In late February, Rotarians from Oakland Uptown Rotary spent a few hours on Saturday morning lending a hand to members from North Oakland Village with some spring cleaning and other small tasks.
Founded in 2010, North Oakland Village (NOV) is part of the national village movement that helps seniors age in place, but remain part of a community.
Club president Dan Hibbing suggested the group meet over for coffee at Perch Coffeehouse near Lake Merritt on Grand Ave before dividing themselves up into teams to assist NOV members that signed up for help.
Brandy Saldana and Armando Cortes assisted N.H. by dusting and wiping contents in her china cabinet as well as her curio cabinet. They also cleaned the sensor on her garage floodlight to ensure it only activates at night and swept off cobwebs on the balcony of her second floor.
Dan Hibbing, Josephine White, and Will Klyver headed off to help NOV member P.S. by installing a new light fixture in his kitchen. The old unit had stopped working, making it difficult to fully utilize the space. After some assembly and sticktoitiveness, the new fixture really brightened up the place!
This team wrapped up their day by assisting NOV member R.L. to watch the birds outside of her living room. The group needed to solve a pesky squirrel problem. These squirrels constantly knocked over the bird feeder and chased off the birds. The suggested hardware solution wasn’t as easy to put together as she expected, but Oakland Uptown was able to provide some help and establish a cover and drop pan that now allows the birds full access while restricting the squirrels.
Small actions like these made a big impact on the NOV member’s lives. If you would like to join us for our next service project with NOV, email us at oaklanduptownrotary@gmail.com.
Everyone at North Oakland Village will love you all forever! Our fingers are crossed that we’ll be able to have a pot luck dinner sometime soonish and see you all again! Susan PIerpoint