Last Friday was our second community service day this year. These are days we set aside twice per year to allow our staff and students to participate in direct volunteer service in our community. Classes are dismissed for the day and groups of students and staff head to three or four different locations in Portland such as local farms, parks, and community service organizations. We typically spend the entire day at each location helping with large projects; all hands on deck. This time we sent a team to Zenger Farm, Sunshine Division, P:ear, and CAPACES Leadership Institute.
Zenger Farm
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| Cultivating the main field |
Zenger Farm exists to educate people about the benefits of sustainable agriculture and strong environmental stewardship. They are an organization that PYB does a lot of projects with, such as our Fields To Forks program. About 28 students and 6 staff helped with quite a few projects, despite the rainy weather: repairing the chicken coop roof, building entry steps for the bee house (we built the house itself earlier this year), cultivating and mulching, weeding, ivy and blackberry removal, and trail renovation. No matter the activity, the students and staff worked diligently, and it showed: "I’m always very impressed with the ability of your students to work hard and tirelessly. It’s for these reasons that we always love having you and your students come back to help on the farm." recalls one Zenger Farm employee whose in charge of facilitating the volunteer activities.
P:ear
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| Renovating a gallery space |
This group helped renovate a gallery space for P:ear, which is an organization that helps homeless and transitional youth "to affirm personal worth and create more meaningful and healthier lives" through education and mentoring. The gallery is used for exhibitions of P:ear student artwork and for other local artists. The team patched and re-painted the walls, as well as cleaned and patched the cement floor. After four hours of work, the walls and floor were complete and the finished project made the p:ear program director comment: “Holy cow, this looks like a whole new addition to our building. You folks are wonderful!!” The students really enjoyed their time, and loved the opportunity to give back to an organization that serves students in similar situations as the ones at PYB.
Sunshine Division
Twelve students and four staff members spent the day sorting donated food and clothing, bagging over 600 pounds of pet food, as well as completing 108 food boxes that go to people in need. They also had time to help move the bins out of the way to sweep up the food sorting area. PYB has a strong partnership with Sunshine Division, so it is always great to be able to give back by helping them this way. This was the fourth time in the last two years PYB has worked at the Sunshine Division, and one student in particular was very pleased with her first opportunity to give back: “I’ve heard stories about all the great things that you can do at the Sunshine Division, and those stories proved to be true. I could definitely see myself coming back here to volunteer on my own free time for sure!”
CAPACES Leadership Institute
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| Rendering of the entry for CAPACES' new building |
A smaller team of construction students and trainers excavated a foundation for the construction of a commercial green building that will house the CAPACES Leadership Institute. This organization focuses on the issues affecting the many Oregon farm workers, such as immigrants' rights. One construction students’ experience was so impactful, that he struck up a relationship with one of the foreman, and will be returning on weekends to continue helping with the project: “They could tell I was an animal out there. Foundation work is my favorite. They’re not gonna be able to get rid of me after one day, I’m in it for the long haul.”
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All in all, it was a very successful service day. Each team came back with a feeling of accomplishment and a broadened horizons. Some students were further inspired to volunteer for these organizations again in the future.
PYB's next service day is this coming January.
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