Some rainy weather overnight Friday – and lingering cloudy skies on Saturday – didn’t serve as much of a deterrent, as volunteers still turned out in force to take on a number of community service projects for Love Escalon.
Whether it was refreshing the planter boxes along Main Street or at the Park ‘n Ride, cleaning and beautifying the library, cleaning at the Escalon Youth Center or handling one of a number of efforts at Hogan-Ennis Park, there was no shortage of tasks to tackle on April 26.
Volunteers first gathered in the city’s Main Street Park, for a brief history of how Love Escalon came to be, springing from an idea of the late Pastor Jim Davis, who was dedicated to community service and helping your neighbors. His wife Brenda offered remarks on how Love Escalon patterned itself after Love Modesto and was one of the first communities in the area, along with Modesto, to have a dedicated work day in and for the community.
Coordinated through the Chamber of Commerce, the event had several projects and after the opening ceremony, volunteers met up with their project leaders to start on their work.
At Hogan-Ennis Park, one crew started the day even before the official ceremony for Love Escalon, as they were busy putting in bullpen-style areas for baseball and softball pitchers to use for warming up.
“It’s really important to show community and the only way you can show community is by doing it,” said Escalon Mayor Andy Hagan, who was working on the softball-baseball field project. “Everyone relying on each other … stronger together is the idea; the more we get the kids involved, the better off we’re going to be in the long run, both understanding how to work, but also understanding what it looks like to be part of a community.”
Rowan Powers, 11, a Girl Scout and fifth grader at Van Allen Elementary, has been involved with Love Escalon for the past couple of years.
“I just like helping the community and that’s why I just enjoy Love Escalon, I think it’s a really great idea,” Powers said, as she worked on painting a birdhouse to be placed outside the Escalon Library.
Her mom, Miranda Powers, served as the primary coordinator for the Love Escalon effort this year.
Olivia Kost, 9, a Dent Elementary student and Girl Scout as well, was also happy to be painting birdhouses, knowing that they will help beautify the area outside the library.
Madison Lovins was busy overseeing the clean-up at the Escalon Youth Center, noting that they were moving furniture to clean underneath it, washing down walls, basically ‘re-beautifying the area’ so it remains a welcoming place for the 60 to 70 kids that utilize it on a daily basis, Monday through Friday.
“The high school kids come during their lunch hour, and then after school the El Portal kids walk over and the high school kids come over,” Lovins said.
And back at the library, Miss Escalon Kathy Romero was happy to be serving as the caller for the Bingo games for senior citizens.
“I think Escalon, in general, the student body at Escalon High School is going to take every opportunity and it’s not more for the opportunity that volunteer work looks great on a resumé, but also because we just love this town so much and that’s just one way to express it,” Romero said of many students joining the volunteer work day. “It’s a way of expressing our love, our gratitude.”
