Category Archives: Volunteering

September 8, 2017 · 2:09 pm

Penn Serves Picks Fruit with Food Forward LA

By Jane Gutman, CW’73, PAR’14, PAR’16

It was a scorching day in the Valley (95 degrees!), but twenty some hearty and enthusiastic Penn Serves LA alumni and family gathered at lovely Orcutt Farm (where two of our volunteers had gotten married) to spend Saturday afternoon assiting Food Forward. Since its start almost eight years ago, Food Forward has “rescued” over 25 million pounds (or 100 million servings) of fresh local produce. The math is quite simple: using volunteers, Food Forward connects surplus food produce with food insecure people in our community.

Penn Serves LA ready to help pick fruit for Food Forward, photo courtesy of Jane Gutman

Penn Serves LA gets instructions from Food Forward, photo by Kiera Reilly

Armed with long tools resembling lacrosse sticks with metal baskets, we went into a beautiful and shady grove of orange trees and chatted about our Penn experiences, families and work while carefully catching oranges and filling boxes – a very social and productive time. It was all so easy and so much fun to make a little difference for our community!

Penn Serves LA picks fruit for Food Forward

Getting to work picking fruit, photo by Jane Gutman.

Picking fruit for Food Forwardy, photo by Kiera Reilly

Picking fruit for Food Forward, photo by Kiera Reilly

Our Food Forward team leader Jane Gutman with another Penn alumna volunteer, photo by Kiera Reilly

The morning group had picked 6,000 pounds of oranges and, as slightly competitive Ivy Leaguers (with a few other groups out there helping too), we were delighted to learn our final count was more than 6,400 pounds of gorgeous, juicy oranges. Given that Food Forward is such a well oiled machine, we were informed that later that very day the fruit we picked would be enjoyed by people at some of the more than 300 hunger relief agencies they serve across eight counties in Southern California.

Lots of Red and Blue shirts helping pick fruit for Food Forward, photo by Kiera Reilly

Food insecurity is one of the most devastating issues facing our community, especially given the natural abundance surrounding us. Penn Serves LA has had volunteer opportunities addressing this immense need from various angles through our work with: the Westside Food Bank, the Veteran’s Garden, the Midnight Mission, Turning Point Shelter, The Giving Spirit, Meals on Wheels, LA Kitchen and more.

Love this shirt: Lancaster Ave., the Rodeo Drive of West Philadelphia. Photo by Kiera Reilly

Penn Serves LA are great events for Penn families!

As always, our Food Forward Penn Serves LA volunteers represented a broad cross section of schools and years at the Red and the Blue. Once again, we were thrilled to meet many new volunteers and to see other familiar faces. The Penn Serves LA community continues to grow, as we add to the list of extraordinary non-profit organizations we are fortunate to serve in Los Angeles.

Thank you…see you next time!! Our next event? September 23.

For more information or to volunteer with Food Forward, go to: https://foodforward.org.

Penn Serves LA after picking 6,400 pounds of fruit with Food Forward

6,400 pounds of fruit later! Photo courtesy of Jane Gutman

6,400 pounds of fruit that Penn Serves LA helped pick for Food Forward, photo by Kiera Reilly

About Penn Serves LA

Penn Serves LA logo volunteering with Penn Alumni in Los Angeles

Penn Serves LA impacts the Los Angeles community by engaging University of Pennsylvania alumni, parents and families in meaningful community service activities.

We have done everything from serving meals to the homeless to restoring the environment to fixing homes. Six times annually, we find another great opportunity to learn about interesting nonprofits, lend a hand and enjoy fun experience with fellow alumni.

Join Us

We invite the Penn community in Los Angeles (alumni, parents and kids) to join us at a future event, to help spread the word and to help us plan future activities. Join us, meet new Penn people, demonstrate what service means to your kids and friends, and help fellow Quakers make a little bit of difference in our complex city!

If you have an established nonprofit that you would like us to consider for future events or announcements, please let us know. We are looking for new nonprofits to serve in meaningful ways.

Our next event – September 23. We will be helping to restore the Ballona Creek Wetlands. For more information and to register, click here.

Contact Us

Questions? Want to join our email list? Reach us at pennserves@gmail.com.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram and Twitter!

The Penn Serves LA Team

Read about our previous events:

July, 2017 – Portraits of Hope
April, 2017 – Habitat for Humanity
January, 2017 – Penn Serves LA Toasts the New Year
January, 2017 – Blankets of Love
November, 2016 – L.A. Kitchen
October, 2016 – Got Books? Penn Serves LA Staff’s ICEF First Literacy Festival
March, 2016 – Rescue Rabbits
October, 2015 – Penn Serves Picks Packs of Peppers at Westside Food Bank
September, 2015 – Penn Serves LA Reads to Kids
July, 2015 – Penn Serves LA: Harvesting a Garden for Veterans
June, 2015 – Penn Serves LA Spruces up a New Charter School
June, 2015 – Penn Serves LA Has the Giving Spirit
August, 2014 – Penn Serves LA Strikes Again: This Time with Paint!
December, 2013 – Holidays are a Time for Giving
November, 2013 – Sending Holiday Warmth to our Troops
August and September, 2013 – Serving the Environment and LA Leadership Academy
May, 2013 – One on One Outreach
March, 2013 – Habitat for Humanity
January, 2013 – Inner City Arts
September, 2012 – The Midnight Mission
June, 2012 – Turning Point Shelter

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Filed under Alumni Programming, Jane G., Los Angeles, Penn Serves, Penn Serves LA, Volunteering

Tagged as Habitat for Humanity, Jane Gutman, Los Angeles, Penn Club of Los Angeles, Penn Serves, Penn Serves LA, Volunteering

August 16, 2017 · 11:18 am

Penn Serves LA Paints with Portraits of Hope

By Jane Gutman, CW’73, PAR’14, PAR’16

Penn Serves LA Paints at Portraits of Hope in El Segundo

Penn Serves LA at Portraits of Hope

What a happy day for thirty Penn volunteers! We gathered in an air conditioned art studio in El Segundo to paint gigantic flowers stenciled on heavy cardboard to benefit Portraits of Hope. Working with fantastic fluorescent paints, everyone shared tips (start in the center and work outwards, yellow covers best) and Penn stories while indulging our creative sides. As always, the event attracted people from a range of classes and schools, and we were especially pleased to welcome three incoming “freshpeople,” Class of 2021!

Portraits of Hope was founded in 1995 by brothers Ed and Bernie Massey, originally to benefit sick and physically disabled children. They wanted to develop motivational art projects to provide creative therapy for children with special needs, and civic education for students, by producing dynamic public art works. Over time they have painted and transformed NASCAR racecars, a NY taxi fleet, airplanes, buses, buildings and more.

Penn Alumni and Penn Serves LA painting flowers at Portraits of Hope

Penn Alumni painting flowers at Portraits of Hope

Painting at Portraits of Hope

Penn Serves LA board members Kiera Reilly, C’93, and Jaime Kendall, W’04 paint a flower

The project to which we contributed, and for which there are over 1000 discs of varying sizes, will adorn and illuminate a prominent pedestrian destination, the historic lily pond in Beverly Hills. We hope people will visit this lovely spot after the show mounted and opened on August 3^rd. On weekends, bright lights and 3-D glasses, which our Penn Serves LA volunteers were able to preview, will make the flourescent flowers appear to float at varying levels – a fabulous, DayGlo, flower-filled water spectacle!

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Following a period on display at the lily pond, the discs will become part of a permanent beautification initiative for animal shelters in Los Angeles. Many of the Penn volunteers purchased colorful dog collars, leashes, sweatshirts and the like to benefit Portaits of Hope…my dogs love their new look!

Join us this weekend (August 19) as we help for L.A. Works Day of Service and in the Fall for more fun Penn Serves LA projects, as together we continue to learn about and work with organizations making a difference in our community!

About Penn Serves LA

Penn Serves LA logo volunteering with Penn Alumni in Los Angeles

Penn Serves LA impacts the Los Angeles community by engaging University of Pennsylvania alumni, parents and families in meaningful community service activities.

Join Us

If you have an established nonprofit that you would like us to consider for future events or announcements, please let us know. We are looking for new nonprofits to serve in meaningful ways.

Contact Us

Questions? Want to join our email list? Reach us at pennserves@gmail.com.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram and Twitter!

The Penn Serves LA Team

Read about our previous events:

April, 2017 – Penn Serves LA Builds a Home with Habitat LA
January, 2017 – Penn Serves LA Toasts the New Year
January, 2017 – Blankets of Love
November, 2016 – L.A. Kitchen
October, 2016 – Got Books? Penn Serves LA Staff’s ICEF First Literacy Festival
March, 2016 – Rescue Rabbits
October, 2015 – Penn Serves Picks Packs of Peppers at Westside Food Bank
September, 2015 – Penn Serves LA Reads to Kids
July, 2015 – Penn Serves LA: Harvesting a Garden for Veterans
June, 2015 – Penn Serves LA Spruces up a New Charter School
June, 2015 – Penn Serves LA Has the Giving Spirit
August, 2014 – Penn Serves LA Strikes Again: This Time with Paint!
December, 2013 – Holidays are a Time for Giving
November, 2013 – Sending Holiday Warmth to our Troops
August and September, 2013 – Serving the Environment and LA Leadership Academy
May, 2013 – One on One Outreach
March, 2013 – Habitat for Humanity
January, 2013 – Inner City Arts
September, 2012 – The Midnight Mission
June, 2012 – Turning Point Shelter

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Filed under Jane G., Penn Serves, Penn Serves LA, Volunteering

Tagged as Jane Gutman, Los Angeles, Penn Serves LA, Volunteering

June 13, 2017 · 10:01 am

Penn Serves LA Builds a Home with Habitat LA

By Jane Gutman, CW’73, PAR’14, PAR’16

It was already warm at 8:00 am when our twenty Penn Serves LA volunteers showed up at the work site in Downey for our second Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles project. Shelter is such a basic need that most days we fortunate Penn alumni take for granted. Habitat LA, we learned, has constructed and rehabilitated almost 800 homes across the city since 1990. In Los Angeles, well known for soaring housing costs, Habitat serves people earning 30-80% of the median family income, who work alongside volunteers on the building process.

Penn Serves LA Habitat for Humanity Irene Park on scaffolding

Irene Park, C’05, on the scaffolding at Penn Serves LA’s Habitat LA event

It quickly became clear that we were expected to have a fun day, but also to make significant progress in completing the back of “our” house. Several people spent much of the day on rickety scaffolding, bent in half caulking windows and eaves. Others were busy with power tools; cutting boards, drilling holes, using nail-guns. The dedicated and gifted Habitat staff taught us a host of new and useful skills, and the Penn crowd dove in, like good Ivy League competitors, intent on getting the job done.

Penn Serves LA Habitat for Humanity build in Los Angeles with Penn Alumni and Habitat LA

It was a very social day, with people chatting while building a window frame or sharing photos while affixing siding to exterior walls. Over lunch the group shared their Penn stories: where they were raised, what they had studied at Penn, how they had landed in LA. Typical of Penn, it was a diverse group, with a broad spread of graduation years, and alumni working in law, medicine, education, social science, business, architecture and more. Our volunteers hailed from all parts of the country, and had traveled from San Diego, the Valley and the Westside Saturday morning to participate in our Habitat build day.

Penn Serves LA Habitat for Humanity helping Habitat LA build a home in Los Angeles with Penn Alumni

As the afternoon concluded, everyone was smiling and not a single band-aid had been issued – a fantastic success! After a long, dusty day of working with our hands in the hot sun, we felt really good: holes were filled, corners were smooth, siding was level, and the site was clean for the next crew. It was especially meaningful to have Christina working with us all day, as she will be living in the house we worked on. The Penn crowd looks forward to returning to our Downey site for the ribbon cutting on Christina’s completed home.

Penn Serves LA helps Habitat for Humanity Los Angeles - volunteering Penn Alumni with Habitat LA

The Penn Serves LA group – proudly wearing the Red and the Blue – after helping Habitat LA

About Penn Serves LA

Penn Serves LA logo volunteering with Penn Alumni in Los Angeles

Penn Serves LA impacts the Los Angeles community by engaging University of Pennsylvania alumni, parents and families in meaningful community service activities.

Join Us

If you have an established nonprofit that you would like us to consider for future events or announcements, please let us know. We are looking for new nonprofits to serve in meaningful ways.

Contact Us

Questions? Want to join our email list? Reach us at pennserves@gmail.com.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram and Twitter!

The Penn Serves LA Team

Read about our previous events:

January, 2017 – Penn Serves LA Toasts the New Year
January, 2017 – Blankets of Love
November, 2016 – L.A. Kitchen
October, 2016 – Got Books? Penn Serves LA Staff’s ICEF First Literacy Festival
March, 2016 – Rescue Rabbits
October, 2015 – Penn Serves Picks Packs of Peppers at Westside Food Bank
September, 2015 – Penn Serves LA Reads to Kids
July, 2015 – Penn Serves LA: Harvesting a Garden for Veterans
June, 2015 – Penn Serves LA Spruces up a New Charter School
June, 2015 – Penn Serves LA Has the Giving Spirit
August, 2014 – Penn Serves LA Strikes Again: This Time with Paint!
December, 2013 – Holidays are a Time for Giving
November, 2013 – Sending Holiday Warmth to our Troops
August and September, 2013 – Serving the Environment and LA Leadership Academy
May, 2013 – One on One Outreach
March, 2013 – Habitat for Humanity
January, 2013 – Inner City Arts
September, 2012 – The Midnight Mission
June, 2012 – Turning Point Shelter

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Filed under Los Angeles, Penn Serves, Penn Serves LA, Volunteering

Tagged as Habitat for Humanity, Jane Gutman, Jane Gutman, Los Angeles, Penn Serves LA, Volunteering, Los Angeles, Volunteering

March 26, 2017 · 7:15 pm

The Class of 1993’s NYC Community Service Project (64 Weeks To Go)

By Jackie Einstein Astrof, C’93, and Bleema Bershad, W’95

On February 8, 2017, several members of our class spent the evening together in Midtown Manhattan as part of a group of 50 volunteers supporting the clients of Upwardly Global, an organization which helps highly skilled new immigrants embark on their American job search. Jackie Einstein Astrof, Brett Barth, Jennifer Bernstein, Jennifer Jarett, Heather Pavell and Ralph Sutton also participated in the event planning committee. Other members of the class who participated were: Todd Aronoff , Valerie (Broadwin) Mutterperl and Walt Piecyk.

Penn Class of 1993 members at the PennPac community service event in NYC, February, 2017

Penn 1993 classmates at the PennPAC event in New York City: Todd Aronoff, Jackie Einstein Astrof, Jennifer Eisenberg Bernstein, Jennifer Jarrett, Heather Caslow Pavell, and Valerie Broadwin Mutterperl

Volunteers worked with 18 new immigrants from 18 different countries, conducting mock interviews and networking exercises. As depicted in the photo, the room was full and loud. Volunteers literally “leaned in”, so engaged in their conversations. At the end of the evening there was a full group debrief which provided many good ideas to the job seekers. Several volunteers even noted that they gathered some good advice to apply to their own job searches. Kudos to our very own Valerie (Broadwin) Mutterperl who was especially helpful in identifying several tips for job seekers.

Penn Class of 1993 and PennPAC event in New York City

A full room for the PennPAC event in New York.

Walt Piecyk found the event to be a “good use of time to give back and help some people if even just a little bit”. Another participant felt that “it was inspiring to see what the job seekers are doing; it felt good to be able to help and was nice to do it as a Penn community. I also really enjoyed learning about UpGlo and PennPAC.”

The event was co-hosted by the Class of 1993, the Penn Club of NY and PennPAC (Pro bono Alumni Consulting.) PennPAC brings together alumni to support nonprofits in New York, Philadelphia and Silicon Valley. This “ImPACt” event is a signature PennPAC event, occurring 2-3 times per year. PennPAC offers alums volunteer opportunities throughout the year. Visit www.pennpac.org to learn more.

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PennPAC and Penn 1993 in the DP!

The Daily Pennsylvanian covered the event in their Feburary 9, 2017 issue. You can read the article here.

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Penn Class of 1993 Reunion Countdown

February 17 – 18, 2017, marked 64 weeks until the 25th Reunion of the Penn Class of 1993 (May 11 – 13, 2018)!

Join us we count down the weeks to our reunion #93tothe25th:

Do you have old photos or mementos from our time at Penn? Photos of Spring Fling? Football at Franklin Field? Classes at DRL? We are taking a trip down memory lane and would love for you to share your memories with our class in a future post. Please email us upenn1993@gmail.com!
Follow us on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.
Classmates are invited to join our Facebook and LinkedIn groups.

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Filed under 25th Reunion, Class of 1993, Guest blogger, Penn Club of New York, Volunteering

Tagged as 93tothe25th, Class of 1993, Penn Class of 1993, Penn Club of New York, PennPAC

March 23, 2017 · 10:41 am

The Class of 1993’s Annual Community Service Day at the Netter Center (65 Weeks To Go)

By Lisa Bardfeld Shapiro, C’93 and Natalie Taub Cutler, W’93

On February 4, 2017, the Penn Class of ’93 annual service project was held at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships on campus. Our class president Lisa Nass Grabelle started this great tradition four years ago and has organized it every year since then. Isabel Sampson-Mapp, Associate Director at Netter, led us in creating goodies for various groups in Philadelphia.

We made tutus for a day care center in West Philly, bracelets and Valentine cards for kids at CHOP and bags and pillows for a senior center in North Philly.

This year we were joined by other alumni classes as well. We had a great time with our families and friends!

Penn Class of 1993 annual community service day at the Netter Center

Classmates Rebecca Schaefer Rizzo, C’93, and Natalie Taub Cutler, W’93, work on bracelets and Valentine cards for patients at CHOP along with Tracey Newcomer Malick, C’88, and Natalie’s daughter Michelle.

Penn Class of 1993 Annual Community Service Day at the Netter Center making tutus

Miriam Stern, MSW’95, makes tutus with the girls for patients at CHOP.

Penn 1993 Community Service day at the Netter Center

Isabel Sampson-Mapp instructs the boys on painting a moonscape on bags and pillow covers for seniors in North Philly.

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Penn 1993 Community Service Day at the Netter Center - whole group photo

The whole gang showing off the results of an afternoon of giving back!

What is especially nice about this class activity is that it was family friendly! How nice to see classmates and fellow Pennsylvanians together with their children serving the Penn community!

About the Netter Center

Founded in 1992, the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships is Penn’s primary vehicle for bringing to bear the broad range of human knowledge needed to solve the complex, comprehensive, and interconnected problems of the American city so that West Philadelphia (Penn’s local geographic community), Philadelphia, the University itself, and society benefit. Interested in helping? Find out here how alumni can get involved.

Penn Class of 1993 Reunion Countdown

February 10-11, 2017, marked 65 weeks until the 25th Reunion of the Penn Class of 1993 (May 11 – 13, 2018)! Think we skipped week 66? We jumped ahead to post about that a few weeks ago. Our 66th week post is here (about the Palestra) and our 67th week post is here (about course registration).

Join us we count down the weeks to our reunion #93tothe25th:

Do you have old photos or mementos from our time at Penn? Photos of Spring Fling? Football at Franklin Field? Classes at DRL? We are taking a trip down memory lane and would love for you to share your memories with our class in a future post. Please email us upenn1993@gmail.com!
Follow us on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.
Classmates are invited to join our Facebook and LinkedIn groups.

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Filed under 25th Reunion, Class of 1993, Guest blogger, Volunteering

Tagged as 93tothe25th, Class of 1993, Netter Center, Penn Class of 1993

March 16, 2017 · 11:42 am

Penn Serves LA Toasts the New Year

By Irene Park, C’05

Tucked away in the warm and welcoming home of one of our board members, Penn alumni from a cross-section of backgrounds, interests, professions, schools, and years gathered to celebrate the work of, and welcome interested new members to the Penn Serves LA New Year Social in late January.

Guests chatted easily over wine, beers, and light refreshment provided by Penn Serves LA board members, which lent to an elegant yet homey feel. The highlight, of course, being alumna Kiera Reilly’s “P” for Penn shaped sugar cookies! Herein lies the very nature and appeal that is so unique to Penn Serves LA: Started by a small group of alumni who have always been philanthropically inclined whose passion was to serve their community while connecting with other alumni made this organization a true grassroots effort. It was a void that they met outside of the mandate of other existing alumni groups and the University; one that the LA alumni community and its community partners had no idea was missing until the need was met.

sugar cookies baked by Kiera Reilly, C'93 for Penn Serves LA New Year Social

Home baked sugar cookies from Kiera Reilly, C’93 – Red and Blue P’s for Penn of course

Once a majority of the guests arrived, everyone gathered in the living room and shared their experience at Penn and what brought them to the Penn Serves Social that evening. Over the sounds of a roaring fireplace, the room was brimming with a fellowship between friends and strangers alike with one shared history and love, Penn. All jokes about the oldest alumnus in the room and on-campus curfews aside, the genuine excitement over projects they’ve participated in with Penn Serves LA since its inception in 2012 (in a ‘meet cute’ facilitated by Kiera who brought together alumni superstars, Jane Gutman, Leanne Huebner, Aileen Level, and Denise Winner) was palpable.

Much of what has captivated the alumni community is Penn Serves LA’s disregard for the geographical boundaries generally defined by popularity and traffic. Additionally, instead of marrying itself to one particular organization, cause, or issue, Penn Serves LA addresses a broad-spectrum of needs throughout the community. Penn Serves LA has fed the homeless, built homes, refurbished schools, knitted blankets for babies and new mothers in need, and gardened for Vets just to name few of their projects. This inclusive approach not only means alumni have the opportunity to deepen or discover new organizations, causes, or skills, but it also means more organizations are getting the help they need. Some Penn Serves LA members have gone from a single day volunteer to a regular volunteer to become an organization’s Board member.

From the South Bay to Downtown LA, from the west side to East LA, our alumni are happily committing their weekends to regroup from the buzzy focus of their careers and daily responsibilities to meet new alumni, strengthen existing relationships, connect with people and places they may never have organically met, while serving the community. Though many of the organizations and communities served by Penn Serves LA are ones that its committee is already familiar, they also welcome and have partnered with organizations suggested by alumni volunteers.

The moment that solidified the evening for me, and the reason I’ve committed to the organization since its inception was when an alumnus that I had met, perhaps once at another volunteer event, gave me a familial hug after his eyes lit up at the idea of being able to bring his professional resources to Penn Serves LA. Though we all had our own private pursuits, professionally and personally, we felt as though we were unified for the common purpose of doing good. Truly the Quaker way.