Love Chico News & Events Archive
Chico News and Review15 Jan 2010
Chico Enterprise Record Articles
12 Jan 2010
Archived News & Events
Love Chico has long project list
Sept. 26, 2011 Thousands of volunteers participate in service projects around town during Love Chico event CHICO — Two thousand five hundred people and nearly 70 different projects felt the love Sunday afternoon, as the annual Love Chico event beautified schools, perked up landscaping and touched up paint jobs across the entire town of Chico. The event, which is now in its fourth year, dispatches groups from 19 local churches who close their doors on Sunday to participate in the city-wide volunteer effort. But over the years, the workforce has grown to be more than just church members, said Love Chico organizer Cindi Alaan. "It's a united Chico event and that's a wonderful thing to see," she said. It's not about beliefs, Alaan said. "We started it, and we maintain it, but every year we get more people who come out and just want to come help. That's really an exciting thing. We probably had about 300 people that had no church affiliation and that's what it's all about." Some of the projects slated for the day included many local schools, like a new ball wall with murals at Hooker Oak Elementary, words of affirmation painted in the bathrooms and library at Chico Junior High School and new pathways at Fairview High School. At Sierra View Elementary, a new holistic playground got some loving care by about 200 volunteers, both from the community and Love Chico participants. Every year, a new school in Chico gets the treatment, which includes a repainting of the school yard to include fun, educational and interactive games. "It's going to be something that will last for years to come," said volunteer parent Katy Fritz. "Everything you see has a purpose, it's not just cute." When the school children return on Monday morning, "it's going to be like Christmas," Fritz said. Other projects across town included painting interior rooms at the Work Training Center and the Torres Shelter, making pink ribbons on behalf of the American Red Cross, removing rock dams in the creeks around town and cleaning downtown garbage cans. At Fairview High School, more than 50 people came to help with landscaping and beautification projects. About a dozen volunteers were students and faculty from the school, said Principal David McKay. They beautified planters, added new plants, fixed dilapidated pathways running through campus and repaired irrigation. "It's great in a lot of ways," McKay said. "Obviously because it's a tangible improvement, but I think it says a lot to the students and staff that the community is willing to come out on their own time." He said organizers of Love Chico spent weeks before the event to help plan and make sure the work went smoothly. In addition, a lot of local business donated supplies to the effort. "It's more than just the aesthetics," McKay said. "It's that people show they care and that will last even longer than the bark pathways."