Maureen McAleese didn’t know very much about Manteca when she decided to become a SHARP volunteer.

On one hand, McAleese thought, it would be a good chance to get to know other seniors in the new community that she had just relocated to, and on the other hand it would give her a chance to learn how to navigate the streets and neighborhoods and get to learn where everything in town was located.

Now that three years have passed, she says it’s one of the best decisions that she has ever made.

“When I first moved here I really didn’t know where anything was,” McAleese said with a laugh. “It gave me a chance to get to know where things were, and now I look forward to patrolling and getting out there and keeping an eye on things. It’s really a lot of fun.”

The nearly 100 members of the Seniors Helping Area Residents and Police organization – commonly referred to as SHARP – held their annual picnic Thursday afternoon at Northgate Park.

It gave organization newcomer David Raxter, who moved to Manteca from Hercules in October of 2009, the chance to lend a hand to his new friends and learn more about the wildly-successful volunteer group that has helped assist local police during tumultuous budget times. Volunteers often handle tasks that officers would normally manage like traffic control to free up uniformed personnel to respond to calls.

“I really enjoy working in the graffiti abatement program, and I’m getting ready to do a foot patrol downtown,” Raxter said. “I also just got done doing a city survey of apartments, and residential and commercial properties, which was something I was used to doing – I worked for the City of Berkeley for 30 years.

“I really like this community because it’s so diverse, it’s flat and level, and I like the weather because it’s warm and it’s dry. All of the people here are friendly, and when I’m out on patrol, I get to see a lot of playgrounds. You see a lot of families out having a good time.”

And when it comes to the community he now calls home, Raxter follows in the same vein as McAleese – SHARP was a great way to learn streets and take in the scenery while making weekly patrols.

“You really get to know the city when you’re patrolling 39 miles every shift,” he said. “I’m down to once a week right now, but during the winter I’d be doing three or four patrols a week. I’m really looking forward to doing that downtown foot patrol.”

Seeing the turnout was a good sign for SHARP Captain Marty Maldonado, who has been a member of the 80-plus volunteer group for just over three years and been calling the shots for just over one year.

With a husband that retired as an Oakland police officer, being around law enforcement wasn’t anything new for Maldonado. She added, by getting involved it gave her an opportunity to continue to keep Manteca a clean place for families to live and enjoy life.

“The thing that I love about Manteca is that it’s clean, and keeping it that way is one of the things that I enjoy doing as a part of SHARP,” she said. “There are so many different things that the volunteers do, and as captain I have to do a little bit of everything. I enjoy doing it all.”