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.

Downtown in Sac-Town

So much for a weekly update schedule — so much has happened that I already feel very behind on posting! At Americorps NCCC, the people here work hard and play hard. I thought I'd take some time to tell you a bit about the latter and let you know about some of the fun stuff I've gotten to do while off-duty.

Sacramento is a lot like Houston in that it isn't really a great place to take a vacation, but it is a nice place to live. In fact, it was named one of the "most livable" regions in America in 2004. Because of the gorgeous climate (most days are sunny with afternoon temperatures in the 70's), all kinds of vegetation grow here, which lead to the nickname the City of Trees. If you take the time to look closely, it makes for a fascinating juxtaposition; tropical palm trees grow hardily alongside northern evergreens.

In 2002, Time magazine named the Sacramento the nation's most racially integrated major city. This means the city not only is diverse, but also has few geo-ethnic boundaries between neighborhoods as well. For instance, on Watt Avenue, the street that runs adjacent to our campus, there are dozens of different types of international cuisine — including Mexican, Russian, German, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, British, and Italian — literally within a five block radius.

Sacramento is also the capital city of California, and on the weekends, I've had the opportunity to explore the downtown areas. Last Sunday, we took the light rail (about a two-mile walk from campus to the station) to the historic Crest Theatre. From there, we passed through the Westfield Downtown Plaza, a trendy and cosmopolitan outdoor mall, where we stopped for coffee on the Macy's patio. We walked under a metal archway, through a tunnel vibrantly painted in colorful Native American designs, and straight into the heart of Old Sacramento.

Old Sacramento, located on the waterfront of the American River, is laden with history but lately has been converted into a whimsical tourist destination. The city was at one point a quintessential hub of the 19th century Old West. During the California Gold Rush, Sacramento was a major distribution center for wagon trains, stagecoaches, riverboats, railroad, and the Pony Express. Today, wooden boardwalks are still used in place of traditional sidewalks, and costumed carriages traverse the cobbled streets. Many of the historical building are still intact, but they are now inhabited by cafes, restaurants, and souvenir stores.

Our first stop was at Evangeline's Costume Mansion, an wondrous emporium of silly gag gifts, practical joke toys, and, of course, costumes. Though no one bought anything, we flipped through joke books, tried on funny hats, laughed at some of the creative keychains and bumper stickers, and for 25 cents, gripped a lever to check our sex appeal level (I registered as "Sweet"). We then headed down to the riverwalk and walked around one of the floating paddleboat restaurants docked by the shore. For lunch, we went to O'Mally's Pub & Eats, a bar and grill that randomly enough served both Irish and Mexican food. It wasn't even fusion cuisine; instead, one side of the menu featured fish and chips and shepherd's pie, and the other had nachos and fish tacos. The food a little bit pricey and wasn't spectacular, but since we knew we were well aware that we were walking into a tourist trap, we were prepared for the ripoff.

Our final stop for the day was the California State Capitol. It is a stunning white granite edifice located on about 40 acres of parkland boasting an impressive array of multifarious gardens and tree species from all over the state, including the majestic redwood. Like many state capitols (including the one in Austin, Texas), the neoclassical building is modeled after the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. In my highly biased opinion, it isn't as beautiful as the pink wonder known as the Texas State Capitol, but it is a gorgeous piece of architecture worth a few hours of exploration.

For my first taste of fun in Sacramento, our downtown excursion made for a memorable image of my new home for the next ten months.