Love Fullerton, a faith initiated organization celebrated it’s second year with a citywide serve day on May 9.

The organization, which was established in Fullerton last year, is supported by city and government officials, public schools, residents and over 30 churches in the Fullerton community.

The festivities were kicked off at 8 a.m on Saturday on the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Wilshire Avenue, followed by a rally at 9 a.m. before the thousands of volunteers met with their team leaders and dispersed to their designated assignments.

This year, over 65 different projects throughout the city were included in the movement. These projects included school and church construction projects, cleanup of the city and homeless outreach.

“This movement is to demonstrate kindness, meet the needs of those in the community and to impact lives,” said Pastor Jay Williams of Evangelical Free Church in Brea.

“The movement, which started in the Bay Area, has spread to over 50 cities and Fullerton is the first city here in Orange County to have this movement,” Williams said.

He hopes that this movement will become established in other cities in Orange County in the coming years.

His church, EvFree Brea, held a blood drive donating $30 per donation to local charities and made blankets for the Royal Family Kids Camp, which is a week long camp for children in the Foster Care System. Their goal was for each kid to have their own blanket.

Among the many organizations participating in this year’s movement was Future in Humanity, a local non-profit that serves the homeless in Fullerton.

They did some cleaning and painting in their office space upstairs at First Lutheran Church on Lemon.

This organization makes a tremendous impact in the lives of Fullerton’s homeless. Future in Humanity’s office provides case management and friendship to the homeless in an effort to get them on the road to self sufficiency.

The renovation at Solidarity’s Garnet Center was another project on this year’s list. This project was to renovate their Garnet Center, which is also home to two churches, Joya Scholars non-profit as well as the kids club for Solidarity’s garnet neighborhood and 60 kids everyday during the week.

The project included painting, replacing the old carpet, old doors, installing some drywall and installing some netting in the play area so the children can play soccer in the front of the facility.

Two organizations dedicated to helping end the cycle of homelessness, Career Wise and Coast-to-Coast, were the major players donating their time and love this year to help the homeless community.

Career Wise, a non-profit in our city, works to help those persons without housing get out of their situation via employment. They have been involved in our city for many years working with many of our most vulnerable city members.

Coast-to-Coast is a foundation that works with police departments all over North Orange County. They specialize in helping homeless get off the streets.

The volunteers of Coast-to-Coast divided up into teams to visit the parks and other areas in our community by reaching out with love, listening with compassion to our homeless neighbors.

Volunteers were invited to bring muffins and orange juice and extend a friendly smile, warm heart and conversation, which can transform someone’s life.

Over eighteen elementary schools were given some sprucing up during this day long day of service, including clean-up of the CSUF stadium entrances along West Campus Drive.

Fox Theatre, located on Harbor Boulevard and Chapman Avenue, received much needed TLC, with clean-up efforts before it’s much anticipated re-opening at the end of May.

For almost three hours, thousands of volunteers and organization leaders worked tirelessly against the clock to get as much done as possible before the lunch began at Hill Crest park at 12:30 p.m.

The barbeque lunch was donated by Heroes Bar & Grill of Fullerton, in honor of the volunteers hard work.

After lunch, the volunteers went back to the remaining sites that were scheduled for the afternoon and committed to completing each task until the projects were complete.

This year’s Love Fullerton movement leaves the question “where is the love?” answered. The love is right here in Fullerton.

For more information on how to help or where to donate time and materials, go to #LoveFullerton or www.lovefullerton.org.