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

We made four baby blankets and donated them to Shepherd’s Gate. This will help give warmth for many children. Shepherd’s Gate is a shelter for homeless or abused Women and children. They stay there for as long as they want until they learn how to live and to stay away from those that hurt them. It is also a religious shelter and their main saying from God to those who were hurt is; “Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. Wherever they go they will find green pastures.”

We went to Walmart and purchased fleece to cut out the right size squares and tie them at Megan’s house. We chose baby patterns including teddy bears, Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, and baby zoo animals. This was a fun process.

At the shelter, the people in charge were very nice, they were very happy about getting blankets. We filled out a receipt so that they could send us a thank you note. After we gave these blankets away, we felt good and thought that we did a good deed.

Taylor Campbell and Megan Shackley’s service project.  They are from the U12 Grey RAGE team.
Posted: 01/13/10

Kailyn and I completed our leadership project yesterday.  In the last few weeks we have taken donations from friends and family of pet supplies for Valley Humane Society.  

Yesterday we delivered food, cat liter, leashes, and toys to the animals.  While we were there we visited and played with all the cats waiting to be adopted.
In the future we hope to become volunteers to help care for the animals, but we were told to wait until we are a little older. Emma Theroux U12G and Kailyn Coleman U12G.

Posted: 12/28/09

Since I have pets, and I love animals, I decided to help the Valley Humane Society. They had a list on the website of things to donate, so I made a flier that had my name, an explanation of what I was doing, and the list. I put them all around my neighborhood, and my mom sent them to some other people. The results were very good: about 9 or 10 blankets, 5 bags of dog food, 2 bags of cat food, 2 bags of cat litter, toys, lots of paper towels, paper plates, paper cups, pillows, 4 swiffer products, toilet paper, flea control, a huge tub of soap, 3 normal-size liquid hand soaps, 2 collars, and $45. (I didnt’ count, so all of that was estimated). Happy holidays!

Kayln Epps U13AC
Posted: 12/23/09

Spenser Jaye, U14P player, worked on a project for her Rage leadership class.  She had her team work together with her on it. She did a Toys for Tots charity drive, so younger kids could have a Christmas that they never have had before.  Spenser and her teammates made that happen this year! Spenser collected toys from her team and delivered them to Pleasanton Firestation #1 last Friday.  She met Patrick, a firefighter who took time out to congratulate her and her teams hard work.

Posted: 12/21/09