SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL of HANFORD
Saturday of Service, 2004

Prior to our Saturday of Service on March 6, we arranged a speaker from the shelter to come and give a talk about the shelter and what they were doing there during the Domestic Violence month.
Our club then decided to take on the Shelter as our SOS project hoping to establish a long-term relationship with the shelter. We held a few meetings with SI of Hanford members and the leaders of the shelter. We discussed their needs and how we could help the women and children in the facility. A small group went to the shelter and evaluated the work needing to be completed. The project was then presented to the members who were very excited about the hands on project.

We took on the task of repairing and painting the Great room/ dining room, tiling the cabinets and shelves in the kitchen area.

We are also having a small area of the yard prepped for their garden area. We will then take a few of the women to Home Garden to purchase vegetables and flowers for the garden. The women at the shelter helped by removing all supplies from the kitchen area in prep for our arrival the next AM. Friday the night before SOS 5 members and their spouses arrived to prep all the walls for painting the next day.

Saturday at 0800 we converged on the shelter. Several women painted while the other women worked on the many kitchen shelves. We ended at 1230 PM with all task completed. That evening a member went back to place everything back on the walls and windows. One of the women in the shelter helped replace all the switch covers in the Great room. We had a total of 16 women, 2 children and 3 spouses help on this project. One of our members donated gardening supplies for the shelter as well as helping shelve. We had an article published in the Hanford Sentinel and the Fresno Bee.
We will continue to support this shelter in the future as we look to continuing the helping hand that we have extended to this shelter.