A thank you to all the volunteers

The Fallbrook Community responded to a request from Save Our Forest to help with a huge weeding party on Saturday Aug. 12. Overwhelmed with the huge crop of weeds on the Pico Promenade where Save Our Forest was given permission to create a tree-shaded pathway in 1997, the group asked for help.

Members of community organizations and individuals responded with a grand total of 60 volunteers. Within 2 ½ hours of the start time at 8 a.m., the weeds were down, bagged and later hauled to the waste and recycling facility. A volunteer, Ryan DiPinto, brought a box truck to aid in the transfer of 97 huge trash bags.

Signing in, the participants received a wrist band which was their ticket to a pancake breakfast with Chefs Roger Boddaert and Elizabeth Stuver cooking. Members of the SOF band of volunteers helped with all the rest. The menu was pancakes and the fixings, sausage, orange juice and coffee. Many stayed for this late breakfast. Gratitude goes to Fallbrook Village Association, Major Market and Ace Party Rentals that helped make this possible.

Roger, known as the Treeman of Fallbrook appearing in the Village News, was an old hand at this type of community event having been involved in the early years of planting close to 2800 trees (current tally) in downtown Fallbrook and surrounding areas.

Roger’s comment was, “It’s like old times.” He was reminiscing about the last big planting with pancake breakfast in 2000 when the planting of trees on the 1.1 mile of the divided highway segment of South Mission was first launched.

This event renewed our faith in the goodness of people in Fallbrook. “They came, they saw, they conquered.”

Jackie Heyneman