Penn Club of Los Angeles

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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

Cheering for Women’s Basketball at the Big Dance in LA

By Kiera Reilly, C’93

It started with a direct message on twitter on Monday afternoon, March 13th. Philly.com’s Big 5 Basketball reporter (and Penn and DP alumnus) Jonathan Tannenwald, sent me a message, “Get to the women’s selection show asap. That’s all I can say for now.”

What was he talking about? A quick search on the internet, and I soon knew – the Penn Women’s Basketball team was headed to Los Angeles for the NCAA Women’s Basketball tournament!

Penn was seeded 12th in the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Regional and was set to play fifth-seeded Texas A&M in the first round at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, March 18.

The next morning, I connected with my classmate Mitchell Kraus, C’93, and we simultaneously purchased our tickets for the game in the Penn section from Penn athletics. We were going to cheer for the Quakers at the Big Dance in Los Angeles!

Let’s Go Quakers! Photo credit Aileen Level, C’99, GED’00

I posted on my Facebook page about the game, and in our class Facebook group, and soon another classmate, Jodilynn Baird Styner, W’93, had purchased game tickets as well.

On the day of the game, Penn Athletics hosted a pre-game reception, and I was happy to see fellow fans Jordan Rockwell, C’00, and his wife Julie, and Harry Rosenberg, W’79, and his wife Laurie Sayet. After toasting Penn and the Quakers, we walked over to Pauley Pavilion for the start of the game.

Pauley Pavilion at UCLA, home of the first round of the women's NCAA basketball tournament in 2017

Pauley Pavilion at UCLA, photo credit Vicky Sin, C’00

NCAA Women's Basketball tournament first round t-shirts on sale at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion

NCAA tournament t-shirts on sale, photo credit Aileen Level, C’99, GED’00

Jordan and I were excited to see the display at Pauley with the four teams competing in the first round there – and posed by the Penn Athletics logo.

Jordan Rockwell, C’00, and I pose by the Penn logo on display at Pauley Pavilion

And then we bumped into the Quaker!

Kiera Reilly and Jordan Rockwell pose with the Penn Athletics mascot the Quaker at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion

The Quaker is in Los Angeles!

We were excited to see that the Penn Band and Penn Cheer made the trip to Los Angeles too.

Penn Band and Cheerleaders at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion for the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament

Penn Band and Cheerleaders, photo credit Vicky Sin, C’00

Penn warms up before the game, photo credit JodiLynne Bayrd Steiner, W’93

Soon, the players were being announced and the game was underway.

Penn Women's Basketball team at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion for round one of the NCAA tournament

The Penn Women’s Basketball team huddles, photo credit Laurie Sayet

And what a game it was. For three quarters, Penn dominated the game. And then Texas A&M turned things around with just over eight minutes left to play and won the game 63-61. For a complete re-cap of the game, you can read more from Penn Athletics.

Penn cheerleaders during a break in the game, photo credit Aileen Level, C’99, GED’00

Penn Band plays at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion

The Penn Band sounded awesome! Photo credit Aileen Level, C’99, GED’00

Penn Women's Basketball huddles during NCAA Women's Basketball tournament round 1 game

Penn huddles during the game, photo credit Vicky Sin, C’00

While the Quakers lost, we were thrilled to watch them play in Los Angeles. This was Penn’s third NCAA Tournament appearance in four years, and this year was a successful season. The team won the inaugural Ivy League Tournament with a win over Princeton, and won the Ivy League regular season title with a 13-1 record and were 22-7 overall. Junior Michelle Nwokedi was named the Ivy League Player of the Year.

Here are some photos and thoughts from fellow Quaker fans at the game. Let’s give a big Hurrah, Hurrah to the Women’s Basketball team! #FightonPenn

“We all wish the game would have ended differently, but it was still a lot of fun to see the team play — not to mention the Quaker and the band! Especially for those of us who can’t get back to Philadelphia very often, it was an exciting opportunity for us to show our Penn pride here at home.” ~Aileen Level, C’99, GED’00

“Well although the team lost, the band sounded great and is still undefeated.”

~Mitchell Kraus, C’93

“I loved seeing the Penn Women’s Basketball team at the NCAA game at Pauley Pavilion. Having grown up in Los Angeles, it was a special treat to hear, “The Red and the Blue,” and watch the Penn Band in my hometown. I felt proud to be in the stands with my Penn t-shirt on cheering! Go Quakers!” ~Lisa Niver, C’89

“I am very proud of our team for their achievements! The players are amazing. I’d gone to two NCAA games with the Penn Band for the men’s team in 1999 and 2000 but this is the first women’s post-season game I’ve attended. So it was really fun for me personally to get back in the “crazy fan” mode. The band sounded awesome as always! Special shout-out to Greer for fearlessly herding a plane load of college kids across the country and back.” ~ Vicky Sin, C’00

“It was wonderful to rekindle the Penn spirit and sing all the great Penn songs!” ~JodiLynne Bayrd Steiner, W’93

“In spite of the loss, Saturday was so fun! I got more fired up as the game went on! No matter where we are, as long as there are at least two Quaker fans in the seats, it feels like a million!”

~Jordan Rockwell, C’00