Volunteers create legacy of kindness

Oakland Tribune, Apr 22, 2007 by Suzanne Bohan

For only the second time in its 134 years, a church in Menlo Park today canceled Sunday morning service and shut its doors.

It's no crisis -- it's only because the majority of its 5,000 members instead spent the weekend renovating homes, refurbishing schools, assisting the homeless or building thousands of support kits for AIDS caregivers in Africa, among scores of charitable activities throughout the Peninsula.

The first time Menlo Park Presbyterian Church closed its doors for Sunday service since its 1873 opening was last year, the inaugural year of "Compassion Weekend."

"This is a unique event, where the church completely shuts down its services in order to have its members go out and serve," said Julie Gavrilis, the church's director of communication.

Last year's event drew about 2,600 volunteers and attracted nationwide attention, she added.

"We've had two dozen churches request information on how to do this," Gavrilis said. "So it's definitely catching on." A national magazine called Rev! published an article on the church's unmatched volunteer effort.

The event, which entails organizing dozens of activities throughout San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, is a logistical challenge, but Gavrilis said the volunteers' enthusiastic embrace of it eases that difficulty.

"It's really been grasped with a lot of enthusiasm by those running it," she said.

What instills dedication to the weekend's work is the nature of the activities, Gavrilis said, which she emphasized are meant to provide lasting benefit to residents, not to advance the church's message.

"We're going into their communities to help them," she said. "We're not going in with an agenda. That's why public schools have invited us in."

The way we look at it is we are sharing gospel with our actions," Gavrilis added.

Among the numerous projects undertaken over the weekend was the refurbishing of schools, such as Garfield Charter School in unincorporated Menlo Park.

Volunteers today are continuing work that began at the school Saturday to plant a student garden, renovate playground equipment, create a mural, repair tile floors and paint the school. Similar work also continues today at Beechwood School in Menlo Park.

A legendary East Palo Alto resident, 88-year-old "Mother Branch," was also a recipient of the church members' work.

Over the weekend, volunteers gathered at Mother Oneida Branch's home on Farrington Way, leaving it with a new coat of peach-colored exterior paint, a white picket fence, fresh paint on walls, new front entry ramps and repaired roof shingles. In two weeks, she'll also get new carpets, said Larry Moody, a Menlo Park Presbyterian Church member who helped renovate Branch's home.

Branch is known for her work over six decades in caring for the homeless and others in need, including aiding victims of the Hurricane Katrina in 2005. When she learned she was selected to receive the outpouring of support, she said she was overwhelmed.

"It's so wonderful, I don't know how to feel," Branch said.

"I hope they fix me up good," she added. "Because I've been serving people for 66 years, and now it's time for me to live in my house."

The new handle workers installed in her Jacuzzi bathtub is a particular relief, she added.

"One time, I couldn't get out (of the tub)," said Branch, who uses a walker. "I just sat there and cried."

In Pacifica, Foster City and Menlo Park, the church gathered hundreds of people to assemble 8,000 "caregiver kits" to send to people caring for those living with AIDS in Africa.

The kits contain supplies like petroleum jelly to treat the dry, cracked skin that often develops in those with chronic illnesses, increasing their risk of infection. Bars of soap in the kit also help prevent infections, as do the latex gloves, washcloths, cotton balls and antifungal cream. A notebook and pens help caregivers -- who look after four or five people with AIDS -- monitor their patients' condition. A flashlight in the kit helps villagers in regions with no electricity move around safely after dark.

Last year, the Menlo Park church sent 7,500 kits, with most going to Zambia, and some to Zimbabwe. The recipients, Gavrilis said, expressed appreciation not only for the supplies, but for the sense that the outside world is concerned with their struggle against the disease.

"It's really been encouraging to them that, first of all, someone cares enough to send them the kits," she said. In addition, "they're helping them make a difference with their patients," Gavrilis said.

Another caregiver kit recipient corresponded to the church, and described how the flashlight helped in avoiding snakes at night, she added.

Elsewhere on the Peninsula this weekend, about 300 church volunteers teamed with Habitat for Humanity workers in Brisbane to help build a five-unit housing complex, along with a two-unit home.

In Menlo Park on Saturday, the church and the Urban Ministry of Palo Alto collaborated to provide a day of relief and support for homeless people.