Our Story
Love Modesto started in 2007 with two questions...
"Why is our city on lists of the “worst cities in America"?
"If churches were to suddenly disappear from the Modesto area, would anyone even care or notice?"
We did not know the answers to these questions, but we knew we were called to love Modesto.
With a lot of dreaming and planning came our first Love Modesto on March 7, 2009. We were hoping for 100 people and more than 1,200 people showed up to love our city in practical ways. We’ve done this every year since then and have helped more than 100 cities do the same. Over 67,117 people have been involved! 316,792 volunteer hours have been donated – this is over $10 million dollars in service (independentsector.org) that we’ve given to our communities!
After the first couple of years of these volunteer days, we were realizing that more sustainable solutions were needed in order to see our cities transformed.
Our efforts evolved from beyond a day to inspiring ongoing volunteerism year-round, collaboration among leaders and local non profits and the development of three ongoing programs:
Love Our Neighbors, Love Our Schools, and Love Our Kids.
Curious to learn more? Click the links below.
We've cleaned parks and handed out flowers to seniors.
We've beautified schools and wrote thank you notes to veterans.
We've donated pet food for local animal shelters and new pajamas and bedding for children in foster care.
We've painted rocks with messages of hope and sewed rice packs to help ease the pain for those fighting cancer.
We've picked up trash in your neighborhoods and played bingo and sang karaoke with those living in care homes.
We've washed windows and potted plants for teachers.
We've made compassion bags for survivors of human trafficking and made teddy bears for children experiencing trauma.
We've painted benches and cleaned waterways.
We've made blankets for those in hospice and assembled hygiene kits for those experiencing homelessness.
We've washed emergency vehicles and planted community gardens.
Together
67,000+
People Involved
316,000+
Volunteer hours
10,000,000+
Dollars in community service
So many amazing stories have emerged from Love Modesto, but perhaps the greatest stories are of the thousands who continue to volunteer regularly with organizations and areas they served. This is our hope and prayer…renewed pride in our cities, ongoing volunteerism and communities transformed.