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Love Manteca seeks volunteers Saturday, Oct. 3
love manteca
‘Love Manteca’ volunteers working last year along the Tidewater Bikeway,

It doesn’t seem like much but devoting three hours on Saturday, Oct. 3, to a variety of projects around Manteca as part of the Love Manteca effort can have a big impact on the community.

A similar undertaking in 2009 harnessing a small army of volunteer community labor over a three -hour period made it possible for more than 300 trees to be planted along the Moffat Boulevard segment of the Tidewater Bikeway. The city secured the trees but lacked the funding and manpower to plant them.

The upcoming Love Manteca effort has projects designed to have a similar positive impact on the community. Volunteers are needed to spend three hours on various projects from 9 a.m. to noon as part of the annual I Love Manteca endeavor.

The website  Lovemanteca.com  lists the projects and volunteer information. Projects include painting a shed for a senior, cleaning at the Building Hope Transitional Housing, cleaning at HOPE Family Shelter, working in a widow’s yard, weeding and mulching along the Tidewater bikeway, and branch and tree trimming along the Tidewater as well.

The website also indicates the projects that are family friendly or little kid friendly.

Questions or comments can be sent to jimtodd@lovemanteca.com.  

“October 3 is ‘Love Manteca’, where citizens come together on one of a number of smaller teams to make a difference,” noted organizer Jim Todd. “That day Manteca and other area cities have chosen the same date under the banner of “Love Our Cities” to show tangible love with our time.  We shop together, our kids and grandkids go to the same schools and play sports together, we sleep under roofs in one of two zip codes  . . . But on Oct. 3, let’s come together to serve together, and show that we Love Manteca.  There is no get-together ‘rally’ beforehand as in years past in Manteca, but instead teams go straight to their project sites at 9 a.m., and a goal is to conclude all sites everywhere by noon.  Okay, it’s only 3 hours, but we believe Love Manteca will open up doors for continued interaction in meeting needs.”

 The current effort is an offshoot  of “Taking it to the Streets” that was done for a number of years on an annual basis that was organized by Crossroads Community Church and I Love Modesto launched in 2007.

“Taking it to the Streets” provided a significant amount of service to the community with perhaps the highest profile being the planting of more than 300 trees and maintaining them for three years until they were established along the Moffat Boulevard leg.

Seven years ago “Taking it to the Streets” joined the Love movement throughout the Central Valley as well as elsewhere in California.

Love Modesto started with two questions back in 2007: “Why is our city on some of the ‘worst cities in America’ lists? What if our churches were to suddenly disappear from the Modesto area, would anyone even care or notice?”

The first Love Modesto on March 7, 2009. More than 1,200 people showed up to “love Modesto” in practical ways. The Modesto effort has been done 12 times since then and added more than 50 cities. Over 70,500 people have been involved — young, old, abled, disabled people from a church or no church at all. Around 250,000 volunteer hours have been donated. This represents over $6.5 million in service based on formulas found at independentsector.org that have been given to communities.

Questions or comments can be sent to jimtodd@lovemanteca.com.  

 

 

 

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com