A Day to Remember

Workers removed tree stumps, painted houses, cleaned up backyards and transformed a city park into a more inviting place. All the workers were volunteers, displaying a commitment to their community last weekend all across Orange County.

The occasion was the sixth annual Volunteer Connection Day, coordinated by the Volunteer Center of Greater Orange County. The turnout was impressive: more than 18,000 people answered the call, about 50% higher than last year’s tally of more than 12,000.

The center specializes in connecting individuals and organizations that want to do good with individuals, groups or even inanimate objects like parks that need the help.

Organizers said the volunteers helped with more than 90 projects in two dozen cities in the county.

In Santa Ana, members of the Santiago Park Neighborhood Assn. helped out at the city-owned Santiago Park. Cities run on tight budgets, with the first priority on funds understandably being public safety. After police and fire needs as well as street repairs are taken care of, there isn’t always much money left to make sure parks run well.

So the neighborhood association grouped members into squads that converted a pockmarked parking lot into a playground and installed a sprinkler system for a planned garden.

In El Modena, which is unincorporated county territory surrounded by the city of Orange, more than two dozen volunteers from the Loyola Marymount Alumni Assn. helped clean the backyard of a family they had never met.

Tree stumps were thrown out; an old freezer was carted off. By the end, the yard looked just fine. A number of beneficiaries of the Volunteer Connection Day were families unable to replace cracked tile or patch roofs themselves and unable to pay others to do the work.

Volunteers help themselves as well as others. They make connections in the community and can form personal relationships with those they help. A number of last weekend’s workers said they were reminded again of the economic disparities in Orange County.

Despite the differences, a sense of community is necessary. Volunteers, on one day in spring and all year round, help provide the glue that keeps the community together.