DC Online

Daly City – The City of Daly City’s participation in the nation’s largest day of volunteering last fall earned the Make A Difference Day 2005 award in the San Mateo County Times market. The winning entry, titled “Daly City: A City that Shares … A City that Cares,” reflected over 10 various community projects completed by more than 300 volunteers on October 23, 2004.

“This national award is a well-deserved recognition of our dedicated and hardworking volunteers, civic organizations, religious groups and local businesses that supported last year’s event. Together, they cleaned our parks, streets and neighborhoods. They promoted children’s safety and helped prevent kitchen fires. In spite of rain, they showed up and made a difference in Daly City,” Mayor Carol L. Klatt remarked.

The USA WEEKEND award is the second for the Volunteers in Daly City program since its initial participation six years ago. In April 2000, national event organizers recognized Daly City’s first year observance of Make A Difference Day as the most outstanding local project in the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner market.

Make A Difference Day 2004 in Daly City involved more than 25 various groups who brought more than 300 civic-minded volunteers to complete the designated projects citywide. “It was an event that engaged the most diverse gathering of volunteers from the largest number of organizations to date,” noted Gina Javier, the coordinator of the Volunteers in Daly City program.

Participants included Church of Christ (Iglesia Ni Cristo), Korean Central Presbyterian Church (KCPC), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, DeMolay, Westmoor, Jefferson and Mercy high schools, Hilldale School, Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, Holy Angels Church-CCD class, Our Lady of Mercy School, Daly City Host Lions Club, Rotary Club of Daly City-Colma, Anti-Graffiti Committee, Police Explorers 817, and Daly City Gateway Lions Club. The local neighborhood group, Council of Homeowners and Residents Associations (COHRA), was also represented. City personnel from public works, parks and recreation, library, police and fire departments coordinated the worksites, many as volunteers.

Event partners, which included BFI, CalTrans, the City and County of San Francisco, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and the San Francisco Golf Club, completed their individual site projects. Event sponsors included First National Bank, Serramonte Center, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks Coffee, Crocker Neighborhood Association and SamTrans.

National and local honorees were recognized in the April 15 – 17 issue of the USA Weekend Magazine, which created Make A Difference Day in partnership with the Points of Light Foundation. Ten national honorees received $10,000 from actor-philanthropist Paul Newman. Joining Newman as national judges were Robert K. Goodwin, President and CEO of Points of Light Foundation; Marcia Bullard, President and CEO of USA WEEKEND Magazine; and Harry Smith, co-anchor of The Early Show (CBS).

Local honorees were selected in about 500 carrier newspapers located throughout the country. The City of Daly City was recognized in the magazine’s Western Edition this past weekend, along with others from the states of California, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

The 15th annual Make A Difference Day will be held on Saturday, October 22, 2005. For more information, call the Volunteers in Daly City program at (650) 991-8296.