The First of Many: Inside Our First Helping Hands Across Izzi Volunteer Day
We are excited to share that we’ve launched our newest community volunteer initiative: Helping Hands Across Izzi. This bi-annual event will bring our community together by having volunteers work alongside our teachers at every Izzi site. Volunteers will take on hands-on projects such as organizing classroom cabinets, sanitizing toys, sorting teaching materials, and clearing out storage sheds, plus whatever else each site needs most that day. Every task means our teachers spend less time on upkeep and more time doing what they do best: caring for and teaching children. Our first Helping Hands Across Izzi event was held on October 2, and it was a great success. We're thrilled to make Helping Hands a regular part of our community.
Helping Hands Across Izzi is also a first for our Development team. In the past, volunteer opportunities were scheduled week by week, which meant a lot of back-and-forth coordination for both volunteers and our sites. Our team wanted to make volunteering easier for everyone by bringing it all together into one day. We also wanted our staff to be part of it, so they could host volunteers at their own sites and connect with the community members who support them.
With that in mind, the first step was choosing a date that fell on a Site Day, a day where staff come in without children to focus on professional development. That way, while our staff concentrated on their training, volunteers could tackle projects that are hard to get to during a busy school week. We also opened the event to our community partners and past volunteers, inviting them to join us in supporting our teachers and sites.
Three of our amazing sites, Izzi at Magnolia, Izzi at East Palo Alto, and Izzi at Lakewood, graciously hosted our volunteers. Across those three sites, 21 volunteers showed up for their community. Volunteers from Compassion Week and Bank of America helped clean up the children’s outdoor play areas. The team from City National Bank took on a long list of projects: they cleaned the outdoor play area, organized sheds, labeled materials, sanitized toys, and organized classrooms and offices. They also restocked supplies like utensils, plates, and cups. We were also joined by the Carmona family, who sifted the sand so our kids have clean sand to play in!
Our site supervisors were thrilled with everything the volunteers accomplished. “The volunteers were fantastic,” said Muna, site supervisor at Izzi at East Palo Alto. “They got everything done.” At Magnolia, site supervisor Irma shared that having the outdoor play area cleaned made a huge difference for the children.
Events like this remind us that it truly takes a village to support our children and the teachers who care for them. A special thank you to Compassion Week, Bank of America, City National Bank, and the Carmona family for making this day possible. We can’t wait to welcome even more volunteers next time.
Check out some photos from our event below!
Interested in joining us for our next Helping Hands Across Izzi event? Join us on March 22 and 23, 2027! Email joei@izziearlyed.org to sign up or learn more.
