Bikes and "PIF"

Dear PIF:

Wow!  What a wonderful website.  My family and I watched the movie a number of years ago.  My kids loved it but felt it was too sad.  They were a little young at the time, I think.  They are 10 and 11 now and Paying it Forward is our way of life.

My kids are being raised by parents who regularly give of our time and talents to our community.  Since we use a lot of our time and talents to help our community - it stands to reason that we aren't using them to make money for our family - sometimes that's a challenge, but it never stops us.  Our kids don't spend weekends on the computer or video games or at the skate park - they come with us to help out with whatever activity we've got planned.  

Our school had a big Spring Fling carnival this past weekend and our theme was Healthy Community.  We had our friend Shawn Holiday from Cycles 4 Hope come out and work on kids' bikes for free.  Mercy San Juan Hospital's SafeKids program gave us 50 bike helmets to give away.  The Hub bike shop of Roseville, CA  paid one of their employees to come out for the day and fit the bike helmets so the kids could truly be safe.  Shawn did a free raffle of 3 girl's bikes and 3 boy's bikes!  The kids loved it!  We live in a lower socio-economic neighborhood.  Everyone right now is hurting.  This event really lifted everyone's spirits.  My daughter (age 10) ran our rummage sale booth for our Relay for Life team (American Cancer Society) while my son (age 11) helped the third grade teacher with her Jelly Bean Class Toy Store selling gently used toys to help raise money for class field trips.  

My family and I are working on our community garden - the very FIRST one of its kind in our city.  11 years ago when we moved into our modest home in Citrus Heights, CA we met a lovely lady named Julia Moncrief.  She was in her early 80's at the time and could no longer garden.  She helped my husband and I build and plant our very own raised beds in an unusable portion of our little lot.  She taught me about tomatoes, beans, corn, squash and about how to keep the bugs away without using chemicals.  She and I would go to the farmer's market every Saturday at 7am in the summer.  She taught me how to make fried green tomatoes.  She passed away 4 years ago from cancer and I miss her so much.  We decided to establish the Julia Moncrief Garden Scholarship to help offset the cost for two seniors who want to have a plot at our new Sylvan Ranch Community Garden.  It will be a cost of $50 per year for our family but we will find a way to do it in Julia's memory.  We feel strongly about paying forward the love of gardening and the gifts of the earth that Julia shared with us.  In addition, when she passed, her family gave me her gardening reference books.  These books will become the foundation of the Sylvan Ranch Community Garden's lending library (as soon as we raise enough money for a TuffShed to put them in!)

 
Thank-you so much!

Laura A. Taylor