this house her home for the past 47 years, would come out every so often and comment on how amazed she was at how quickly everything was going and what an amazing transformation she was seeing. Meeting her and seeing the look on her face seemed to be the best kind of fuel to keep the volunteers going. Even I, with my initial feeling of despair over the thought of a morning spent with my least favorite activity, found myself feeling extremely motivated and happy to see the progress being and was slightly disappointed to look around and see no other areas of weeds to attack.
The yard was cleared of all trash and unwanted items and the freshly exposed dirt was covered with a layer of root barrier fabric. Once this was done, an incredibly efficient procession of wheel barrows bringing tan bark from a giant pile on the front driveway started dumping the bark into all the planter areas. It wasn’t even lunch time and the yard was almost completely transformed!
The group took a break for a quick lunch and headed straight back to work, determined to transport the remainder of the giant mound of tan bark from the front of the house to the backyard. I have to not only give kudos to Noelle Santamaria for organizing this rewarding DIAD event for our League members, but also to her husband, Eric Mitchell, and his co-worker, Melissa Powers, for organizing and supervising the project on behalf of George P. Johnson. No volunteer was ever left standing idle and the work was efficiently executed.
I felt a little guilty having to leave exactly at noon, which was supposed to be the end of the morning shift, while the others I started working with at 9am continued on. It was quite inspiring to see this group of volunteers to give so selflessly of their time and energy. For many years, I wanted to take part in a Rebuilding Together project and thanks to the League and the DIAD Committee, I finally had the chance to do it. I drove to my son’s baseball game feeling really sweaty, dirty and tired but extremely happy to have been a part of helping a deserving community member. I also seem to have overcome my aversion to weeding, as I knew the exact area in my yard I had to work on as soon as I got home.
To learn more about our DIAD projects, visit our Projects page.
Rebuilding Together DIAD – April 28, 2012
 |
| Cynthia Munoz |
Joining about 12 volunteers from this Rebuilding Together Peninsula project sponsor, George P. Johnson and four other Junior League of Palo Alto•Mid Peninsula volunteers for the morning work shift, it was announced that while a couple of volunteers would help with scraping paint off of a railing to receive a new coat of paint, the rest of us would be in the backyard… weeding. Ugh.
So the majority of us headed down the side of the property towards the terraced backyard which I can only describe as a weed bonanza. With work gloves on and an array of gardening tools to choose from, volunteers got to work. Weeds and dirt were flying, rocks and gravel were being cleared out and lots of good jokes and camaraderie helped keep the energy high. The group did an amazing job of clearing virtually all of the weeds in less than an hour.
Every so often, Elsie, the 87 year old resident who has called this house her home for the past 47 years, would come out every so often and comment on how amazed she was at how quickly everything was going and what an amazing transformation she was seeing. Meeting her and seeing the look on her face seemed to be the best kind of fuel to keep the volunteers going. Even I, with my initial feeling of despair over the thought of a morning spent with my least favorite activity, found myself feeling extremely motivated and happy to see the progress being and was slightly disappointed to look around and see no other areas of weeds to attack.
The yard was cleared of all trash and unwanted items and the freshly exposed dirt was covered with a layer of root barrier fabric. Once this was done, an incredibly efficient procession of wheel barrows bringing tan bark from a giant pile on the front driveway started dumping the bark into all the planter areas. It wasn’t even lunch time and the yard was almost completely transformed!
The group took a break for a quick lunch and headed straight back to work, determined to transport the remainder of the giant mound of tan bark from the front of the house to the backyard. I have to not only give kudos to Noelle Santamaria for organizing this rewarding DIAD event for our League members, but also to her husband, Eric Mitchell, and his co-worker, Melissa Powers, for organizing and supervising the project on behalf of George P. Johnson. No volunteer was ever left standing idle and the work was efficiently executed.
I felt a little guilty having to leave exactly at noon, which was supposed to be the end of the morning shift, while the others I started working with at 9am continued on. It was quite inspiring to see this group of volunteers to give so selflessly of their time and energy. For many years, I wanted to take part in a Rebuilding Together project and thanks to the League and the DIAD Committee, I finally had the chance to do it. I drove to my son’s baseball game feeling really sweaty, dirty and tired but extremely happy to have been a part of helping a deserving community member. I also seem to have overcome my aversion to weeding, as I knew the exact area in my yard I had to work on as soon as I got home.
To learn more about our DIAD projects, visit our Projects page.
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