ORGANIZATION OF SERVICE DAY EVENTS

MAY 17, 2025

EARLY START TO THE DAY....

VCC VOLUNTEERS:  Claudine, Linda, Lorie, Allen, Shelly, Emilie, Christian and myself.

VCC partnered with others for the Karen Bass LA Sparkle events in LA - this one being in Sherman Oaks - mainly because we have a VCC Leader there and hope to get more volunteers for him in the future.

Set up is at 6:30am in order to get the tents up, tables set up and stocked, signage - and make sure we are ready for volunteers who will always arrive early... the event starts at 8:30am.

Registration begins at 8:30am - Mayor Karen Bass speaks at 9am and then we set up the event to start tree planting, beautification of tree wells, litter pick up, electrical box painting, etc.  

There was free rain barrels, 311 information, chapstick, towels, water, Starbucks coffee, etc. for the volunteers to collect and get information.

It was chaotic at the beginning but so many people involved who did go out and do the environmental needs of the community... VCC volunteers did the freeway on and off ramps - 28 bags alone there with a tire, etc.  

Howard Jeffe's group did some work on Ventura both north and south.

Shepherd Church did Burbank north and south with lots of trash collected.

Granada Hills volunteers were well represented and worked until the end - 12:30PM.

So much trash collected - trees planted and tree wells cleaned up.  Thank you to Kelly Lynch for coming up with the event.

APRIL 6, 2025

It was a gorgeous day - no jackets needed!

VCC VOLUNTEERS:  Linda, Adele, Shelly, Steve Graves and myself.

STUDENT VOLUNTEERS:  Angel Rodrigues, Antonia Andres, Chirtofer Trinidad, Damiel Hersh, Eric Juarez, John Paul-Oean Garcia, Kayla Cacciotti, Nicholas Coutino, Sarah Lara, Trevor and Tyler Koretz, Jason Vahida, Jake Schneller, Tanz Kabir, Elise Furlan, Cole Karafris and Andrew Padilla.- 17 students and 2 teachers.

24 volunteers in total.

The worked beautification on Kingbury which is the street jsut north of the school from Zelzah to Lindley - cleaning the leaves and debris off the sidewalks, curbs and street into bags.  We also made 2 piles of illegal dumping which included a sofa and a mattress.

We were able to get rid of all of this into the trash bins at the school - Bonnee drove this flatbed small vehicle with multiple loads of trash bags to the area... what a help!

Got the entire street done in 1-1/2 hours because everyone worked so well together.

Picked up 75 bags today! 

ILEGAL DUMPING... CONTINUAL ON THIS 4 MILE STRETCH OF ROAD!

VCC LEADER:  David Weisberg

VCC VOLUNTEER: Robert Ferkle
ROCKY PEAK CHURCH VOLUNTEERS: 30 volunteers

35 volunteers today!

Today, March 4, 2023 -  35 determined and motivated volunteers from the Church at Rocky peak in partnership with (VCC) Volunteers Cleaning Communities gathered to clean up and dispose of all the trash and illegal dumped items covering the hillside and roadside of Santa Susana Pass Road in Chatsworth. 

The day started with an evaluation of where all the dumped items were located and after teams were equipped and dispersed the end results were truly astonishing!  Over 2500 pounds of items cleaned up including two couches, 15 tires, a water heater, a dishwasher, one Christmas tree, 3 mattresses, a copy machine, several bags of clothing, lots of car fenders, a patio table, tons of Masonry items, 70 bags of trash, a Go Cart and more random discarded household things.

The teams used all the resources available including brute, strength, a human chain with ropes, and teams of truck, drivers transporting trash and volunteers up and down the road. Hiking down steep hillsides made it very difficult but special teams were assembled for the dangerous sections , there were also many volunteers walking up and down the pass road clearing up brush, loose dirt and rocks and small trash. 

This is an ongoing issue on Santa Susana Pass Road and we are working closely with District 12 Councilman John Lee to address a way to deter this problem in the future. 

It is truly criminal that people would be so irresponsible to stop their vehicle - and deliberately toss or dump what should have gone to a landfill over the hillside!  If they were caught, it would be a $2,000 fine... I wish we could catch them - $2K is a lot more money than a $95 landfill fee to do it legally!

It’s always been a pleasure and honor teaming Volunteers Cleaning Communities with the Church at Rocky Peak on their annual service day.

DESIRE TO CLEAN UP THE FENCE LINE AT THE TRAIN STATION...AND THE AREA SURROUNDING

VCC VOLUNTEERS: Emilie, Cash, Danny, Dwight, Sarah, Norlene, Michael, Richard, Amanda and her friend and myself.
ROCKY PEAK VOLUNTEERS: 30+ volunteers

COUNCILMAN JOHN LEE'S ENTIRE OFFICE STAFF

60 volunteers today!

There are so many encampments along the fence line with so much debris... some encampments are abandoned as well - so the goal is to clean up what we are given permission to take from the active sites and clean up the abandoned sites - plus clean down the tracks and the park on the corner of Devonshire and Canoga area.

Huge groups so can get a lot done today...

Half the group cleaned the actual train station parking lots, train tracks, depot area and the surrounding streets.  

Half the group worked the east side of the station where the encampments are - we picked up all the abandoned encampments - two that were completely burned down and everything was melted to each piece of debris.  We talked to the active encampments in order to make sure that the sites were abandoned and asked to see if there was anything that we could remove from the active ones... they did give up  some trash but nothing significant unfortunately.  

The teams worked great together and made so much progress in such a short time.  There was a challenge as well for a cement bench that had been tossed down the hillside... Rocky Peak members were determined to get it up for us... and they did so it now is a true bench by the depot.  Thank you!

Together we picked up 200+ bags of debris, a sofa, large pipes, wood planks, 6 shopping carts (1 completely burned), tires, rugs, etc.  It was a very gratifying site to see that this much is gone from the area - except there is so much still there that we are unable to take away - and we found 5 rats that ran out from under the debris as we were cleaning it out - so know that there are so many more living within the active encampments... not healthy for them or the community.

Thank you Don Larsen for picking up the entire lot of stuff and getting it off the train station area into dumpsters at LA Sanitation.  We appreciate it!

Another great ROCKY PEAK SERVICE DAY!

It is truly criminal that people would be so irresponsible to stop their vehicle - and deliberately toss or dump what should have gone to a landfill over the hillside!  If they were caught, it would be a $2,000 fine... I wish we could catch them - $2K is a lot more money than a $95 landfill fee to do it legally!

It’s always been a pleasure and honor teaming Volunteers Cleaning Communities with the Church at Rocky Peak on their annual service day.

BIG PROJECT WITH 75 NOTRE DAME STUDENTS!

VCC VOLUNTEERS:  Cash, David, Amanda, Robert, Don nd myself.

NOTRE DAME VOLUNTEERS:   75 students plus 5 teachers.

Today was one of the two school service days for Notre Dame and we were lucky to have them assigned to us to develop a service project that would be meaningful to the community and to them personally.

We chose the Sepulveda Basin - Victory Blvd - abandoned homeless sites and debris to clean up.

Two busses rolled up at 9:30am and we got the students vested, armed with grabbers and bags and then got a great group photo thanks to Mark Hovater.  We explained the purpose of the event and how we were going to get at least 2 abandoned homeless sites cleaned up as much as we could.

Divided the groups into 2 and headed east and west on Victory.

Don, Amanda and myself took one group west to a site that was being prepared by Don Larsen - he already had the site pulled apart somewhat and larger things hauled out.  We got right in and dug in with 25 or so volunteers while Amanda took 10 to work on the debris on the bike path and further up the area.  We worked until noon - and what a job they did!   We got 120 bags of debris - piles and piles of wood, pipes, tents, buckets, shopping carts, wood - Don took one full load to LA Sanitation and there is at least 2 more full truckloads still at the site.

David, Robert and Cash worked eastward to a site and worked equally as hard - pulling out 2 mattresses, metal, shopping carts, pipes, kids wagons and 75 bags of debris. 

Amanda and her team ran into a homeless site and picked up what they could - they got 35 bags of debris off this area as well.

We got together afterwards and talked about what we found, surprises in the piles and how this affects what we see in the unhoused population... we all agree that we need to get the unhoused off the streets whether they want to or not... it is unhealthy, disgusting to live like this and hurts the environment not only in beautification but in the health of the growth.

Great job to all - a real contribution to the community, the environment and to yourself in hard work and teamwork.

VCC VOLUNTEERS: Dale, Phil, Amanda, Barbara, Adele and Mark.
JESSE GABRIEL VOLUNTEERS: 75+ individuals and groups

It was an early day to set up at Pierce College – 7am but nice cool weather in the am and plenty of assistance. We got a great spot and got a chance to mingle with lots of other vendors that we know and even new ones.

The crowds started arriving before 9am – there was breakfast for everyone and souvenir T-shirts as well in navy blue – with our logo on it. The speeches started around 9am – Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel introduced Mayor Karen Bass, Supervisor Lindsay Horvath and State Senator Caroline Menjivar. He announced the various volunteer options – we being one of them – and the groups started forming. We only had 38 people signed up but they kept coming so we could handle 75+ in total that we dispersed to Victory east and west / Winnetka north / Bike Path east and west and / Orange Line east and west.

Great music and the weather was perfect.

Barbara helped get names of people interested in our cause… while Mark was busy getting video and pictures for the entire event.

The groups arrived back at Pierce slowly – bringing back the gloves, grabbers and letting us know how many bags they were able to fill… making a big difference in the area and having a good time doing it! Got 75 bags of trash off the street – and we collected 4 pages of names that are interested in helping VCC or having a group event…successful morning.

Thank you Deborah Lopez and Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel for the fun event.

VCC VOLUNTEERS: Linda, Robert, Caash and myself.
JESSE GABRIEL VOLUNTEERS: 40 volunteers

The event is held at Pierce College every year... this is the 3rd year... and each year their office wants to expand with more and more opportunities for the volunteers and more and more volunteers showing up.

We were asked to do an event that was off site - so we picked the Sepulveda Basin area because it always needs cleaning and there is enough area for a large group.

The morning is with volunteers visiting booths - we had one - that can publicize your organization... Barbara, Cash and I worked the booth until the speeches are given recognizing the event the the major organizations offering opportunities to serve.

VCC was well recognized!

We then raced to the clean up site - it was a rainy day - but it did stop raining just as the clean up event was taking place.  We divided the group into 2 teams - one heading east the other west on Burbank Blvd. starting at Hjvete Sports Park area.

It was a huge event - and we dragged tires, pipes, furniture, bedding, etc. out of the river that  runs down this area... and over 70 large bags of trash as well.... the groups were excited and enjoyed getting some of this debris out of the site... but so much more remains because unhoused people live here and jsut bring so much debris along with them.