Coat Drive Report by Olivia Franco and Nicky Trasvina, December 13, 2022
On Thanksgiving Day, 2022 (November 24th) I commenced with the Coat Drive program. I have witnessed many families with small children and teenagers who are unaccustomed to the cold SF weather, even when there is sun. They are not expecting the temperatures to dip as low as they do and they often arrive to our programs or to school ill-prepared for the weather. I wanted to provide them with the basics to keep them warm and healthy. With my experience in multiple non-profits, I listed my contacts and put to life the Coat Drive program! Since Thanksgiving we have collected approximately 200 jackets! They will be distributed to kids from several shelters and low-income families on Tuesday, December 13th , nineteen days after the program’s inception. The list of organizations include Buena Vista Shelter, Providence Shelter, Coleman Advocates, Harbor Lights, and the Latino Task Force. Thanks is given to the following groups for their acts of generosity in making many donations: Community Living Campaign neighborhoods Sunnyside, Midtown, and the Merced Extension Triangle and their Connectors; Bay Area Community Resource; Latino Task Force; and other private parties.
The motivation for this project, besides the obvious of helping the children, is to model to others in my organization (CLC) and demonstrate the value of organizing service projects to help others. I encourage others to do similar projects when they see people in need, especially children. I think this is a great activity for our seniors, especially those who are not necessarily in financial need, but in need of emotional connection and to fulfill their own desire to feel needed. As my colleague has indicated when we have co-coordinated other service projects, seniors do well and thrive when they are able to contribute and feel part of the process of giving, in any capacity.
On Tuesday, December 13th, we assembled at 3 pm to set up the coat giveaway at CASA AYUDA at 4834 Mission Street in the heart of the Excelsior District, the district with the highest population of kids in all of SF. At Casa Ayuda we gave away over 250 jackets in two hours!
I expected to see the look of joy on all the kids’ faces and watch them having fun trying on the jackets for their parents to see. I expected laughter and smiles as they modeled the jackets to each other and their parents. What I saw instead was a line of mostly single parents waiting with several children in a long line against the dim lit storefronts of mostly closed stores, doors away from a large construction site. The parents looked tired, but patient. The children were pretty quiet and nice. Their demeanor led me to believe they were grateful that this program was made available to them. The helpful volunteers kept the crowd moving in a time-efficient way. All this made their considerable long wait in line worth it for the sake of saving twenty or thirty dollars on a jacket their child would outgrow in a year. As a witness to this process, it made me wonder what other lines these families have to face as the week progresses, simply to attain their basic household necessities, such as the food line at the Latino Task Force site every Friday. Lines have become a way of life for many. The irony of coordinating a project that helps people is that it actually triggers a sense of sadness not lost on me. “It is better to give than to receive” is questionable as this experience brings to light the disparities many of our community members come face to face with in our own city, in our lives, and we can only impact in soft, short-term ways. Giving is two-fold. It produces pleasure in the giving but also releases pain as we can never give enough. The lesson learned is that we can never stop giving and there is nothing as being too generous.
I want to thank CLC for their part in this project. Please look for the photos I will send so you can really feel the love! And thank you for your continued support and promotion of the programs I love bringing to CLC.
Sincerely,
Olivia Franco
team also helped provide devices and internet access as needed. There are now over 300 Chinese-speaking neighbors who regularly participate in the over 220 hours of online training and technical assistance each month. As they developed confidence online, this growing base of students wanted more engagement. Wanda and her team responded with new activities. First were quarterly cultural celebrations, which computer training students showcasing their other skills in singing, dancing, and playing Chinese musical instruments. Students so enjoyed the early celebrations and so they asked for a singing class. After reaching 150 students in one class, we added a second one to try and meet the need. As student tech skills (and the community evolved), the cultural celebrations have evolved to include more student made videos expressing joy of the season and appreciation of their teachers. Throughout, the gratitude of participants is compelling.
The target communities were the Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin) and English-speaking seniors who are interested in learning the other language and culture. Wanda’s proposal stated her motivation for this project was “to bring the people of different culture and who speak different language together. They can learn from each other and we hope they can understand and support each other as the community”. Participants’ desire to learn the language and culture of their new home country is strong.
Connie Baker-Cohn volunteers every Thursday with the Bayview Home Delivered Grocery Program. She says, “I am very grateful to be here today and I take each day as a blessing. I have had my ups and downs in my life and I’m very fortunate now to be able to be in a position to help others. I’ve always tried to do that in whatever ways I could. Now I’m able to do more and I really truly feel called to do so. I’m grateful for the experiences that I’ve had and look forward to working with others, as much as possible, to take care of each other as best we can in this world.” And we at CLC are grateful for all that Connie does to help her neighbors.
The Sidewalk Search Party honors Carol for her endless commitment to ensuring safely accessible sidewalks throughout San Francisco. Carol was reporting dangerous sidewalks long before joining the Sidewalk Search Party. She introduced us to 311 on Twitter and is a co-presenter in our 311 trainings. Carol comes to every meeting and neighborhood waddle to hang ducks on trees to inform neighbors how to report treacherous sidewalks to 311. Carol is willing to help.
Rosario Cervantes has participated in many of Latino cultural events hosted by CLC coordinators Olivia Franco and Nicky Trasviña. She worked with Nicky to bring on a “heavy hitter” to Dr. Anna Chodos’ 80/80 Project and the related 80/80 Latino-Style virtual program. Rosario reached out to her friend Orlando Cepeda to request that he join in. With kindness, persistence, diligence Rosario called and visited in person to set up an interview with this remarkable North American and Latin American baseball hero, retired SF Giant and 7-time All Star. She sets the standard for communicating and bringing people together.
Kate is an integral part of the goings on in Miraloma Park. An MPIC board committee member for Publicity and Advertising, Kate is a long-time editor of our Miraloma Life Newsletter. She makes sure our Miraloma Community Page is updated before it goes to press. Kate has volunteered for many events around our neighborhood and we are glad to have her on board with our Connector program. Miraloma Park Connectors Coordinator Darlene Ramlose recounts that she’s not sure what we could have done without her at the Miraloma Park Tea Party.
Susheela has lived at St. Francis Square Co-op in the Western Addition with her daughter for just six and a half years. She’s been an active member of the community from the beginning. Susheela is co-coordinator of St. Francis Square’s Neighbor-to-Neighbor program, where she finds volunteers from the co-op community to help seniors and others with shopping, going to doctor’s appointments, gardening, dog walking, and whatever other help is needed. She is also a member of one of the senior choirs in San Francisco. Susheela plays guitar and leads us in folk songs for many of our parties at the Square. This election season she also coordinated the Square’s Get-Out-the-Vote campaign. Susheela is such an activist and loving person whom we cherish here at St. Francis Square.
It’s our pleasure to introduce Veronica Harlin as our good neighbor of 2022. Veronica has grown up in the OMI Lakeview community and is extremely familiar with our neighbors, working in the community and volunteering with several neighborhood groups. Veronica has been showing up each Tuesday asking how she could assist and has become a valuable asset to our community. It’s a great blessing to have individuals like Veronica that offer to assist as a volunteer. The OMI CLC program is blessed to have Veronica volunteering with our Home Delivery Grocery Program
Anne Herbst supports her neighborhood through Far Out Gallery, an art gallery that she owns and operates in the Outer Sunset. She is truly a good neighbor. Over the past year, she has hosted two Senior Power meetings at her gallery–a good and warm experience for all! It’s given another perspective to neighbors who come to Senior Power meetings. In addition to that, over the summer she opened her flower-themed show to the community. Anyone could bring their art. She had an enormous response. The oldest contributor was a 94-year-old woman who brought a beautiful floral painting. As Senior Power founder and connector Margaret Graf says, “This was such a generous gift to the community to open her doors and truly welcome everyone who had something to contribute…and she did it with grace and love of art.”
Martha Joseph is dedicated Good Neighbor. When she talks about older adults, Martha says “They are one of our greatest assets holding a wealth of knowledge and experience. ” She initially approached CLC to get a tablet to keep her mother more connected to family and friends. Martha’s mom lives in a long-term care facility. When other residents there saw her tablet, they realized they could be less isolated if they had devices of their own. Martha didn’t think twice. She jumped in to refer these neighbors to CLC, and then took on the extra step of picking up and delivering tablets and welcome packets to 10 residents. As Martha says, she loves seniors and works, assists, and protects them to the best of her ability. And when we talk with her “peeps” they tell us they love her too.
During the 2022 year as the world went back to “normal,” our Park Merced Food Network adult volunteers went back into the office. This left Food Network Coordinator Elaine with little to no volunteers to help. She reached out to Mobilize Love, which has faithfully shared volunteer opportunities on their platform. Our Food Network started to receive a wave of teen helpers!
Miguel Portilla has been living in San Francisco for more than 20 years, and has spent the last 15 helping and supporting seniors in his community. During Covid, Miguel helped in deliver groceries and Covid tests to Sunnyside neighbors. He cares for seniors’ wellness. Every week he comes to Sunnyside to help set up the space for exercise and to cut fresh fruit for our neighbors. When we hold donation campaigns, he drives around and picks them up from people’s homes. For all of these reasons, we are happy to choose Miguel as a Good Neighbor.
Midtown Terrace has become a close-knit group of consistent and caring senior exercisers. They look out for each other with love and care. Barbara Prato exemplifies this commitment. She is a retired SFUSD educator who has lived in Midtown Terrace since McGovern ran for President. Despite the loss of her close friend and exercise buddy, Barb remains a constant presence at exercise and other activities. She has shown her generosity by donating many times to the various charity collections that CLC has held for Casa de las Madres. We really appreciate Barbara and her kind and sweet energy.
Traci is one of those neighbors who works behind the scenes – a “neighborhood angel,” according to one of her neighbors: Traci “…has been consistent since you matched us well over a year ago. When she is out-of-town, she emails me to say ‘hello,’ and to let me know when she will return. Since going blind as an older adult, I often experience feelings of frustration, loneliness, and social isolation, exacerbated by the pandemic.
Every third Monday night for the past two years, Drama with Friends has produced three to four short, 10-minute plays by a local playwright. Diane Sampson finds those playwrights; she is our play wrangler. We could not have gotten started and we could not continue without Diane. She flips through what Community Connector Judy Goddess imagines “…is a huge rolodex to find the playwrights and then contacts them. Some months her volunteer assignment seems easy, other months take more time. But she always comes through.
Claire has joyfully and energetically participated in neighborhood walks, supported the connector efforts and helped to bring in new students to the exercise/social hour. And importantly, she showed up. She does with her husband Dennis who has now taken up teaching some of the exercises at METCC. We are thankful for all that Claire brings to our community.
As we began opening our Connector programs in person, Dennis stepped up in a big way. He has been leading exercise when needed for the Crocker-Amazon, Merced-Extension Triangle, and Cayuga Community Connectors. A San Francisco native, Dennis brings humor and dedication to our time together. Dennis brings out the best out in our Connectors and wonderful neighbors. We are so grateful for all you do. 
During the pandemic, Mary began bringing a little cheer to her neighbors, visiting them in the hospital, in nursing homes, and at their homes. Starting with a list of neighbors’ birthdays, she travels around bringing flowers, treats, and cards to help them celebrate. She really extends herself to care for those around her. We have a lot of gratitude for the way that Mary helps strengthen connections in our community.
Brenda is a ReServist in the SF ReServe program at San Francisco Community Living. She currently is working in the infant program of Frandelja Enrichment Center located in the Bayview neighborhood. She also lives at the Dr. George Davis Senior Residences in Bayview, where she is good neighbor to many fellow participants and neighbors. Brenda is always motivated to acquire new technology skills and has become a lifeline to others in her apartment complex to teach, troubleshoot and impart her computer knowledge to others. 
One of the earliest contributors to the Community Living Campaign was Judy Auda, who passed away on May 25 after a long struggle following a major stroke. We want to celebrate her works with us and with a number of community organizations along the way. For CLC, she helped ran our first computer training program, developed our annual events, created the Seeds of Hope Garden party journey, and organized several City Hall events for us with support from the Dept. of Disability and Aging, including the Alzeheimers and Dementia Summit, the Health Aging Summit, and the 
The sixth annual Good Neighbor Award Event brought us together to celebrate the kindness and good work of some special neighbors. If you missed the event or just want to relive, you can view the video of