Silver Terrace Wellness Day Meeting

Last summer, many D10 residents participated in the first ever Silver Terrace Wellness Day at the Silver Terrace Playground.  Those of us who helped to organize it had a lot of fun doing it, getting to know our neighbors, and putting on an event that the whole community enjoyed, so we want to do it again.

If you are interested in helping, I'd like to invite you to a meeting on:

Thursday, March 8, 6:30-7:30PM at Portola Family Connections, 2565 San Bruno Ave.
RSVP: Chris Waddling, cawaddling@gmail.com

At this meeting, we will talk about last year’s event, gauge interest in Wellness Day 2012, and will ask for help in areas such as organization, language (Spanish, Mandarin, and Cantonese) and neighbor outreach.

Even if you don't have a lot of time, but you would still like to get involved, recommend someone you know who could help, or just want to meet your neighbors, we'd love to see you next Thursday.

If you are unable to attend next Thursday, but would still like to help or be informed of our progress, please let me know.

RSVP if you plan to attend Thursday.

Silver Terrace Wellness Day a Success!

Team Wellness Day

The sky was bright and the air was warm for the first ever Silver Terrace Wellness Day.  Over 300 neighbors from the Portola, Visitacion Valley, Bayview, Bernal Heights, and of course, Silver Terrace, came to enjoy themselves at a city playground today, where they were met by eager volunteers ready to help them get a little wellness into their lives.  A long list of health and medical organizations, local businesses, and volunteer agencies were on-hand to provide a wide variety of experiences within the confines of the playground.  Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, was put on FREE of charge and through volunteer effort, from the food to the instructors to the permit for the park.  Everyone chipped in to create a truly magical day.

Armando Luna, Championship Fitness

Starting us off, Armando Luna of Championship Fitness, who usually gives of his time by teaching yoga at the Bayview Opera House, started the day off with a yoga class for a group of early birds.  Later in the day, Sports Basement showed up to offer a soccer clinic and Rec & Park sent some folks over to lead a Volleyball skills clinic. 

Jorge Cordoba and Sharad Jain

Jorge Cordoba of SFGH was a HUGE help in coordinating and setting up all the  health and medical information booths.  API Wellness offered Hepatitis B testing, NEMS and Clinic by the Bay offered blood pressure testing, getting over 60 people tested.  The San Francisco Suicide Prevention Center was on hand too, as was the 3rd St Youth Clinic.  Given that many in our community do not speak English well or at all, the California Healthcare Interpretive Association was on hand to talk to people about how they can get help obtaining services in their own language and to connect with the healthcare providers who were there to let them know of CHIA's services.

Recology serves up lunch

The Green Goatee, QGI

Andrea Cohan's VeggieTable

Food is a major part of wellness, and so this was another major draw for people coming to the event.  Tony "The Green Goatee" Tarket of the Quesada Gardens Initiative spent hours under the tree showing people how to garden and giving them a plant to take home.  Speaking of plants to take home, Andrea Cohan of the Veggie Table brought over 20-lbs of collard greens, strawberries, and other veggies for people to take.   Recology's Ron Walton and his crew did a bang up job of keeping the food flowing, serving up over 250 hot dogs and 100 veggie, beef, and turkey burgers.  The free veggies and lunch were both GONE by noon!!!  Next year, one per person, though!  Paige Boger was also on hand to sign people up for Eatwell Farms Organic Veggie and Egg delivery.

Chris Schlesinger, At Home CPR

Oscar and  Jr Paramedic, AMR

Off in the clubhouse, Chris Schlesinger offered two CPR classes for those who wanted a basic understanding of what to do in an emergency.  Paramedics Bill and Oscar from AMR Ambulance were on-hand just in case we had one, and to show off their ambulance to the kids.

Kids at Wellness Day

Michele Elefante, SF Karate

Speaking of the kids, Erica Rendón of Portola Family Connections spent the day over in the playground area with Julia and her troupe from Our Family Coalition face painting and playing with hula hoops.  Judging by the number of kids walking around with their faces painted, it looked like they had a blast.  Kids were also into the karate lessons offered by Michele Elefante of SF Karate, and it looked like they all had a fun time kicking it!! Dogs - the children of some of us - were also taken care of throughout the day by great folks at Fog City Dogs.

I'm really proud of the job we did yesterday.  Not to go without mention, Vickie Bell of Neighborhood Parks Council, who helped coordinate the entire day, Mariano Tabios, volunteer neighbor extraordinaire, and Robert Watkins and Marquiza of Rec & Parks. 

It looks like this could be an annual event, so anyone who's interested in helping, especially with  translation, outreach, or organization, please drop me a line!

Silver Terrace Wellness Day - Saturday, July 23

The Southeast corner of San Francisco, home to some of the friendliest people in the city, is also home to some of the city’s most pressing health and wellness issues. Thankfully, there are a growing number of civic-minded neighbors and non-profit organizations that are trying to change that.

In response to the need for neighbors to get active and get outside, the Friends of Silver Terrace Playground, a new park and community group, is hosting its first Wellness Day on Saturday, July 23rd Wellness Day at Silver Terrace Playground, which serves the Bayview, Portola, and Bernal Heights neighborhoods as their local playground, and the city at large as one of it's primary club sports venues.

Working with the Neighborhood Parks Council and the San Francisco Department of Rec & Parks, the event aims to address wellness issues facing this part of the city through sport and exercise, food and nutrition, and health and safety. It will present neighbors with a variety of ways to get healthy, including: basketball, volleyball, badminton and soccer clinics; yoga; karate; tai chi; walking; and more.  There will also be kids craft activities provided by Portola Family Connections and Our Family Coalition.

There will be gardening demonstrations by Quesada Gardens Initiative, Urban Sprouts and Flowercraft, vegetables donated by the SF Produce Market, Veritable Vegetable, and Bi-Rite that will be given away by VeggieTable, plus local soil quality information. There will also be basic CPR instruction, health testing and information about primary care options for low-income San Franciscans, asthma, COPD, diabetes, HIV, suicide prevention, smoking cessation, plus other health, wellness, and safety information.  Many of the event's healthcare providers, including UCSF, SFGH, NEMS, and Clinic by the Bay, will be providing information in English, Spanish, Mandarin and Cantonese.  We will also have on-hand a representative from the California Healthcare Interpreting Association with translation services.

Area businesses have also graciously offered to chip in, with Recology providing healthy BBQ’d veggie burgers and vegetables, and AMR providing an ambulance for ‘junior paramedics’ to climb inside and to learn about our first responders.  We will also have a supervised dog play area, provided by Fog City Dogs, so that you can leave your dog in good hands while experiencing some of the events we have planned.  Sports Basement will also be sending their folks to help with our soccer clinic.

Sports Clinics:
10:30 - 1:00 Soccer (Sports Basement)
10:30 - 11:30 Volleyball (Rec & Park Dept)
12:30 - 1:30 Basketball (Rec & Park Dept)
1:00 - 2:00 Badminton

Activities:
10:00 - 11:00 Yoga
10:30 Basic CPR
11:00 Tai Chi
11:30 Kids' Karate
12:30 Basic CPR

All Day:
Free Veggie give-away (while supplies last)
Free lunch
Gardening demos
Junior Paramedics


View Larger Map

Silver Terrace Playground, located at the corner of Silver Ave and Bayshore Blvd and renovated in 2006 through the City Fields Foundation, was once an unsafe and unwelcoming place. The renovation has seen usage of the playground increase by over 5000 hours annually, and has created a safer place for everyone to enjoy.

Silver Terrace Playground Wellness Day Saturday, July 23, 2011 10AM – 2PM Silver Ave at Bayshore Blvd, just off Hwy-101

Wellness Day is being organized by the Friends of Silver Terrace Playground, Portola Family Connections, Parks94124, and the Neighborhood Parks Council, and is being put on entirely through volunteer effort and donations. To help, or for more information, contact: Chris Waddling at cawaddling@gmail.com or Victoria Bell at vbell@sfnpc.org or 415-621-3260. On the web at http://sfnpc.org/wellnessday/