Hundreds of Volunteers Leave Alhambra Spotless After Day of Service

On a crisp Saturday morning in April, more than 150 volunteers fanned out across Alhambra to participate in the annual Day of Service hosted by the Alhambra Chamber of Commerce Nonprofit Council.

Some donned bright orange vests at Almansor Park, Alhambra Park, Grenada Park or Story Park, picking up trash and scrubbing picnic tables. Others put on their gardening gloves at Alhambra Community Garden and Marguerita Elementary School, clearing plots of land and weeding.

Yet others were packing supplies for unhoused students and helping out with the nonprofit National Asian Pacific American Families Against Substance Abuse.

“The Nonprofit Council is very grateful for the opportunity to be of service to the community and proud and thankful for the generous support of our community and volunteers,” said Maria Gao, chair of the council.

One of the council’s standout projects was creating Summer Send-Off Kits for unhoused students, a collaborative effort with the Homeless and Parent Engagement program at Alhambra Unified School District.

In the back of the Alhambra Chamber office Saturday morning, four boys from Boy Scout Troop 139 were hard at work with their Scoutmaster Ron Lee, packing laundry sheets into Ziploc bags for the send-off kits.

“We thought it sounded like a good opportunity to volunteer in the community,” said Cynthia Lee, Ron’s wife. Their son, Ryan Lee, is a seventh grader at Park Elementary School and said he tries to volunteer with friends to make it more fun.

“I like how it teaches you a lot of necessary life skills,” Lee said, “like how to be a leader.”

Keiko Rakin, a sophomore at Alhambra High School, worked with them to assemble the kits. The 15-year-old said she’s passionate about education and is frequently involved in the community through the Student Advisory Council.

“I know some [students] who are homeless so I definitely want to help them,” Rakin said. She believes civic engagement is an important part of learning empathy and interacting with people different from you.

“A lot of times you don’t put yourself in other people’s shoes,” Rakin said. “[Volunteering] gives you a broader perspective.”

The plan was to assemble 160 backpacks for students ranging from elementary school age to graduating high school seniors. The project was made possible through the generous donations from local businesses and organizations, such as reusable mugs from Starbucks; backpacks with school supplies from Catalyst SGV; Target gift cards from the Alhambra Rotary; coupons from Raising Canes, Wendy’s, and Shakeys; snacks from Trader joes; and other various hygiene items and toys from KCAL Insurance, the Ratkovich Company (The Alhambra), and Chinese Bible Missions Church.

Alhambra Day of Service also attracts many residents who are getting involved with their community for the first time.

Kevin Choy, of Rosemead, said he has family in Alhambra and found out about the event through the Alhambra Chamber Facebook page.

“I never do any community work so I wanted to check it out,” said Choy, 36. And he’s already made friends – alongside him is 18-year-old Justin Chau, who said they just met that day but are now friends. The two worked together to clear the Almansor Park parking lot of leaves and debris.

Keith Ko, the English lead pastor at Chinese Bible Missions Church, was leading a group of volunteers at the Alhambra Community Garden. It’s an important community resource, where anyone can rent a small plot for only $5 a month to plant whatever they want.

“When it’s not taken care of, things just grow,” Ko said.

Allison Truong and her friend Sharon Kuang, both seniors at San Gabriel High School, often volunteer together. One of Kuang’s favorite parts of volunteering is meeting new people. “Different people come from everywhere to volunteer and it’s nice talking to them,” she said.

She and Truong both already love gardening; Kuang gardens at home and Allison is part of her school’s environmental club.

Kuang believes it’s important for young people to volunteer when they have time, because “it’s students that have a bit more flexibility than other people to volunteer,” she said.

Near the end of the event, a miniature oasis of flowers and native plants surrounded by fresh mulch lay gleaming at the back of Marguerita Elementary School while volunteers were putting the final touches on weeding underneath the rocks.

“It’s a really cute garden,” said Nancy Guan, an incoming student at Claremont Graduate University. “You feel really at peace just being here.”

It’s her second year participating in Day of Service with the Chinese Bible Missions Church. Guan said she received a lot of tutoring growing up through communitybased non-profits and feels lucky to have had that support throughout her life.

“For me, the community was so involved in my life when I was young, so now I want to give back,” Guan said.