OCEANSIDE — Victor Martinez said he felt blessed when he opened his front door on Sept. 24 to a team of SUN volunteers who were ready to paint, pull weeds and haul trash.
An estimated 900 volunteers worked with homeowners to spruce up 32 homes on Arthur Avenue for the ninth annual Supporting Urban Neighborhoods project organized by the Neighborhood Services Department. The annual beautification project targets neighborhoods where homeowners, like Martinez, can use an extra hand cleaning up their yards and putting on a fresh coat of paint.
Martinez bought his “fixer upper” home on Arthur Avenue in January. He started to repair the inside, but wondered how he was going to clean up the backyard that was littered with debris. “I heard about the SUN project,” Martinez said. “It was a blessing.”
A team of SUN volunteers from the Oceanside Police Department painted the inside and outside of the house and hauled truckloads of trash from the backyard. “The officers went beyond,” Martinez said. “Now my kids have a yard to run around and play in.”
Among the 900 who helped were volunteers from every department of the city of Oceanside and a large number of volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Richard Rebar, a SUN volunteer with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said about 400 church members came to pitch in. “Service, that’s what it’s all about,” Rebar said.
See www.coastnewsgroup.com for video from the event.
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