Spring has officially sprung on Quesada as new and older neighbors joined with youth volunteers and other friends at the gardens to share recent accomplishments with one another.
Pictured above is Annette Smith showing service learning students from University of San Francisco her famous hug. The students have been working with QGI this past semester on projects ranging from gardening to research and asset mapping of social history to a fundraising campaign. The students were also the volunteer squad, setting up and taking down the event. Whew!
Brandon Oldham, entering his third year as a student liaison between USF and QGI (pictured far right) received the 2012 Annette Smith and Karl Paige Community Hero Award for his extraordinary contributions to the community. Brandon is entering his third year of service and learning in Bayview. Sonia-Lynn Abenojar (pictured far left) will join him in the fall as a liaison with the Bayview YMCA.
Uber youth volunteers, Victor Ruiz and Hean He, also received awards at the event for their regular volunteer contributions. Ava and Dylan Antunovich, 6 and 5 year old siblings who help out most every Saturday, received our first-ever "Little Sprouts Award."
In addition to Annette, many other neighbors deserve huge thanks, including Joel and Mary McClure (site organizing and food coordination), Tom Galante (T shirt sales and raffle), Tony Tarket (site cleaning), Craig Cannon and Liz Skow (photography), Vidal Perez (music/DJ), Jon Chester and Sharon Bliss (electricity), Jacob Watta (gardening) and David Antunovich (amazing homemade soup).
Performances were featured at the event, and included a moving dance performance by Catie Beard who, along with Jo Kreiter, represented Flyaway Productions. An artful container for water, that was part of their "Grimm Arithmetic of Water" dance, was donated to the gardens for use as a planter!
Amy Crumpacker, of Not Your Grammy's Theater," performed spoken word based on expressions of fears and hopes about Bayview Hunters Point that event participants contributed. Amy will return to do more with Quesada Gardens. This was Amy's second time performing at Quesada Gardens, and she promised to come back soon in her new role with the Bayview YMCA storytelling project.
Event supporters and donors included:
SF Public Utilities Commission for a generous gift underwriting the event,
Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Markets for greens and more,
Lowes for water,
SF Wholesale Produce Market for the best fruit ever! and
Smokin' Warehouse Barbecue for smokin' hot gift certificates
We are so grateful to everyone who worked so hard to make this event a success. Thank you!
Picture by Charlie Sheldon. Thank you, Charlie!
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