The sun was out and so were the volunteers this past Saturday for the Love Riverbank event as several people gathered at the Community Center gazebo, going out from there to beautify the community once again. The new Love Riverbank committee led by Randy Richardson has plans to do a second volunteer cleanup event later this year and return in 2024 to Love Riverbank.
Councilmember Luis Uribe and a committee member signed the volunteers up for the projects. There was coffee and water for volunteers as they lined up to check-in for their projects on Saturday morning, April 29. There were eight projects that people signed up for including Stanislaus River cleanup, parks, an alleyway, library, senior facility, and planting of eight trees as well as honoring heroes.
“The Love Riverbank committee did such a great job, especially for it being their first time doing it,” stated Uribe. “Everything came together as they planned and we all were learning as the event went so I think the event was definitely a success.”
Councilmember Darlene Barber Martinez along with 10 others participated in the Honoring the Heroes project where they delivered trays of cookies and thank you cards to Riverbank Police Services, the Post Office, Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District, City Hall, Public Works, and Riverbank Unified School District for the teachers.
“It appeared to be less volunteers than in the past,” remarked Martinez, adding that the enthusiasm was still high. “Volunteers were eager and ready to get started on their projects. It was great to see our community caring about our city and our neighbors. I think it was well organized by the committee.”
There were two Riverbank High School students, Mireya Perez and Olivia Cibantos, that baked nine dozen cookies for the heroes project.
Martinez said, “Of course, my favorite part of the day was delivering cookies.”
Several community members were on hand including Monica Perez and Bill Robinson with the Riverbank Chamber of Commerce, former Councilmember Cal Campbell and his wife Marina, Mayor Richard O’Brien, and Vice Mayor Rachel Hernandez. Sno-white Drive-In owner Daryl Daniel offered volunteers a freebie for participating.
Mayor O’Brien made a cash donation to the cause as he is still recovering from knee surgery.
“I personally visited the home of a senior resident to remove weeds and spend some time learning about their interests,” said Uribe. “On the day of the event, we had close to 100 volunteers which surpassed the number of registered volunteers on the website so we had plenty of help for all projects.”
Volunteers planted trees throughout Riverbank including Castleberg Park, Pioneer Park, Jacob Myers Park, and the Community Center Park.
Gilton Solid Waste provided the volunteers two large trash bins for the event.
Uribe noted that the committee met on a regular basis prior to the event and had group chats to stay connected.
When Uribe was asked what his favorite part of the event was, he said, “Working side by side with the residents of this community and side by side with our homeless population cleaning up the river. There is so much more we can do down by the river that the Manager of SaveMart, John Romine, and I would like to hold another event in partnership with businesses to tackle this project in a few months.”
