By Virgi Laska – Stockton Sentinel

The Stockton High School students were out in full force on Monday, April 24th to take part in Stockton’s PRIDE Day. The workday was coordinated through the PRIDE organization, the superintendent and high school principal Shelly Swayne and the City of Stockton, with many PRIDE members and volunteers on hand to help with the list of cleanup projects.
At the start of the day the students were divided into teams with teachers, PRIDE members and volunteers heading up the work groups. Heading up the teams were Lee Lindsey, Steven Tso, Carissa Brass, Bridget Starbuck, Shane Austin, Neil Stewart, Sandi Rogers, Jayne Prockish, Cathy Carlson, Linda Jones, Michelle Towery, Andrew Ables, Mike Rogers, Chris Graham, Dennis Bedore, Jenny Niblock, Kayla Hilbrink, Justin Basart and Chelsey Peterson.
Some of the teams went straight to painting and doing trim work on a few houses around town. The homeowners supplied the paint, along with brushes, rollers, primer, etc. for their projects. A few teams hit the streets and swept and cleaned the Main Street sidewalks, while other groups trimmed bushes, cut tree branches, raked up leaves, pulled weeds and picked up trash to be hauled off several properties. There were full yard cleanups down to students cleaning up trash around the football field and the school grounds, as well as in the city park and around the ball diamond fences.
A total of 76 students, their teachers and many citizen volunteers worked throughout the day, stopping only to enjoy a barbeque lunch at City Hall. All the food for the meal was donated. The City of Stockton employees and mayor helped serve the students and volunteers. Helping with donations of food or equipment for the day were PRIDE, the City of Stockton, Stockton High School, Angie Johnston, Linda Jones, Carissa Brass, Virgi Laska, Sharri Coffey, Bridget Starbuck, Ginger Kriley, Alta, Andy’s Home Service, Anita Conger,

Dale Winklepleck, Julie Kriley and Chelsey Peterson.
After lunch it was back to work for the groups with most of the afternoon being spent finishing up the many projects. Some of the City crew also helped clean up the sand and dirt around a few of the places.

Flowers were planted in the downtown planters and many of the businesses got their windows washed.
Even though PRIDE Day is over for this year, the organization also has a weekend project called “Helping Days.” This is where volunteers donate their time to clean up around town on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. When a project comes up, PRIDE President Amber Muir sends out an email of the time and place. If you aren’t busy and can help, all you do is show up at the designated location for a few hours of work. To get involved in this program, just contact Muir at Solutions North Bank to get on the list.

PRIDE President Muir stated, “It was a much better day weather-wise than we’ve had in the past few years and we got a lot accomplished. It’s nice to have so many working together for a pleasing goal. I was very PROUD of all who participated. The kids enjoyed themselves and the community benefited from it tremendously! That’s what it is all about, neighbors helping neighbors and showing our Stockton PRIDE.”
(The organization meets every second Tuesday of the month and is open to all community members who want to make a difference in our town.)