High School Christmas Party

The High School Group (the Loft) from Hillside Church threw a Christmas party for the kids of Farm Drive. We took them to the church for some games as you can see below:


Then after this we jumped into a bus for a little trip to the Sonoma Chicken Coop for some chocolate fondue.


As with all kids the fondue will end up in places it is not designed for! The kids had a blast. Thank you Hillside High School Youth Group!

Annual Farm Drive Christmas Store

This week, we had one of our largest Christmas stores EVER!! The kids normally go through and pick one gift for each member of their family, and one for themselves. This year, we were able to let them each get THREE extra gifts. You could see the smiles of joy on their faces!! We had a whole bunch of volunteers and we were able to assign a “personal shopper” to each kid! The shoppers carried their gifts while they continued to shop. What a special time.

After getting their gifts, the kids went to our “Wrapping Stations”, where other volunteers helped the kids wrap the gifts for their families. What fun!! I have included a couple of pictures so that you can see what a good time the kids had.

Before pictures!



And then the customers showed up!







Thanks to the volunteers that showed up to help. We couldn't have done it without you and to all those who donated the gifts! The kids and their families really appreciated this.
Word had spread around and we had a number of first time volunteers. We even had the CFO of a large corporation (Roche) show up and helped!

Wii Night for Younger Boys

While the younger ladies had a Pajama and movie night, we had some of the younger boys up to our apartment to play Wii Mario Cart. 13 boys had pizza and played a round robin tournament. Below are a few of the pictures from the night.

These guys have been bugging us for awhile to have a Wii night just for them and not with the older boys. Since Patty was going to be out with the girls this presented us with an opportunity to do it now. We only had 4 signed up to play at 4:00 but when I came home at 5, 11 guys were waiting to play! A few more showed up and game on!

The challenge was that only 4 guys can play at a time. So what to do with the other 8 guys? Fortunately the games are not very long so they can switch off. One thing they learned is patience because they have to take turns so everyone gets a chance.

Gary has never played Mario Cart before so we had some kids teach him how to drive! I was able to record it for all to see!

Ice Skating in Downtown San Jose

Last Sunday we took some of the kids to the ice skating rink which is downtown. It is near Christmas in the Park. We got some discount tickets through Groupon but we had to use them by Thanksgiving. Most had not ice skated before but a few of them have experience with roller blades which helps a lot with balance!

Of course, those without much experience landed on the ice quite a few times!

But they all had a lot of fun. You can tell by their smiles.



Here is the entire group that went ice skating. Patty, Gary and Ruben observed. They were not as adventurous as Pete. Afterwards we went to the Spaghetti Factory for a nice big lunch.

A Typical Thursday

What did we do at Farm Drive this past Thursday?

* Went to 2^nd Harvest to pick up our weekly food order

* 3 families, just moved in to the neighborhood came to the Center and got 3 boxes of food, 4 bikes, 4 jackets from a Hillside person, and a bookcase from Hillside

* One person (know them well) needed to borrow $40 till pay day

* Went to the ladies club at Colonial Manor to talk to the ladies and received pennies they have been collecting all year

* One person came over needing to borrow $10 for gas till Saturday

* Went to the store to buy milk for Saturday Bible Club and 6 bags hot cheetos (reward for kids doing flash cards)

* Handed out 260 pounds of food throughout the day (got at 2^nd Harvest) to kids and families

* Dick Shore, our bike man was here for several hours working on bikes so it was fun actually finding homes for some that day

* Kids come to Homework Club arriving at 2:30 (anxious to get here) and are here till 5

* Kids played street hockey after Homework Club with guy leaders

A busy but blessed Thursday! Thanks for keeping us in prayer.

CRAM

Last year we started a program called CRAM. Committed. Relational. Accountable. Motivated.



This is the Vision Statement:

That all willing and able students in the Farm Drive Neighborhood would graduate from High School and continue on to higher education or vocational/job skill training

• Mentor relationships would be built through a sponsorship program between volunteers and students from the Farm Drive Neighborhood
• CRAM would have significant positive impact on the broader sociological disadvantages which young people in the Farm Drive neighborhood face

Last year we had 7 students in the program and this year we have 17 students matched up with various mentors. One of the rewards for graduating High School is being given a laptop. Below is Cristina our first student to graduate as part of the program. Gary and Patty are presenting her laptop to her. She is continuing in the CRAM program as a college student.


Some exciting things are happening with our CRAM students. After the first grading period we awarded 9 students with $10 gift cards to McDonalds. The second grading period is complete and two sets of rewards will be awarded on Tuesday, Nov. 16 at the Center at 3:00 - 7 students will get $10 gift cards to Starbucks and we will begin our "Money for A's". A generous friend of FD is paying CRAM kids $5 for any A they get. We will be handing out $85 on Tuesday! We have invited all the CRAM kids to come even if they are not receiving a reward.

We are very proud of these kids for doing so well and we are very proud of their mentors too...for loving these students!

A Couple of Events

Some other things have been going on this fall. I will briefly share them here. Patty was asked to be a "Nina" for Ellie's Quinceanera. This meant she helped with putting on the event meaning she bought the invitations that went out. It also meant that she was to be a part of a dance when all of the helpers are called out to dance with either the honoree or Chambelán, the escort for the gal. Below is Ellie with her escort, Ronnie. Both of them live in the neighborhood and have been a part of the Center.


The rest of her court entering the celebration with the dance procession:


Patty with Ellie and Cristina. It was a fun party and a great time to hang out with many friends and family that are a part of the neighborhood.

Another event: A blue whale washed up on shore near Pescadero a few weeks back. It appears that it was killed by a ship, getting cut up by the propeller. It was also pregant since they found a fetus nearby. We wanted to take some of the kids to see it since it is rare to see a blue whale that close. After church we took them over to Santa Cruz for lunch and then up the coast to see the 80' whale.



It already had been 2 weeks since it was found and so already was decomposing and smelling pretty bad.
Below is the group playing in the surf. Something about water and waves attracts kids!

Event #3: While I was away one day, Patty took some kids on a bike ride. They went from the Center and rode down to Alamden Park. Here is the group.

Street Hockey

We recently had our annual Street Hockey Tournament which is put on by Sharks in the Park, a program run by the San Jose Sharks to provide street hockey training, gear, and an annual Street Hockey Tournament. We had 2 teams this year and they did very well. Below are some pictures of the tournament. Later that evening we were provided tickets by the Sharks to attend their exhibition game. Kids always look forward to that!

The older team:


Sharkie showed up and the kids always like getting their picture taken with him!


The younger team:

Older team again:

Group picture of the older team before the tournament. It was a warm day and this is not what they looked like at the end of the day! Robbie Ernst was their coach.

Younger group photo with Sarah Hale as coach:

Thanks so much to the coaches for their long hours put in for practice and games!

Cooking Classes

One of the Adult Bible Fellowship classes at Hillside started a cooking class once a month for the boys and one for the girls. Their goal is to teach them how to cook basic items and just hang out. This class is a young married's class called Kallao. Take a look at one of the boys classes below. You can tell they had a great time.


Below are some of the girls making pie crusts from scratch. They then made pumpkin pie and apple crisp.

Group photo.

Another Saturday class where they learned to make pizza.


Their finished pies! And they were tasty. Thanks Kallao! The kids love these classes.

Vicki's Wedding

A friend of Farm Drive and a frequent volunteer/mentor got married recently. She invited 11 kids that meant a lot to her Patty, Gary, and myself drove them to the wedding which was on the baseball field at Venture Church. Here are Vichy and Rigo reciting their vows:


It was a very warm afternoon but we got some nice seats in the back near the aisle.


After the wedding a picture with Anahi.

The entire group after the wedding.


Rigo with Alan.

The reception was at a local Community Cabana Club. Here is the group at their table in the back. The very far back!