Terrylynn Fisher, our President of our local San Francisco East Bay Chapter brought us a gift this past July. The gift was the Monument Crisis Center located in Concord, California. When I sent the word out to the chapter that we were looking for a family or charity that we could help on our first annual Service Day, Terrylynn delivered!

Terrylynn and I met with Sandra, Executive Director, of the Monument Crisis Center in August. We did what stagers always do, we toured the facilities and took lots of pictures. We met some of the clients and the small staff of volunteers. Within minutes we were hooked. The Monument Crisis Center serves the working poor in our area. Their clients are 90+% working poor and have parents working two jobs to support their families. About 650 families a month are given help with food baskets when they run out of resources to make it through the month. There are also special events such as Mother's Day gifts that the children can give their mothers and the special Bike drive. Bicycles that are donated to the center are refreshed and given to the clients of the center which they use as their primary transportation.

We went away that day determined and eager to help these wonderful people and center. We took the task to our chapter and separated the center into rooms (just like Barb's Class). Each room had a team leader and they were charged with designing the room for both functionality and design. Each leader had a group of volunteers to get the room done.

We arrived at the center on September 17th with T-shirts on and staging essentials in hand and went to work. By 3:00 the center was completely transformed!

Our before pictures show a wonderful place with hand me downs in every area of the building, offices, lobby, children's play area, food pantry and food distribution center. Our efforts and vision today brought a smile to the faces of their Board of Directors and next week the clients they serve. We hesitate to tell you who did what, although we are very proud of what we did, individually…the day was about our collective energy and gifts, OUR CHAPTER was a unit with a common goal. I am so proud to be President of this group of women. They rose to the occasion beyond their own expectations. Like you always say Barb “Together we can do anything” And we did.

There is a new sign in the window (we hung it for them), a new welcoming bench out front…and The lobby has newer matching comfy chairs, an incredible painted wall with their logo, fresh paint, bulletin boards to display their photos of thank yous to people who've donated to them, brochure boxes, etc.

The children's room has a colorful mural, new storage for their many new toys and leap pads donated from Leapfrog Toy Company, books, accessories a new table and chair, large storage unit and a beautiful handpainted tree.

The administrative offices are neat and clean with new curtains, original children's art, greenery, displays of more of their volunteer donation checks and plaques.

Sandra, the Director's Office is refreshed with her wobbly table replaced, new artwork, new covers on the chairs, reorganization of the plaques and work items needed on a daily basis.

A special story from one of the Director Office team members Cathy Lee:

When Par, Jane and I visited the crisis center and met the director we knew we wanted to replace the broken table and recover the chairs she had next to her oak desk. We began our search, but as our service day approached we still had not found the right size table. We stopped in every office, consignment and major department store, asked a large corporate office for a donation, but on the 16th we still did not have a table for Sandra's office.

We decided we'd explain to Sandra we would return as soon as possible with a table for her office. Then on Friday my staging was postponed because the lino vendor did not finish at the property I was staging. I was thrilled to have one more day to “table search”. The first salesman I met at Sam Club in Dublin, Joel Medina, melted when I told him about the service day and the crisis center. He called his warehouse and had a supervisor meet me in Oakland to sell us the oak table at a much discounted price for Sandra!! It was truly a God thing-I had God bumps in that warehouse. Thanks for planning an awesome day!!

The Holiday Room has taken on a dual purpose since they have a need for another desk space for legal aid and bookkeeper's. This room is a tiny little space that donations are stored throughout the year in preparation for holiday events and gifts i.e. Mother's Day, Christmas, etc. A new shelving system for Holiday storage on one side and desk and file cabinets on the other give a workspace that looks purposeful.

The staff kitchen was in dire need of a table that was not wobbly too…some new artwork and hundreds of dollars in rolling carts and storage bins and lots of clean up and reorganization makes it inviting.

There are rooms left to do, of course, and all who were there feel compelled to return and contribute or just to see how they are doing. The staff, the Board, Sister Dorothy and everyone is just so giving of their time and energy and resources, it compels all who meet them to want to do more…There were some dry eyes, but overall many warm moments and the reward of their appreciation and awe at what we had done was worth more than any amount of money. This day left us all happy to be ASP stagers, proud of our talents, blessed to be among such wonderful people who worked together side by side to make a difference for this organization. We only wish we could see the reaction of the rest of the staff and clients when they see their Center for the first time.

We thankfully report our story…

Terrylynn Fisher, Bob Fisher, Diana Alfonso, Alise Lacosse, Parlin Gale, Kym Hough, Graham

Hough, Alix (Kym's daughter), Joyce Nuss, Kevin Nuss, Michelle Koch, Jill Aragon (Michelle's friend),
Karen Irwin, Brenda Kruse, Kahai Tate, Lavon Martel, (Lavon's daughter), Jane Sheldon. Cathy Lee Waag, Chrissy (Cathy Lee's sister), Liz Drozda, Linda Anderson – ASP/Realtor from Diablo Realty who provided the lunch, Patty Eddy – ASP/Realtor from Diablo Realty who provided the lunch,
Monument Crisis Center volunteer, Wes, Monument Crisis Center volunteer, Rick