Olmos Park Youth Commission Programs and Events 2018-Present
These activities reflect our mission to support community building, community service, leadership and enterprise.
Thanksgiving Potluck
Olmos Park Youth Commission showed its appreciation to city of Olmos Park police, fire and city staffs by hosting a Thanksgiving potluck on Monday, November 19. Families took the time to share time-honored family-favorite recipes, cooked a turkey, and brought all the Thanksgiving meal fixings for everyone to have!
Decorating Olmos Park City Hall for Holidays
More than a dozen members of OPYC came out to string new ornaments, decorate the Christmas tree at city hall and adorn the doors of the building and the fire station with wreaths. With the help of Olmos Park fire staff, the city came to life in light and wonderment to help add cheer to the holiday season.
Kick-Off 2019 with Stephen Cavender
Olmos Park Youth Commission welcomed Olmos Park neighbor and business leader, Mr. Stephen Cavender as the featured speaker for its inaugural founding member’s meeting on Sunday, Jan. 13. In addition to talking about his automotive business, Mr. Cavender spoke to the group about the importance of leadership, emphasizing that we should strive to ‘make confidence happen’ in all we do. It was a great way for OPYC to kick off 2019!
OPYC Meets The Mayor
Members of Olmos Park Youth Commission met with city
of Olmos Park Mayor Ron Hornberger on Feb. 21 in city council chambers where
the group heard about the many aspects involved in city governance. Mayor
Hornberger explained the role that he, Olmos Park city manager, Celia DeLeon,
city council, police, fire, and city services play in keeping our city safe,
clean, and running smoothly. The commission enjoyed the talk Mayor Hornberger
gave and the chance to have a face to face discussion of how the city is run.
Learning Strategic Team Building Concepts with Rackspace Global Marketing Executive, Danielle Kieschnick
Members of Olmos Park Youth Commission gathered on March 24 to learn about strategic team building based on a person’s leadership style. Neighbor and Rackspace global marketing executive, Danielle Kieschnick, hosted the gathering at her home and gave a fun and insightful overview about the unique leadership qualities people can have.
During her presentation, she asked members to answer a brief survey that helped them discover their personal leadership style. Those gathered at the meeting learned how strategically combining people with different leadership qualities can help a person achieve success. Kieschnick concluded the meeting with a fun interactive game where members volunteered to participate in a mock lemonade-stand business that spotlighted the leadership qualities needed for each aspect of the business.
Attendees got a chance to ask Kieschnick questions and some relayed their interest in a career in technology. Kieschnick has offered a tour of Rackspace for those OPYC members interested in visiting the cutting-edge company.
Neighbors and Community Youth Turn Out to ‘Plant the Park!’
Olmos Park was the setting of a beautification project a year in-the-making. Neighbor John LeFlore forged a partnership with San Antonio Parks and Recreation to punch up the intersections of Contour Drive at Dick Friedrich Drive and Olmos Drive with trees and shrubs, enhancing these Olmos Park entrances into charming and welcoming neighborhood gateways.
Members of Olmos Park Youth Commission along with the Frank Peterson-led Boy Scout troop 809, founded 26 years ago by Olmos park neighbor Jim O’Brien, turned out to help with the planting. San Antonio Parks and Recreation provided the trees, shrubs, dirt, mulch, tools, gloves and staff as well as a guided lesson on how to properly plant a tree. After more than 50 or so trees and shrubs were carefully planted into the ground, San Antonio weather provided the water with a heavy dose of rain and small bits of hail. The sun followed later to finish the job.
According to LeFlore, the city of San Antonio will maintain the plantings for three years and will host an annual event to assess their progress. The plantings, which are labeled, include Anaqua, Crape Myrtle, Desert Willow, Dogwood, Eve’s Necklace, Mexican Buckeye, Mexican Olive, Mountain Laurel, Possumhaw Holly, Redbud and Retama.
OPYC Helps with July 4th Festivities
Olmos Park Youth Commission helped set-up and take down tables, chairs and decor the morning before & after the celebration as well as helped carry the flag banner and Olmos Park Youth Commission banner for the parade! Members also handed out stickers at a sticker table during the post-parade gathering at Alameda Circle.
OPYC Helps City of Olmos Park Generate Awareness about Recycling
The city of Olmos Park reached out to Olmos Park Youth Commission to help spread the word to Olmos Park residents about how to recycle correctly. Olmos Park City Council is implementing a two-month pilot recycling program. After helping hand out flyers, Olmos Park waste management noticed a dramatic drop in problematic bins – going from 138 notices to 11 in two weeks. The program will accept all items listed on the flyer (pictures are provided). This is only a testing phase, so the city can achieve better results in its recycling bins. Residents benefited from this informative flyer.
End of School Year Book Drive Benefiting SAReads
SAReads® Book Bank was the recipient of nearly 350 books donated through the Olmos Park Youth Commission book drive chaired by OPYC member, Grace Toman. Everyone’s donations helped SA Reads with its mission to eradicate book deserts in San Antonio and supplement classroom libraries by giving free books to students, teachers, schools and nonprofits. And special thanks to the OPYC volunteers that helped strip and sticker the books so that the book bank could have the books organized and used by children throughout San Antonio.
The SAReads book bank is a clearinghouse for collecting, cleaning, sorting and
redistributing books to the community located inside the Gulfdale branch
of Firstmark Credit Union. Since the book bank
began in 2010, SAReads has donated over 300,000 books to teachers for their classroom
libraries, children for their home libraries and organizations for the children
they serve. It is continually restocking our bookshelves with donated
books to fulfill community requests.
Currently, the SAReads Book Bank serves teachers, nonprofits and schools that
are located in Bexar County and need books for classroom
libraries.
Summertime Supply Drive Benefiting Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas
Located right down the street from our neighborhood on Olmos Drive, Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas is a nonprofit that helps to foster healing for grieving children and youth, their families and the community. Supplies collected included: New and gently used teddy bears, art paints, canvasses, sharpies, colored sand, tissues, and Clorox wipes. This initiative was chaired by OPYC member, Lila Kelley.
Have an idea you want to do?
If you have an idea, OPYC can help you plan it and promote it and members can help you with tasks! It just takes you sharing your idea. The form is located on our website, OlmosParkYC.com. Take a picture of your completed form and text to 210-602-2573, email it or mail to the address listed below. We will contact you about getting started! If you cannot download form, please call or text 210-602-2573 and we will email or text it to you
Youth Leadership, Citizenship, Service, Community Building and Enterprise 