Town Lake Green-up Clean-up

You may or may not know this, but this week is National Volunteer Week. To kickoff volunteering me and several other people from work teamed up with the Tempe Town Lake Green-Up Clean-up along with other companies to clean a section of the Tempe Town Lake. We were split into several different teams. Some got to paint, sweep, pick up trash, etc. We got to take out weeds and remove any dead plants. We did this for 4 hours from 7am - 11am.

After the clean-up we had a lunch(hot dogs, chips, water, cookies, etc) and a raffle as a thank you for our help. They had a set of tickets for a salsa event that was going on later that day at the lake and a set of tickets for a 4th of July show. They also gave away volunteer shirts, beach balls, and Rockstar Beverage hats. Forgot to ask someone to take a photo of me and our team together.

It was alot of hard work to pull out weeds and dead plants for almost 4 hours, but it was fun and felt good to do something for the community. Good thing it was a bit breezy. Oh and there was a fried frog. Must have died while back in the scorching Arizona heat.

Interested in volunteering? Don't know where to start? Follow this link! :)

Arizona Asian American Festival 2008

Last Saturday I went to the Arizona Asian American Festival. I was there in the afternoon. They had a fashion show of traditional wear of different Asian countries, Japan, India, Philippines, China, etc. There were vendors of food and stuff from their countries. It'd be neat to take a trip to Asia.

Fun in the sun...

Past couple weekends have been sunny, and I've been out volunteering. My face got a bit sunburned.

April 5th I helped at a local school in the setup for their American Cancer Society Relay for Life event for about 5 hours. I helped setting up the trash cans, decorations, arrangements, tables, kids play area, snack area, and white chocolate covered strawberry tray, as well as a gofer to several people.

April 11th I helped the Phoenix Pride with their last minute things for close to 5 hours. I got to distribute many cases sodas to the various vending locations and water to the stages. Then I helped rearrange cases of liquor and beer that had fallen over in the truck they came in. Lastly, I helped with marking, painting and glittering for the Phoenix Pride Float.

April 12th went to the Phoenix Pride Parade. I was super excited when I saw the Phoenix Pride float. After the Parade, went inside the Festival and walked all over the place, to almost every booth and stage.

April 13th I helped the JDRF at the Phoenix Zoo. The Juvenile Diabetic Research Foundation was presenting a research and update meeting to parents. During this time I was assigned 3 kids, Kassie, Cutter, and Cory, that I took all over the Phoenix Zoo. I got a walkie that I used to check in every 30 minutes. It was really fun.



.... Updated 02/14/2010, added link to Phoenix Pride http://phoenixpride.org/

Mom week...

For a week my mom visited at the end of March. We went shopping and brunching and more. We spent quite a bit at the Beads Galore store in Tempe. Discovered some new places for brunch, which have actually been opened for a while just didn't know about them.

We did some cultural stops too. One was at the Scottsdale Civic Center area, which is really nice. We went there to see a Native American show about the Native American culture in the US. It was pretty neat and there were vendors with some really nice jewelry, pottery, etc. We went to Drumbeats too. A Native American operated store that sells everything Native American made.