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New Ways To Show Love For Community
LOVE R
The Love Riverbank campaign will kick off this week with a focus on three projects: Love Teachers; Love Police, Fire, and Postal; and Love Small Business. Support Love Riverbank by stopping by Starbucks on Patterson Road or Claribel Road or Home Depot to sign a thank you card for Police, Fire, Postal, and Teachers. Small Businesses can be supported by downloading the RAD Card, purchase a gift card and double your money to spend at downtown businesses. VIRGINIA STILL/THE NEWS

New Riverbank City Council Member District 2 Rachel Hernandez has taken on the duties of organizing Love Riverbank this year. The City of Action has participated in the ‘Love’ campaign for several years; however, it has been inconsistent and has had a number of different organizers.

Love Riverbank is a volunteer based event that kicks off with an in-person rally and then participants head out to several different projects around town to show their city some love. This year Hernandez is putting a twist on the event with a focus on three projects: Love Teachers; Love Police, Fire, and Postal; and Love Small Business.

“It is usually a day of volunteers with a bunch of in person type of events but because of everything that has been going on we wanted to transition it a little this year and especially because it has not been a consistent thing really,” said Hernandez. “So I think we are taking this year to kind of get it started and get people up to date so that next year we can get a whole committee with it and get it going that way.”

Love Riverbank is usually a one day event, which is scheduled for April 24 this year in many neighboring communities, but Hernandez explained that this year it will be a show of appreciation over the next few weeks in Riverbank. The effort will kick off April 9 and run through Friday, April 23.

She said the new format is, “so that people can participate at their leisure and they don’t have to gather.”

There will be several businesses throughout Riverbank that will host boxes where people can fill out a thank you card for teachers, police, fire or postal service workers and drop them in the box. The cards will be delivered on Saturday, April 24 – the formal Love Riverbank observance – along with a few goodies.

“We just want everyone to participate and show their appreciation for all these offices,” added Hernandez. “On April 24 we want to deliver these cards to the offices and those representatives and hopefully we raise enough funds to buy goodies for them.”

The project for Love Small Business is a bit different with a focus on the RAD (Relief Across Downtown) card program. Hernandez explained that this is more of a marketing effort to get businesses signed up for the RAD card and have consumers download the app and participate in spending dollars at local businesses in Riverbank. Hernandez shared that businesses in Modesto that participated in the RAD card have seen a significant increase in profits. However, Riverbank businesses have not yet taken full advantage of this opportunity. She is working with the founders of the RAD card to be able to add more businesses to it.

“You can basically shop for 50 percent off,” noted Hernandez. “We are basically getting ready to kick it off. We are just finalizing all these pieces. We love Riverbank and people can show their support by downloading RAD or fill out a thank you card when you see it.”

The RAD card is a digital gift card dedicated to small businesses in the area including Riverbank. While there are donor funds available the dollars loaded on the card are matched so if you load $100 then they will match $100 that can be spent at participating locations. 

The Love Our Cities campaign began in Modesto in 2007 as a volunteer based event to improve the city with a variety of projects.

Support Love Riverbank by stopping by Starbucks on Patterson Road or Claribel Road or Home Depot to sign a thank you card for Police, Fire, Postal, and Teachers. Small Businesses can be supported by downloading the RAD Card, purchase a gift card and double your money to spend at downtown businesses.

For more information visit loveriverbank.com, or Love Riverbank on Instagram or Facebook.