Grey Bears Needs Volunteers of All Ages!

Doing Good takes a lot of People

The disastrous fire on Sept 7 at Grey Bears in their workshop and thrift store has not slowed down this venerable organization. The Thrift Store has reopened for business and is just “bursting” with wonderful holiday gifts and special treasures at great prices. But what Grey Bears really needs are Volunteers!

Brown Bag

There are plenty of wonderful things to do and one of those is “Gleaning” which sounds rather biblical. Volunteers go into the fields and orchards to pick leftover vegetables from the fields and fruit from trees that are left after harvesting that would otherwise go to waste.

The produce collected goes into the brown bag program so there will be more fresh food and fruit pies for dinner at Grandma’s house.

Grey Bears began connecting and sustaining seniors in 1973 with garden produce for 100 members. Over the next 41 years and 84 million pounds of food distributed, “seniors helping seniors” has grown into “seniors changing the world.”

The Brown Bag Program delivers shopping bags of fresh produce to a network of sites, such as non-profits and churches to distribute, and to homebound seniors in Santa Cruz County every week. This year Grey Bears will deliver 2.8 million pounds of healthy food to 4,500 Santa Cruz County seniors.

Everyone is invited to become a supporting member of Grey Bears for just $20 a year. Those 55 years and older are eligible to receive a weekly bag of groceries.

Recycle

Grey Bears operates two recycling drop-off facilities at our Chanticleer Recycling Center and at the Buena Vista Landfill Recycling Center where they take everything that is recyclable at curbside and in greater quantity, plus metal, aluminum, electronics and more, diverting 18,000 tons of materials out of the landfills annually. Visit the Grey Bear website at www.greybears.org for a complete list of what is accepted at each site. Chanticleer is open every day from 7:30 am – 3:45 pm, and Buena Vista is open Monday – Saturday, 7:30 am – 3:30 pm.

E-Waste

At the Chanticleer E-waste Center they recycle all electronics and appliances including computers, printers, monitors, TVs, hot water tanks, washers, dryers, refrigerators, microwaves and other household electrical items (anything with an electric cord) free of charge, seven days a week. We also accept lead-acid and UPS (surge protection, laptop, lithium ion) batteries.

Thrift and Computer Electronics Stores

The Grey Bears Thrift Store is run by volunteers who sort through and select donated treasures, antiques, furniture, clothing, books, music, kitchenware, nick-knacks and much more — all for sale at low prices. Our Chanticleer Avenue Center offers refurbished desktop and laptop computers and components, hard drives, keyboards and monitors to CD ROMs, memory, modems and cables, stereo hi-fi, audio/visual gear including TVs, DVD/VCR players, stereo tuner/amplifiers, speakers, consumer electronics, and appliances including refrigerators, microwave ovens, vacuums and more.

Here are some volunteer opportunities at Grey Bears:

• Brown Bag: Help assemble & deliver bags of food to seniors on Thurs & Fri mornings.
• Thrift Store: Cashier, price and display merchandise with a fun team.
• Computer Electronics Store: Technically savvy? Come on over!
• Online Books: Evaluate, price and enter books and fulfill orders on amazon.com.
• Grey Bears Recycling Facilities: Handymen (and women) always welcome!

If you are interested in being a volunteer contact Tess Wood, Volunteer & Event Coordinator at 831-479-1055 ext. 226 or Email: Tess@greybears.org or visit the Grey Bears main campus at 2710 Chanticleer Ave in Santa Cruz.

One of her volunteers told us that she is, “the best boss I have every had in all of my many years of being a volunteer. Another accolade is found at www.greybears.org/a-volunteers-thoughts-on-grey-bears/

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A volunteer’s thoughts on Grey Bears

I love Grey Bears!! As a volunteer with this organization and as one of its newer members, I not only see the benefit to others in my community but to my family as well. Grey Bears is a unique and local organization that takes the stuff that most cities throw away and resurrects it into: meals, products, funds, compost, and most importantly, meaningful and fulfilling roles that sustain our citizens, our community and our earth.

As a resident of Scotts Valley, I have come to rely on the Brown Bag grocery program to supplement my weekly groceries. Personally, I drop off bags for over 40 other families in Scotts Valley. And I have witnessed and participated in Grey Bear’s brilliant food program where they offer a conduit for the “day old” products and produce to fill stomachs instead of dumpsters. In addition to working with grocery retailers, the gleaning program with local farms also provides an avenue for produce that may not be cosmetically “market worthy” to find very grateful consumers.

Before “Green” was a thing, Grey Bears set up systems for reusing and recycling that are models for other communities. They are a great example of a creativite and future-visioned business model.

I encourage you to directly support Grey Bears as your contribution remains local, vital and easily witnessed — and we have added and continue to add more households to the program. And if you’ve never seen the Grey Bear campus – get yourself over there on a Brown Bag morning and be amazed. And don’t forget the Thrift Store, it’s the best one in Santa Cruz County.

Sincerely,
 Ruth Poe, Scotts Valley