• Group Effort Puts a Dent In It

Thirty-eight volunteers getting psyched up to do ten years of yard work in two hours. 😁

Donuts (donated by the VFW) and a pep talk before beginning.

Not the best "before" picture as a lot of work had already been done... but still a long way from the final look.

It started when Code Enforcement was called out to check on a property that was in need of some TLC (to put it mildly).

There were volunteers of all ages. 

Code Enforcement approached us (Dan Gonse and Joseph Morabito) after a Coffee with the Mayor event wondering if the Wildomar Beautification Volunteers might be able to lend a hand in a distressed situation.

A bird's eye view from the top of the roll-off dumpster.

From there Councilwoman Bridgette Moore jumped in and got the groundwork laid that saw 30 volunteers meet bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 7:30am to tackle this daunting task.

It took a few moments to get into the groove, but soon enough the volunteers were working in unison like a determined colony of ants with the same objective: let's get this done before the Sun really heats up. 😁

Mayor Ben Benoit atop the dumpster. Not the easiest job to volunteer for, but there he is... while I'm on this side of the camera and keyboard. 😅

Among the thirty volunteers were four members of the Wildomar city council, and three members of Wildomar's Code Enforcement Team.

I asked Bridgette for a recap of the morning: "Today we have over 30 volunteers helping an elderly veteran in the city of Wildomar. We have our mayor, Ben Benoit here, mayor pro-tem Joseph Morabito and council members Ashlee DePhillippo and Bridgette Moore." 

Look at the difference on that fence line.

"We also have our code enforcement team here. We have Prestige Nutrition. We want to thank our sponsor CR&R for donating the bin. And also Agustin Montesinos for trimming the palm tree."

Imagine all the palm fronds that had to be cut off of that tree.

It was said to be an $1800 job that they donated.

Michelle, of *Prestige Nutrition, and her daughter Ava, along with the other members of her family, were out in force.

*Prestige Nutrition is a new business in town. It's near Go-Nutz Donuts and Altura Credit union. It's veteran owned and they're already looking to be active members of the Wildomar community. 

I'm guessing that people who regularly use that road will be doing double-takes for the next week or two as they pass by it. Out of privacy concerns for the resident, I'm not going to post the address here. 

A candid picture of Bridgette Moore in action. In addition to organizing this, she worked it too. If you look close enough, you'll see a special shoe on her left foot. She had hurt it just a little over a week ago, but didn't let that slow her down where it would have easily sidelined me. 

After tons of debris surrounding this piece of equipment had been removed, it was evident that it wasn't going anywhere. I made a note to myself after seeing this. Clean out the garage and side yard while it can be accommodated with regular trash cans.

In the end, there was still a lot more work to do, but talk about having one heckuva head start. 

Wildomar is taking a more serious approach to code enforcement these days and though you may have been neglecting things for years (or decades) that's not going to be a valid excuse if you get that knock on your door.