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For my leadership project I decided to write letters to service people and collect items to send overseas in care packages.  I knew that the soldiers like to receive mail and care packages from back home so I wanted to give back to them since they are sacrificing time with their families to keep our country safe.  The organization that I chose to go through is called Blue Star Moms of the East Bay.  I asked family & family friends to contribute what they could and I used my own money too.  I bought things such as snacks, toiletries, batteries, etc and I also wrote letters to be included in the packages .  The website that you can visit if you would like to show your support to our troops is www.bluestarmoms.org.

 Ariana Cisneros, U11 Grey

Posted: 1/3/11

For my leadership project, I looked up some websites and called a few places that need warm blankets. I just happened to come across the Shepherd’s Gate. The mission at Shepherd’s Gate is to meet the practical, spiritual, and emotional needs of battered and homeless women and children through the love of Jesus Christ, equipping them to lead a life of faith, hope, and love and to reach out to others in His name.  Shepherd’s Gate is a shelter of kids and moms that have been abused. So I decided to make three blankets for the homeless children and moms, which is just in time for the cold and long winter.  We went and purchased fleece fabrics, matching threads, and needles to complete our needed materials.  My mom and I worked together.  I put pins all around the cut-off fabric and to fasten them into place, and then Mom sewed them together for a finished blanket.  We delivered the blankets on December 30 at their Livermore site.
 
This was a very fun process working with my mom and at the same time it gave me pride and joy to have achieved this goal in my small way to help out needy kids and abused moms.   Just a little tip for you all, don’t do this last minute, do it way before the holidays to beat the crowd.

The people in charge were very friendly and appreciative that I chose Shepherd’s Gate.

  Jenyce Dutcher
U12 Rage White Team

Posted: 1/3/11

For our leadership project, we collected toys for Toys for Tots.  We made flyers and gave them out to neighbors, friends and teammates.  They were also given the option to make a monetary donation on line.  We had great results.  Items collected include:  Books, board and card games, educational and baby toys, art supplies and stuffed animals.  We even received clothes. 

Collecting for Toys for Tots was a great experience and now more kids can have a great Christmas.
Lauren Epps, U14AC

Posted: 1/3/11

We participated in the Soccer Leadership Program and at the end of the program we had to do a community service project. We all got together and decided to do a children’s book drive. We all took action in different ways. Some talked to their class, while others collected books from their neighborhood. We set a goal for the group to collect 500 books.

 We decided the books we collected would be donated to Books for Barrios. Books for Barrios is an organization that collects all different things from books to gently used clothing and toys for underprivileged children in the Philippians. A couple times a year, they will go to the Philippians and give all of the kids and schools the donations they collected. When we delivered the books, they gave us a tour of the warehouse and we also helped pack boxes for their next delivery. They were thrilled at how many books we had collected-there were over 800 books!!! We all loved knowing that we helped many kids in need. This experience was amazing and from now on we will help people more often.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the Leadership class.

Audrey Goodman, Tami Kwong, Taylor Noval, Nicole Riordan, Lilly Ryan

Posted: 1/3/11

Hi my name is Lailinda Xu. Have you ever seen your grandparents not able to say any words, like, can’t pronounce it? Probably not, if your grandparent’s native language is English. That’s why I decided for my community project I decided to go to my grandparent’s senior center and teach some of their friends (including them) English, because they take English as a 2nd language, not their native language. I taught them things like grocery shopping, how to look at commercials, a map of Pleasanton and how to say cities near them, like Dublin, Fremont, etc. I also taught them some holiday songs for them to sing on Christmas, or their birthday, since they didn’t always know what to sing or do during a holiday party. Lastly, I taught them some of the addresses, or how to say them, like the Pleasanton Public Library. I think this helped them because now they know some of the basics, and so they won’t fumble short on words every time they want to go somewher. They even suggested me to come back and teach them again! I look forward to going back!

~Lailinda Xu
U12 White

Posted: 1/3/11

For our leadership project we collected soccer equipment to send to the US Soccer Foundation’s Passback program, which sends new or used soccer supplies to organizations that need the equipment. We chose Passback because we wanted to do something that was challenging, fun, and had something to do with soccer; Passback had all of these things. After choosing what we where going to do, we had to design and hand out fliers to advertise the collection.  We then decorated bins and put them out at local locations such as: Sports Park, Donlon, Val Vista, and companies such as: Body Max, All Star Sports, and Soccer Pro. Thanks to Pleasanton’s generosity, we collected 440 pieces of equipment: 72 pairs of socks, 108 jerseys, 53 shorts, 46 balls, 63 pairs of cleats, 3 goals, 5 warm up tops, 4 warm up bottoms, 27 pairs of shin guards, 5 goalie tops, 8 goalie gloves, 3 soccer bags, 2 pennies, 1 cone, 37 practice shirts, and finally 2 pairs of indoor shoes. The local Passback donation group we selected was Club Manchester from Stockton which is young and growing soccer club.  It was amazing to see how much the city of Pleasanton donated, and it was great to see it go to a community that could use it. Soccer has given us a lot. It was nice to be able to give something back.

~ Elise Allari, Brianna Wolfe, and Katie Judson
U11 White 2010

Lauren and I turned in the toys for the Toys for Tots organization after a couple weeks of collecting toys from our neighbors, sports teams, friends, and family, etc. I got some toys from my soccer team at one of our occasional practices. I also donated some toys from my own old toy collection and finally my family bought some new toys as well. Lauren did a really good job of collecting toys from neighbors and her basketball team. It turned out to be a really big collection of toys, we dropped them off at the fire station and we got a couple pictures with one of the firemen who was really happy to take the toys from us (I’ll attach the pictures). They explained to us that they would hand over the toys to a church and the church would personally give the toys to the family in need; knowing this Lauren and I walked away feeling happy about our good deed and hope to try new things like such to help others in need again! 

Thanks,
-Monica Medor

Posted: 12/31/10

We participated in the Leadership Program and learned that we had to do a community service project.  We immediately thought of the Toys for Tots program because we wanted to help kids that were less fortunate than ourselves in our community.  To accomplish our goal to collect a significant number of toys, we needed the help of our friends, teammates and family.  The first thing we did was make up flyers and hand them out in our neighborhood.  The response was incredible and many people were willing to give toys.  We collected about 85-100 toys over a 2-3 week period.  We took all the toys down to the Fire Station near Stoneridge Mall on Sunday, Dec. 12th.  The firemen were amazed by the number of toys we brought! 

By organizing the toy drive, we learned how lucky and fortunate we are to have everything that we need.  It made us feel good to help less fortunate children and hopefully make their holiday a little bit better.  We really appreciate everyone who has supported and helped us with our successful toy drive!  Thank you Erika!

Sincerely,
Lisa DeFeo, Mildreth Gil and Amanda Jensen
U13 RAGE AC White
Posted: 12/15/10

For our leadership project, we decided to make wheelchair backpacks, activity bags, and travel packs. A wheelchair backpack is a backpack that goes on the back of a wheel chair for people to carry things in them. An activity bag has a book, arts and crafts, and games to play while the kids are in the hospital. A travel pack is for parents that need to stay overnight, and they don’t have any shampoo, conditioner, etc. For the wheelchair backpacks we sewed beautiful fabric together. The activity bags have mini books to read, creative activities like: puzzles, beads, foam balls, and t-shirts to design. The travel packs contain shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, and may have: toothbrush, mouthwash, toothpaste, and floss. We both put a bucket in our classrooms to get some materials for the activity bags. We did speeches in our classes talking to them about what we are going to do. We got all sorts of things from arts and crafts to conditioner. All of the classmates brought in at least one thing to donate to the cause. With these donations we are going to give them to the Oakland Children’s Hospital. One night we put all the activity bags together, and finished making the wheelchair backpacks. We are very glad that we could help these kids in need, and hopefully put a smile on their faces.    ~ Lauren Casby & Erin Schafer

My name is Sarah Broacha and for my service project I went to the St. Augustine church and helped sort food as well as put Thanksgiving baskets together for the people that cannot afford to buy a their own dinner. The first thing we had to do was donate food. Once many people donated some food, we all sorted the food that was given into piles on many rows of tables. After that, we all got some boxes and a sticker with: a name, if they were an adult or child, and how many people in the family. Then, we would take the baskets and fill them up with the food we think would be good for that family. I learned that giving food to others especially for a holiday, is fun to do and very helpful. I also learned that we all should help donate food to help people in need. From now on, since this experience was very fun, I will help organize and give food to people for Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. Here are some pictures of my friend and I at the St. Augustine church.

~Sarah Broacha

Posted: 11/24/10

On Weds, Nov 17th, 2010 – Hannah Myers (me), Natalie Lambros, Jenna and Jessica O’Neal made 100 bag lunches for Open Heart Kitchen.  We talked to Wendy Weather who works for them and she told us what was needed in each lunch:  a tuna packet, mayo, 2 pieces of bread, rice krispy treat, orange, chips and 2 juice boxes.  They pass out over a 1000 lunches in this area every weekend for school kids who don’t have enough to eat so this was really needed.  My mom delivered the lunches during the day on Thursday the 18th and Wendy told her how happy she was and how generous we were to do this and thankful.  They are really down in their food donations this year and really need more stuff.  This was a cool thing to do – makes us feel like we are giving to others. 

Thank you,
Hannah Myers, Jenna and Jessica O’Neal and Natalie Lambros

Posted: 11/24/10

For my community service I did something called a Safety Valet. I did this with my school. I go every Friday after school to help kids stay safe. I applied awhile back and it is still going on. My job is important to teachers, kids, parents, and others. I stand out side with others for 20 minutes at least. So far kids on their own have done a pretty good job of staying safe. Mostly because their parents are next to them. We have this thing called a red line, this is in front of the school and you have to stay on the right side other wise we say please step on the other side of the red line. If they still don’t come on the other side we blow the whistle. This is my job for the year, my friends and I have a responsibility and we’re going to use it well for  others. 

By: Samantha Frost
U11 Orange

Posted: 01/25/10