The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by George Devine

Happy Day: During a day of 18 community service projects, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spruce up the Crooked House at Happy Hollow Park & Zoo.

Church celebrates the Earth with a rush of good deeds

Glen volunteers plant trees, clean up Coyote Creek and sew clothes

By Aji Mathai

On Saturday, April 25, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Cherry Avenue gave up a few hours of their day to beautify a busy city street with 200 oleander bushes and 15 redbud trees.

Members of the Vista del Mar community and the Village Court Township Association helped spruce up the center median of Southwest Expressway between Stokes Street and Leigh Avenue. The strip had looked untended but now adds some color to the area, said project organizer Jan York, who is also an aide to District 6 Councilmember Frank Fiscalini.

"It was this roving band of energy," she said of the volunteers.

That undertaking was one of 18 community service projects the church took on that day to celebrate Earth Week, said church spokesperson George Devine. About 575 church members from various sites, including about 150 Willow Glen church members, worked to complete projects such as planting trees at Del Mar High School with the school's Key Club, repainting the Crooked House at Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, clearing debris from Coyote Creek and sewing children's clothing and backpacks for the Children's Shelter of San Jose on Union Avenue.

"It was a fun and worthwhile activity that was very helpful to our community and our school," said Del Mar Key Club member Becky Coffelt.

Volunteers at Southwest Expressway came out as early as 6 a.m. and stayed until the project was completed at noon, about an hour earlier than expected.

"The project was helped by the partnership between Frank Fiscalini, PG&E--who owns the land we worked on--and the city of San Jose," York said. "We've been trying to do something like this for a long time."

San Jose Beautiful, Our City Forest, Jim Castellano, Bob Hudson, Marianne Fair and John Worthing also helped out by donating funds, trees and bushes.

"One of the really neat things about the project was that in addition to the volunteers from the church and the neighborhood associations, members of the community would walk up to us and see what we were doing, and they would ask if they could help out," Devine said. "It really helped to move the project along faster."

Devine recounted the story of another "act of kindness" that took place at the tree-plantings at Del Mar. Church member Leon Davis had sold his tractor before learning about the project. But once he found out about it, he borrowed back his tractor to dig the 6-foot holes for the 85 redwood trees being planted, saving volunteers lots of backbreaking work.

A meeting is planned for later this month to map out the second phase of the project to beautify the median strip of Southwest Expressway, which will extend from Leigh Avenue down to the end of the expressway near Interstate 280. The next phase of work is scheduled to take place no earlier than this fall and no later than next spring.

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