Hundreds help beautify Tuolumne County during second annual volunteer weekend | News
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Around 450 volunteers turned out to work together on a beautiful, sunny spring day for the second annual Love Tuolumne County event. Folks who wanted to volunteer could choose from 29 projects, which included school beautification, playground improvements, garden prep, trail work, caregiving visits and much more.
The event kicked off with a rally at the Adventist Health Sonora Health Pavilion at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, which included a free pancake and sausage breakfast, gift bags and a Love Tuolumne county T-shirt for all participants.
“Kids as young as age 4 helped out, and people up to age 90,” Love Tuolumne County board member Nancy White, of Columbia, said. “There were people with all physical abilities, women swinging axes.”
White said described the response to the event as “overwhelming” and said volunteers came from all over, including church groups and the Sonora Chamber of Commerce.
Volunteer couple Denise and Brian Hunt, of Twain Harte, helped out at the new 6-acre disc golf course at Sierra Bible Church on Tuolumne Road in East Sonora. Denise weed wacked while Brian leveled dirt and put down wood for the tee pads.
Denise said that she thought the event was “organized very well,” and they were both “excited to take part in the work.” They both agreed the new course was a “big asset for the community,” with Brian adding that he has played disc golf at courses all over.
“This is a nice one,” he said of the new course.
Chris Graham, of Sonora, who competes in disc golf at the professional level, said that volunteers “did great work and got the course done in three hours.”
Several playgrounds were slated for improvements, including Heaven For Kids on Greenley Road and the Big Dreams playground on Fir Street in Tuolumne.
A brand new playground complete with a climbing wall and swing set was installed for children at Resiliency Village on Jenny Lind Road. The cost of the equipment was covered by Love Tuolumne County. Workers from Sierra Bible Church took care of leveling the ground, which thankfully was softened by the recent rains, as well as the assembly of the swing set and climbing wall.
Other service projects included caregiving teams from Sierra Bible Church who delivered pies from Cover’s Apple Ranch and flowers to people in need in the community, and the fun-filled TuoCo ROCKS! rock painting sessions where over 60 rocks were painted at Interfaith. The rocks have tags added to the bottom, and the finder is instructed to photograph them, post a picture on the Love Tuolumne County Facebook page and then re-hide the rock.
Love Tuolumne County is a city partner with Love Our Cities, founded in 2009, to address issues and problems in cities and has since brought together 215,000 volunteers who have donated over 900,000 volunteer hours. For more information contact [email protected].