Make A Difference Day

Last Saturday, we had our second service project as part of national Make A Difference Day. We started the morning by heading to the Sacramento Theatre Company for a group photo of all the Pacific Region corps members and an orientation. We received printed programs upon arrival that listed almost two hours worth of speakers, which initially had me concerned. After weeks of sitting in training sessions, I wasn't necessarily looking forward to yet another presentation.

Fortunately, the panel of speakers was absolutely phenomenal. We had a brief visit from Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson (who also happens to be a former Phoenix Suns point guard) who has been doing a lot to promote service in the city by setting a goal of 500,000 hours of community service by the end of 2009.

Karen Baker, the California Secretary of Service and Volunteering (the first state Cabinet position of its kind in the country), gave a particularly inspiring speech. She was witty and engaging and personal and made us really proud to have committed a year of our lives to national service. She reminded us that our enthusiasm and optimism not only gets things done but also encourages the people we consider our role models who work in public service and the non-profit sector.

We also heard from the St. John's Shelter Executive Director Michelle Steeb, who runs a non-profit serving homeless women and their children; Loaves and Fishes Executive Director Libby Fernandez, who works to feed the house the homeless; and Turning Point Executive Director John Buck, a former drug addict who now provides mental health community programs. Each spoke about the challenges facing their respective programs, especially in the midst of the poor economic climate, and the importance of volunteers like us.

For a different perspective, Sean McGlynn, a former homeless man, spoke about his journey to recovery. His talk gave a very intimate and real face to the problem of homelessness and helped us realistically see how we can have an impact on the issue. I wish I could let you listen to all of the talks by these tremendous speakers and role models, but I only had the foresight to capture the last one. Hopefully you'll be inspired by Mr. McGlynn's story as well.

Click on the image to watch a video of the presentation by Sean McGlynn

For our actual service, my pod went to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, where we were met by Secretary of Agriculture A. G. Kawamura. Despite his impressive Cabinet title, he was an unpretentious and friendly host in his tropical print shirt, blue baseball cap, jeans, and work boots. As a true farmer, his only flaw was perhaps being too interested in his work as he gave us a long-winded but very informative and engaging spiel on the challenges facing agriculture in California, one of the most fertile and productive regions in the nation.

Our task for the day was to plant native species around California Department of Food and Agriculture building as a sort of demonstration garden and a form of "edible landscaping." The gardens are intended to be educational; they show the public various types of plants indigenous to the area and how to grow them. It also helps raise awareness among city-dwellers about the delicate balance required to successfully cultivate crops, even in a beautiful climate like California's. On that particular day, we planted strawberries, various herbs, and a Native American garden that contained flora handy for cooking, basket weaving, medicine, and other practical uses. We also dug trenches around the perimeter of the beds so the irrigation wouldn't run out into the sidewalk It was long, dirty labor, but it was nice being in the shade, and we actually got a whole lot more work done than our sponsor expected.

Afterward, our host was nice enough to take us across the street to the California State Capitol for an impromptu guided tour. I'd been before to walk the grounds, but this time we actually got to go inside. It was near closing time, so we were forced to run through the huge building in about 10 minutes, but we did get to see Arnold's (a.k.a. "the Governator's") office! I still don't know if it's as nice as the Texas Capitol, but I do definitely have a new respect for the beauty in the details, which consist of a lot of intricate hand-carved and hand-tiled corridors and a lovely marbled rotunda.

I'm a little behind in my posting, so this was actually the last service project I had with my beloved Pod 22. As I mentioned in previous postings, I am now part of Silver 3, so hopefully I'll have time in the upcoming weeks to post about the adventures on my new team.