A Giant(s) Bay Area experience

Our experiences in San Francisco were filled with nothing less than fun, laughter, sunshine and beautiful views of the picturesque bay. We arrived late at night on July 2 to our 5th home on the tour, Coyote Park Recreation Area. Thankfully one of our awesome service partners, San Mateo Parks, let us stay on location of where a project would take place.

Thanks to our groovy project leaders, Tyler and Eric, we had two days off to explore the Bay area and see what new cultures, people and places we could discover during the 4th of July weekend. Andrew, Marchetti and Tyler quenched their thirst for the great Red Woods of the west by visiting Big Basin and going on a grand six mile hike while Diana, Becca and her friend from New York went whale watching and won some tickets to the Aquarium by the Bay. Marchetti, Andrew and Kimi headed out to Berkley for the 4th of July to enjoy some rock climbing while Eric went into San Francisco. Becca, Diana and Tyler escaped the crowded city to a hike in Muir Woods for the day. We were lucky enough to cap off the night with a view of the fireworks show from our RV site right on the Bay.

After much preparation, July 6 rolled around the corner with enthusiastic, energized and joyful Southwest Airlines employees. This time, we put on two projects with two great service partners, San Mateo Parks at Coyote Point Recreation Area located in San Mateo, CA and East Bay Regional Parks at the Tidewater Boating Center located in Oakland, CA.

The project at Coyote Point Park entailed planting 50 trees around a stellar playground that included a 20 foot slide and various swing sets. Now children and their parents will not only take pleasure in the playground, but they can also enjoy freshly planted trees. The team and volunteers also painted repaired 17 benches around the park which really brightened the picnic area. Special guest Jay Watson, SCA's Western Regional Director, joined us and helped the volunteers in completing the task at hand. We also would like to drop a special shout out to the park rangers of Coyote Point Recreational Area for being friendly, fun, helpful and awesome people to work with.

The East Bay Regional Park at Tidewater Boating Center project encompassed removing 40 bags of invasive weeds that crowded the shore line along with the planting of 30 trees. We also ended up collecting six bags of micro-trash at the end of a stream that discharges into the bay. It felt amazing to give back to this center since the Tidewater Boating center boasts epic scenes of the bay along with views of rowing teams competing against one another in a channel that flows out into the bay. Along with the Southwest volunteers, Tidewater Boating Center’s employees, and Bettina Mok and Katie Myszka of SCA’s Oakland office took time out of their busy schedule to come support the team. They definitely know how to share the spirit!

We would like to thank all of the volunteers that came out to the July 6 events in the Bay Area. Words cannot describe how much we all love interacting and sharing our time together with each and every one of you. This project could not be possible without the support of Southwest Airlines volunteers and our service partners. For the Bay Area project we would especially like to thank Laura Jackson and Brad Hawkins for their awesome volunteer spirit. We know how busy your schedules are and appreciate all of your efforts!

Marchetti and the Tour 40 Team