More Summer of Service events!

Friday & Saturday June 12, 13 - The Balloon Festival is a 2-day event celebrated annually as part of Springville's Art City Days. Summer of Service volunteers helped with setting up/taking down the event, face painting, coloring stations, hot air balloon tether drives, raffles and prize booths. They also had the fun yet difficult task of judging the children's coloring contest! It was a wonderful event to have shared with the Springville community.

Saturday June 20 - Habitat For Humanity and United Way "Summer of Service" volunteers gathered at the Provo ReStore to participate in building can houses as part of the "Cans for Habitat" recycling program.

Saturday June 27 - Summer of Service youth volunteers and family members supported Central Utah Center for Independent Living (CUCIL) at their 7th Annual "5K Run, Walk and Roll." The event is a fundraiser to help supply services to people with disabilities. This fun run for families and individuals with disabilities is also a marathon qualifier for serious racers. Volunteers were assigned to work at the registration tables and water stations along the race trail. The scenic route was beautiful, weather conditions were ideal, and there was a spirit of friendship, enthusiasm and unity among all participants and volunteers.

Tuesday June 30 - Summer of Service youth volunteers payed a special visit to American Fork Hospital. Youth joined together doing such things as cleaning toys in the playroom on the Pediatric floor, visiting with and singing for the elderly patients, picking up garbage around the hospital grounds and making cards for hospital patients - old and young.

South Franklin Community Center

The South Franklin Neighborhood is a low-income neighborhood in South Provo. With a mixed population of all kinds of residents, the neighborhood has a lot of assets, although it unfortunately has spent years in the shadow of past problems. But thanks to the work of The Boulders management, community members, and volunteers, that negative image will soon be a thing of the past.

The new South Franklin Community Center at The Boulders is up and running and growing! Programs and activities include: English as a second language, tutoring, health classes, playgroups, dance classes, Institute, Family Home Evening, and an addiction recovery class. More programs and classes are in the works! The South Franklin Neighborhood is coming alive. Neighbors are attending classes, improving their lives with other neighbors. More and more people are getting involved and being empowered by doing something new and positive in their lives. This community center is helping individuals and the community as a whole!

To learn more, visit sfccboulders.blogspot.com or the South Franklin Community Center fan page on Facebook. Or contact us at 801-691-5282 or sfccboulders@hotmail.com

AmeriCorpsWeek

AmeriCorps*VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) members nationwide participated in various service projects for their communities for AmeriCorps Week (May 9-16). Utah County VISTAs organized a hygiene drive. We were able to collect 110 lbs worth of hygiene items outside of the Springville WalMart, 98lbs from Lindon, 115lbs from Orem, and Five Guys burgers & Fries donated $100 to the cause as well! All proceeds were donated to the Community Action Food Bank in Provo.

South Franklin Soccer Program

The South Franklin Soccer Program is a volunteer-based soccer program that provides children from low-income families the opportunity to play on soccer teams for free! The league has six teams coached by volunteers and they play in the park at The Boulders Apartments. With help from the Boulders Management, Lehi Metal Mart, and Mr. Larry Webster of Payson Junior High School, goal posts were constructed and installed at the park to give the children their own private soccer field. The program grew much larger than anticipated and was a huge success!

The program was funded by donations from the following sponsors: Ottavio's, Merz Properities, Qualtrics, and the Comitas Cultural Club. These sponsors provided the teams with the soccer balls, cones, whistles, equiptment bages, stopwatches, and t-shirts.

The next season will start in the middle of August. If you're interested in being a volunteer coach, referee, or want to be a sponsor please contact us at 801-691-5282. To see more pictures and to learn more about other programs in the South Franklin Area, please visit us at sfccboulders.blogspot.com or join our page on facebook: South Franklin Community Center.

SATURDAY May 30: First Choice Home Health & Hospice hosted "Wings of Love," their first annual live butterfly release. Members of the community attended the event at the Orem Community Park to honor loved ones who have passed away.



Youth Summer of Service volunteers helped with decorating, registration, butterfly distribution & release and refreshments. "Wings of Love" was a heart-warming and impressionable experience for all who attended.




SUMMER OF SERVICE has begun! We have organized a variety of service projects throughout the county to enrich youth volunteers & provide a great alternative to summer boredom, loneliness, anxiety & mischief. On Friday & Saturday ( May 8/9) volunteers were invited to plant 47 flowerbeds along Provo Center Street for Provo Parks & Recreation. See for yourself how Spring has officially sprung in downtown Provo!
[Raquel López, Youth Volunteer Outreach]













For details on individual service projects available for youth throughout the summer click here.

My name is Raquel López. I have been an AmeriCorps*VISTA with United Way since the beginning of March, and it has been a true delight to work on Youth Volunteer Outreach. My most recent project was Global Youth Service Day, an event celebrated in over 100 countries. Each April, youth join in this great effort to make a difference in their communities. My partner Brian Wayment and I organized several youth committees to plan and carry out these projects. We met regularly with these groups and were so pleased with the fruits of their labor!

GLOBAL YOUTH SERVICE DAY PROJECTS

Friday April 24 Students from Independence High School in Provo gathered to lend a hand of service in beautifying their school grounds and a nearby park. They filled several large bags of trash, laughed, conversed and enjoyed root beer floats when the work was done!

Saturday April 25 Students from Merit College Preparatory Academy of Springville organized and carried out their own “Helping Homes with Many Hands” project. These students along with other youth and families from the community met at the Springville Arts Park to receive service assignments. They did such things as beautifying homes/yards of elderly community members, painting and gardening at the local Baptist church and maintenance/clean-up at the Arts Park. Once all projects had been completed, all volunteers returned to the park for a mingle and feast of refreshments--just as a great rainstorm began pouring down. The timing could not have been more perfect! We all had a wonderful service experience.

The long-term boys at Slate Canyon Juvenile Detention Center planted a garden. They will be tending this garden and donating the harvest to the Food Bank or a local shelter. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures of the boys at the facility. They did a wonderful job. In the next few weeks we will be doing another project with them. They will be writing and illustrating inspirational books to be donated to other youth corrections or treatment centers.

Thursday April 30 Community Action and Centro Hispano hosted “Dia De Los Niños,” an exciting and educational event for Hispanic families in the community. Students volunteers from Spanish Fork High School and other organizations ran games, activities and booths to provide information, resources, healthy snacks, fun prizes and recreation for families. The focus was to educate parents and their children on fitness and healthier living. The event was a great success and was covered by a few news reporters to be aired on the local news. Many thanks to Angelica, Centro Hispano and all volunteer participants for their many great ideas, passion and hard work!

Tuesday May 19 Merit College Preparatory Academy students organized a talent night at the Springville Senior Center (65 East 200 South). They had been mentoring younger students in helping them develop a skill or talent to share. The vision behind this project was to help children discover their own talents and passions. As the children continue to pursue these interests into their youth, they will be less likely to have idle time for loneliness, anxiety and mischief.

New *VISTA On Board and MLK Food Drive!

Hello Everyone! My name is Jesica, and I am the new *VISTA on the South Franklin Project. I started working last month and have been enjoying the various projects that we've been working on.

I log in today to regale you all with a short synopsis of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Food Drive that we did here in Provo. I worked with fellow *VISTAs (Daniel, Daniel, and Carolina) to get various fun centers in the Provo/Orem area to agree to giving discounts to customers who brought in food donations on MLK Day. We called the event Cans for Fun! The locations that participated were: The Peaks Ice Arena, Color-Me-Mine, Nickel Cade, Classic Skate, Utah Kernels Gourmet Popcorn, Laser Assault, and Trafalga. The businesses that participated were really positive and enthusiastic about helping and between the 7 locations, there was approximately 500 pounds of food donated to Community Action Services and Food Bank! Considering the short amount of time that we had to create and advertise this food drive, it turned out to be a great success! We hope to see this become an annual tradition!
A Trafalga employee puts donated cans into the food drive bin.


Color-Me-Mine had the biggest turnout. Their bin was completely full!

The Peaks Ice Arena collected a lot of food too!

Laser Assault also had a lot of people donate food. A group of around 20 friends went to play a game of Laser Tag.... and an employee shows off the amount of food they got donated so far that day.















Below, the "Popcorn Man" stands in front of the delicious popcorn at Utah Kernels Gourmet Popcorn in Orem. He was very generous and volunteered to keep the bin and offer the deal of "buy one get one free" to anyone who brought in canned goods donations through the rest of January and through the entire month of February!