Special to the Register

On the morning of April 21, National and Global Youth Service Day began with a kickoff ceremony at the Napa County Office of Education. All 70 or so volunteers met there and were welcomed with breakfast food provided by the NCOE.

Caryl Hallberg, executive director of the Volunteer Center of Napa Valley, began the ceremony by saying some inspirational words to the young audience. Napa County Superintendent of Schools Barbara Nemko spoke of her appreciation of the volunteers for filling a very important need in the community.

Napa County Supervisor Harold Moskowite presented a proclamation after discussing his own experiences as a volunteer for 45 years with the Volunteer Fire Department. At the close of the kickoff, the students broke into their groups and relocated to their assigned project sites. Culligan Water donated bottled water for each site. After delivering the water, Bryan Busby even got his hands dirty with the other volunteers and helped plant flowers at Vichy Elementary School, officially making him the Volunteer Center's new favorite "Culligan Man."

All day long, volunteers of all ages dug in the dirt, planted flowers, assembled park benches, and made a huge contribution their community. At Vichy Elementary School, the student council provided free popsicles to all the volunteers -- they were a huge hit. At the NCOE site, a group of volunteers from the juvenile probation program planted flowers in a patch in front of Chamberlain High School. Many of the students from this group are actually students at that school. One of them pointed to his classroom in front of the flowers he was planting and noted that he would be able to see the flowers every day.

With a weather forecast that was not so promising, and rain clouds looming all day, the group were thrilled when it started raining at the very moment they were packing up and driving away, just in time to water the freshly planted flowers.

National and Global Youth Service Day is a celebration recognizing the year-round contributions young people make to their communities. It is celebrated simultaneously in 116 countries around the world.

The Volunteer Center of Napa Valley's YES project (Youth Engaged in Service) is driven by the YES Council. This Council is made up of 13 middle and high school students from 13 different schools in Napa County. Months ago, after paying close attention to their surroundings and asking their peers, the council agreed that an issue they were concerned about was the condition of schools in Napa. It was then, that the challenge to focus on for National and Global Youth Service Day was decided: School Beautification.

Jill Johnson, at the Napa County Office of Education came up with multiple projects around their facility. Assembling park benches, and planting flowers were among the projects.

Sheila Beaver, a Vichy Elementary School parent and volunteer gardener, also known as "Flower Lady" by the Vichy students, had a plethora of landscaping and gardening projects that needed the help of some volunteers. Heidi Hamler, internship coordinator at New Tech High, also knew of some neglected areas at her school that could use a little beautification.

All in all, it was a huge success. Nearly 70 volunteers of all ages completed all the projects they set out to do. Fun was had by all and everyone is already looking forward to next year.