Make A Difference for Pleasanton Festival 2017

‘Tis the season for New Year’s resolutions. One way to improve your life is by discovering the joy of helping others. Saturday, January 14, is THE day in Pleasanton to explore the many ways you can volunteer.

That’s when the Make A Difference for Pleasanton Festival will be held at the city library from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. (in the Community Room, to the right just inside the entrance). Dozens of non-profit organizations will have tables set up with information on how you can “Get Connected & Stay Connected” with your community through volunteer service for adults, families, and teenagers. Mayor Jerry Thorne will be on hand to open the festival.

Would you like to help prepare and serve meals to neighbors in need? Drive elderly neighbors to medical appointments? Comfort dogs and cats awaiting their forever homes? Assist a newcomer learning English? Help visitors learn about local history? Write a letter to someone serving in the military? Organize Special Olympics sports events? These are but a few of the volunteer opportunities that await festival visitors.

Produced by Make A Difference, Today & Always, a 501©3 non-profit, the festival is co-sponsored by the City of Pleasanton, the Community of Character Coalition, Tri-Valley Y, ACCUSPLIT Make A Difference Programs, and Karlsson & Lane Accounting Services..

Exhibitors will include the following (a partial list, based on early registration):

• ACCUSPLIT Make A Difference Programs
• Alameda County CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates)
• Alviso Adobe Community Park
• Amador Valley Quilters – Quilts of Valor Project
• Axis Community Health
• Boy Scouts of America
• City of Pleasanton (library)
• Community of Character Coalition
• Hope Hospice
• Joni and Friends Bay Area
• JustServe.org
• Lynnewood United Methodist Church
• Museum On Main
• Open Heart Kitchen
• Pleasanton Military Families
• Sandra J. Wing Healing Therapies Foundation
• Senior Support Services of the Tri-Valley
• Special Olympics
• Sunflower Hill/Sunflower Gardens
• Tri-Valley Y
• Valley Children’s Museum
• Valley Humane Society

Visitors will be encouraged to sign the “50/50 Pledge,” which states, “I pledge to spend at least 50 hours in community service, and to spend 50 more hours with my family in the next year.” They can also sign the historic banner from the very first local Make A Difference Festivals (which were sponsored by the Pleasanton Unified School District and included many other organizations in the 1990s).

“We used to try to tie in with the national Make A Difference Day, which is held in October, but here in Pleasanton that date has long been reserved for the Foothill High School Band Review, so we changed to the date closest to Martin Luther King, Jr, Day, which has become a global service day,” explained W. Ron Sutton, founder of Make A Difference, Today & Always. “Also, we felt that people should make a commitment to community service on more than one day per year. That is why we came up with the ‘50/50 Pledge’ and the slogan, ‘Get Connected, Stay Connected.’”

Volunteer Ken Mano of the Community of Character Collaborative created the original website, www.MakeADifferenceForPleasanton.org, which is updated to list the growing number of organizations who will be at the festival. This year’s new website has links to each organization’s mission statement and volunteer needs.

The festival is free of charge, as is the parking at the city library. All are welcome.