‘One of the best things that ever happened.’ Love Modesto returns to clean up city, help families
Modesto and surrounding cities felt the love as the annual community-wide day of service returned to beautify the Central Valley and beyond.
Love Modesto celebrated its 15th anniversary as some 3,500 volunteers fanned out across the city to clean, weed, build, repair, encourage and generally work to improve the quality of life for area residents. Started in 2009, the one-day event has spread to include the nine other Stanislaus County cities as well and other communities across the state and dotted around the country.
The day started with the kickoff festival in downtown Modesto, as Love Modesto/Love Stanislaus County/Love Our Cities Founder and CEO Jeff Pishney pumped up the crowd before the volunteers headed off to work in this year’s 80 service projects.
Some 15 cities participated in the April 29 event, from Modesto to Anaheim to Colorado Springs, bringing out about 7,000 volunteers nationally. Pishney said the potential for the day is limitless, and the more people get involved the more they’ll start volunteering all year round.
“If we can get people out here one day they are going to see how amazing it is, how it makes you feel. It’s good for your family, it’s good for the community,” he said. “It’s across the country today that Modesto is inspiring cities everywhere to love their city. Don’t give up on it. Be the change you want to be.”
First-time volunteers included 16-year-old Ruby Martinez, a member of Girl Scouts Troop 3204 in West Modesto, who took part in a Little Free Library project at the King-Kennedy Memorial Center. Girl Scouts from her troop, along with Troop 4909 and other community members, helped build the free book boxes to be placed around west and south Modesto — the first official Little Free Libraries in those neighborhoods.
“This helps kids who don’t have access to reading books,” Martinez said while painting one of the boxes. “And it’s just fun to do.”
Other projects included repairing the outdoor basketball hoops at East La Loma Park, creating care packages for chemotherapy patients with the Chemo Crew, and one project that gave a community nominated family a free home cleanup and new HVAC system.
Modesto resident Kurt Peterson and his family are moving into a home off McHenry Avenue that they have been working to fix up for the past four years. But the work needed and costs have made it slow going, as did health struggles and a recent death in the family. Peterson was nominated by co-workers, friends and family for the DeHart “Feel the Love” Home Upgrade.
About 35 DeHart Plumbing, Heating & Air workers and other community members helped to clean up the family’s front and back yards and install a new air conditioning system in the home.
“To have all of these people helping me with work that would probably take me months to compete on my own along with the HVAC system that we couldn’t afford, it means more to me than most people could know,” Peterson said. “My stepdad who was a really big part of my life passed away and he was the one keeping me strong with this. To have all these people here volunteering their time to help me and my family move into my house ... I don’t even know how to thank these people ... I hope you all know your work helping my family out is probably one of the best things that ever happened.”
Bee staff photographer Andy Alfaro contributed to this report.
