20th Annual Day of Caring

It was a Saturday in Santa Barbara, but these folks weren’t planning a day at the beach – instead, the team of 45 volunteers from the Santa Barbara County Department of Social Services got up early and got to work on community beautification projects.  

The September 17 effort was part of the Day of Caring – a community-focused project, organized by United Way of Santa Barbara County, in which volunteers work at over 60 local charitable organizations completing work that the organizations couldn’t otherwise complete for lack of human resources: beautifying facilities, sorting contributed merchandise, completing office work, whatever needs doing. Volunteers come from corporations, charitable organizations, youth clubs, schools, families and friends.

This year’s Social Services team was assigned heavy gardening tasks at Franklin Elementary School on the Eastside and Shoreline Park on the Mesa.

“Helping to keep our community clean, safe and healthy is so important for all of us that call Santa Barbara home,” said team leader Vidal Chiprez, a state hearings officer for the Department. “I am proud to work with such caring people.”

The DSS team, dubbed the “Heart of Social Services,” included the following participants (in alphabetical order by last name): Eddie Alanis, Luz Amaro, Alex Amaro, Eileen Astorga, Stacy Castillo, Giselle Cazaux, Vidal Chiprez, Janet Ferrusquilla, Alyssa Frausto, Joseph Frausto, Melissa Frausto, Tristen Frausto, Gabriela Guerrero, Manuel Guerrero, Deborah Hartman, Adria Hinojosa, Liam Hogan, Tim Hogan, Ilene Lopez, Melissa Marino, Carmen Medel, Cheryl Mikkonen, Kasha Pope, Premi Singh, Matilde Ulrich, Lilia Velasco, Mario Velasco.