Saturday served up plenty of service projects around town and the volunteers turned out to take them on.

It was Love Escalon, the April 27 work day drawing dozens of workers to handle a variety of tasks from spreading bark to beautifying the downtown planters, cleaning at the library to staffing Bingo games for senior citizens.

The Love Escalon Committee, headed up by the trio of Jessica Wylie, Megan McNinch and Anthony Diaz, was on hand to welcome the volunteers. Coffee, donuts and pastries were available, as the workers began to stream in, ahead of the 8 a.m. kickoff rally in the city’s Main Street Park.

Peter Moore of Eski Streamers – who livestreamed football games for the Escalon Cougars this past season – was brought in to tour the various projects and chronicle the work being done.

“Today I’m going to be filming and jumping around to all the different spots they’re going to be working at, we’ll be interviewing people, checking it out and seeing what they’re doing,” Moore said.

The project signs were handed out and leaders held them up, with the volunteers who had signed up for each individual work site then meeting their group leader.

Providing the welcome from the Main Street Park stage, Wylie offered a special shout out to the sponsors of the Love Escalon effort; businesses, individuals and organizations that continue to contribute to support the community in a variety of ways.

The late Jim Davis was remembered by his wife Brenda, who also was on stage and explained how Love Escalon came into being.

“He wanted to impact his community and serve,” she said. “Love Escalon was once a dream in Jim’s heart, to meet the needs in the community.”

He envisioned it as project days, his wife said, and he shared the idea with Fire Chief Rick Mello, who said it was very similar to a new program called Love Modesto, that had the same community service base.

“This is the 13th year of the community project day; the first actual event was the year before that, that was called Neighbor Helping Neighbor, it was at Trinity Church and there were groceries handed out to people in the community, they were able to go through the clothes closet, they got a hot meal, they had some cleaning products given to them and it was just a way to love the community and to meet needs,” Brenda said. “Love Escalon was never designed, never, never designed to be a one-day event, it was intended to be a lifestyle.”

She also told the volunteers that their efforts don’t go unnoticed.

“Today is one piece in your legacy, today you’ve chosen to make a difference and to set the example to serve others, and to serve our community and you are so appreciated,” she said.

Wylie added on to that, pointing to the cooperative efforts of so many groups – from non-profits, the Escalon Chamber to Escalon Strong, the Boosters Club and more, all with the goal of helping the community.

Also taking the stage to offer some comments were Robert Swift, a local businessman and former councilman and mayor, and current councilman and Escalon Strong president Andy Hagan.

From there, the volunteers dispersed for a morning full of work, giving their time and effort for the betterment of their community.

At the Escalon Library, Girl Scout Troop 1698 members Kamryn Siegel and Rowan Powers were hard at work cleaning shelving units. Both are 10 years old and are in the fourth grade at Van Allen Elementary School.

“Just to serve and help our country to be a little cleaner,” young Kamryn said of why she wanted to take part.

“Also ‘cause I love this library,” friend and classmate Rowan interjected.

It was the first time volunteering for Kamryn, while Rowan took part in Love Escalon last year.

Over at the Hogan-Ennis Park complex, several people were spreading new bark to help beautify the area. Among them was Cecilia Nelson, who has volunteered in the past.

“To help my community, to be a part of my community and to show my love for my town,” Nelson said, noting that last year she helped paint picnic tables at the Community Center Park.

Also helping was Noah Butler, a senior at Escalon High.

“I came out initially because my grades kind of are not the best and I need this (extra credit) but it kind of feels good to be able to go out and do something like this every once in a while,” Butler said.

Wylie added they were able to add some new projects this year, including doing some painting at the Escalon fire station, and organizers overall were very pleased with the event.

“We’re super excited, we had a ton of people filter in and we always get a good amount of volunteers so we’re always excited about that,” Wylie explained. “And the projects are super cool this year; we’re doing a fire department project and this is the first year they’ve been involved so we’re very thankful for that. We always do C.A.R.E. (Community Action Resources of Escalon food bank), we love supporting that, we do Senior Bingo games with prizes.”

Red, white and blue flowers were going in to the planter boxes on Main Street and a cooperative venture with Escalon Strong will soon see a shade sail put up over the bleachers at Hogan-Ennis Park to provide some much-needed shade.

“So we’ve partnered with Escalon Strong, the fire department, the city, Lions Club, a lot of non-profits coming together which is kind of my dream, everybody coming together and helping each other,” Wylie said.

She added that donations from Love Escalon sponsors help finance community projects throughout the year and also provide two scholarships for graduating EHS seniors.