Volunteers prove they Love Lodi
People clear weeds and trash, stitch blankets and help out at senior centers
I was up early and ready to work on Saturday morning — but not as early as some Love Lodi volunteers.
One group was already hard at work cleaning up the landscaping at All Veterans Plaza as I set off toward my own assignment: weeding the pollinator garden planted by Greening Lodi at an empty lot on Main and Elm streets.
The lot was getting its second round of attention that day. A team from Wells Fargo spent a few hours before work on Saturday to begin clearing weeds that had sprung up around the California poppies, milkweed and other native flowers. Now, I’d be getting dirt under my nails with a second team to finish the job.
“Once you start a project, you want to keep it going,” said Tanya Macias-Hansford of Greening Lodi, who organized the Love Lodi project.
She and fellow Greening Lodi members planted the pollinator garden last year after Love Lodi and GRIP teams prepared the lot and decorated it with a giant mural celebrating local agriculture. They wanted to beautify the empty lot next to Busy Bee Laundry, plus give butterflies and bees a spot to grab a snack.
The late rains this season helped the flowers grow, but also fueled tall wild grasses, foxtails and burrs. So to get a jump on the weeds, Greening Lodi looked for a little “love.”
The flowers cleared by the Wells Fargo team already had industrious bees buzzing around them. Soon, we were just as busy.
About a dozen of us sipped on water and Gatorade to fight dehydration while we separated the weeds from the wildflowers. Soon, I had a steady rhythm going, pulling out handfuls of weeds and tossing them into a pile off to the side.
In a few short minutes, I had dirt under my fingernails and sweat rolling down my back. As an apartment dweller, I don’t get a lot of chances to do some gardening. Physical work goes into it, but there’s something satisfying about digging in the dirt, especially when it’s for a good cause.
Team member Maria Garcia saw the day as a fun, healthy way to get outside and enjoy the sunshine.
“It’s good for the body, working hard,” she said.
She was also happy for the chance to give back to her city.
More than 1,300 other volunteers seem to have felt the same way.
They turned out to complete 68 different projects around Lodi. Along with weeding and landscaping work, they cleaned up trash in alleys and parks, stitched stuffed bears and blankets for children in need, brought a day of entertainment to senior living facilities around town, baked cookies for police officers and more.
At Lodi Lake, the Earth Day Coastal Cleanup collected more than 275 pounds of trash. A team from Lodi Rocks! helped volunteers paint their own inspirational rocks to hide around town. Volunteers painted the railings and planted a vegetable garden at the Salvation Army’s Hope Harbor Shelter, threw a Hawaiianthemed party for residents at River Fountains, installed a Little Free Library, and cleaned up the Woodbridge Wilderness Area.
Some have been volunteering for years, while others came out for the first time.
This was the case for Lodi High School students Victoria Larrazolo and Mandy Sell, who helped with the weeding at the pollinator garden. It was Sell’s first Love Lodi — she signed up as part of her community service for the California Scholarship Foundation. Larrazolo has volunteered at Love Lodi before, though it had been a couple of years.
The pair had a good time, and couldn’t wait to head to a closing picnic at Hutchins Street Square.
“You get to meet a lot of people,” Sell said. Like Garcia, she was happy for the chance to give back. Both girls were proud of the progress they made Saturday morning.
Why do it?
“You live here every day,” Larrazolo said.
Julio Magana, another firsttimer, heard about the event on Facebook. He and his daughters, students at Reese Elementary, came out to volunteer.
“They were so excited, too,” he said.
The only disappointing part was that the Love Lodi shirts were sold out before they could buy any, he said.
Tamara Woods, who has been a Love Lodi volunteer for several years now, was part of the group at the pollinator garden. She chose the project because she’s a fan of Greening Lodi, a community garden group.
“I like the idea behind the nonprofit and taking control of the green space in Lodi,” she said.
The day was about more than just volunteering. It was also a day for the community to come together.
At a picnic held after the volunteer hours at Hutchins Street Square, the Arts and Culture Club performed dances from around the world, and kids enjoyed bounce houses and face painting. At Lodi Lake, the group Wilderness Inquiry brought its Canoemobiles out to take residents on rides around the lake.
Local businesses pitched in, too. Blue Shield of California, Adventist Health, Harney Lane Winery, Dave Nugent Insurance and Zeiter Eye joined a collection of churches, schools and service clubs to sponsor this year’s event. Several other businesses donated food, services and other items to make the event a success.
As noon drew close and the sun grew warmer at the pollinator garden, the Greening Lodi volunteers and the rest of us were earning our cold water and sports drinks. Salty sweat on our faces and dirt on our hands and arms, we stopped to survey our work.
After a few hours of work, we still had two small sections of weeds that needed to be tackled — but the rest of the lot was cleared and freshly mulched. Bright flowers bobbed in the sunlight, no longer hidden by the tall grasses.
We exchanged tired smiles as we stuffed the last of the weeds into garbage bags to be removed. We could be proud of what we’d accomplished that morning, along with the team from Wells Fargo.
“I really hope that a lot more people start participating,” Woods said.
It’s good to give back to the community, she said, and she sees it as a civic duty.
Garcia agreed. Helping out made her feel good, and she was happy to do something for her city.
Garcia, who lives in the Heritage District, is working on putting together a team of volunteers who will regularly pick up trash and keep the neighborhood clean, she said.
“If everybody enjoyed community service, we would make (Lodi) so much better,” she said.