Community Service at Black Pine Circle

Black Pine Circle School is dedicated to making volunteering real and meaningful, through Community Service Days organized by the school, and also by encouraging and facilitating students and families to continue volunteering throughout the year. Our school community also comes together in times of crisis to support international and local disaster relief efforts – such as the Haitian Earthquake relief effort and the shelter fire fund at the East Bay Humane Society.

On Community Service Days, the younger grades focus on activities on campus that serve our school community, such as clean up and beautification projects, and the older grades, accompanied by teachers (in groups of about 8-9 students), go off campus to programs that can benefit from volunteer help. Some of these programs are shown below:

Recent Volunteer Group Locations

Alameda County Community Food Bank
Alzheimer’s Services of the East Bay
Aquatic Park EGRET
Berkeley Youth Alternatives
California Coastal Clean-up Day
Center for AIDS Services
East Bay Humane Society / Berkeley Pound
Glide Memorial Church Meal Service
Harrison House Family Shelter
Harbor House Ministries
North & West Berkeley Senior Centers
Share Manna-Basket in Pinole (food & gift baskets)
St. Vincent de Paul Meal Service
Tilden Park Preservation
Verde Partnership Garden (a Project of the Tides Center)
Watershed Restoration Project in Richmond
Yeshede Tibetan Book-Binding Project

Annual/Recent “On Campus Drives”

Canned Food Drive for Alameda County Community Food Bank
Coin Drive for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Coat Drive for Verde Elementary School
Toy Drive for Harrison House Family Shelter
Bake sales for Partners in Health, Haitian Earthquake

Vickie Blomquist from “Share Manna Basket” appreciates the help from Black Pine Circle School 8th graders:
“I was very impressed with the students who came to work on the pantry. They were quite friendly and attentive from the beginning when we had introductions and then orientation about what Share Manna-Basket is all about. They worked well in teams of 2 doing the chores presented to them. They helped to dispose of any expired food from the shelves, wiped the shelves down and re-stocked the shelves”.