Making signs out of cafeteria trays

Michelle Johnson of Crosswalk Church helps a neighborhood student convert discarded cafeteria trays into signs advertising the Norton Neighborhoods' mentoring program--Mentor Magic. Michelle's friend, Ghina Katrib (not shown), also from Crosswalk, was also there in the portable office at the Norton Gardens helping another neighborhood student learn touch typing.

Monica Har, a Global Health student from LLU's School of Public Health (center) and Professor Nicceta Davis of the School of Allied Health join a Serrano Middle School student from the neighborhood sorting pictures and creating a photo album about the after-school programs at the Norton Gardens over the past four years. Although we didn't get a picture of him, Boaz Papendick, a classmate of Monica's, also volunteered this Sunday--helping Michael Anderson (who lives at Norton Gardens with his wife) create roofs for three small storage sheds.

Girls from Serrano Middle School and San Gorgonio High who live in the neighborhood near the Norton Gardens did some painting for their weekly neighborhood service. LLUMC's linen service--Angelica--provided the blue smocks they use when the paint. Students who come to tutoring and participate in the other weekly programs at the Norton Gardens get a weekly $10 incentive award provided by grants from Stater Bros, the Community Foundation, and private donors.

Drs. Erika McClure and Natalie Santiago, Residents in the Pediatrics Dept of LLU's School of Medicine, visit the Children's Learning Gardens for the weekly nutrition lesson, a feature of the OK Kids community pediatrics rotation. The Gardens is an after-school site in LLUMC's Norton Neighborhoods Initiative, located in the Valley View neighborhood near the Santa Ana River in southeastern San Bernardino.

Simple Acts of Kindness

Volunteers from Campus Hill Church's "SAKE" program (Simple Acts of Kindness Enterprise) visited the Valley View neighborhood and cleaned up a vacant lot two blocks from Norton Gardens. Children in the neighborhood consider "people dumping trash in our neighborhood" as one of the neighborhood's most serious problems, so the effort was much appreciated by the neighbors. They'll be back every Saturday afternoon to help empower the children, youth, and families of the neighborhood with activities ranging from gardening and crafts to character and values development.