Sunday Friends

By Cathy O'Brien, Associate Chair, Sunday Friends Project

The Junior League of San Jose's newest community Project, Sunday Friends, is a program dedicated to improving the lives of children and their families through educational activities. Children learn how to prepare food, create art, improve their English, math, and reading skills and much more. All of the activities that the children participate in allow them to earn tickets. These tickets act like "dollars" or "points" that can be used to purchase everything from clothing to diapers or toys from the program's Treasure Chest.

Children are able to purchase an item the same day they earn their tickets or save up their tickets over several Sundays in order to purchase a larger item that s/he may really want, such as a bicycle. The lesson of saving and budgeting tickets carries over into the children's lives when it comes time for them to start using actual money. The children all have at least one parent who attends Sunday Friends with them and the parents are able to earn tickets as well. Many parents use their tickets for practical items such as batteries while the children tend to go for items such as toys. Many children will give their parents their tickets in order to help out the household.

The largest event of the year for Sunday Friends is the Halloween celebration. On October 24th, children were able to pick out the costume of their choice. They did not need tickets to purchase a costume. Costumes were a gift of the program to anyone who attended and participated on that day. Further, because Halloween fell on a Sunday, the children attending on October 31st were able to wear their costumes, trick or treat in a safe environment, and participate in holiday activities. These two days drew the largest attendance of the year for both participants and volunteers.

JLSJ volunteers are excited to be a part of this wonderful program that directly interacts with and benefits children. We are also enthusiastic about our goals for Sunday Friends. We are currently evaluating the Treasure Chest and devising a plan to help improve its efficiency and product availability as well as increase donations from individuals and businesses, large and small. The Sunday Friends Committee is also reviewing the current leadership structure within Sunday Friends and creating a leadership plan that will focus on identifying, training and retaining leaders for the program. The plan will allow Sunday Friends to grow by becoming more efficient, stable and self-sustaining. We are excited about the work we are doing with Sunday Friends. Stay tuned for an update on our success!