I would like to publicly share the enormous amount of physical assistance students of Surprise’s Valley Vista High School football and girls basketball teams provided Sun City West Desert Garden United Church of Christ seniors at their annual citrus tree gleaning and rummage sales this spring.

The football team, headed by head coach Derek Wahlstrom, donated several hours of labor (about 80 hours of individual labor) helping many of our senior-aged members to harvest an entire block of 46 citrus trees for St. Mary’s Food Bank. Assistant coach Paterno and other players helped to deliver furniture at the rummage sale.

The girls basketball team reported to help the congregation tear down and store all the furniture, art, clothing, etc. from the rummage sale only three days after winning their fifth state title in the past six years.

Their efforts allowed about 12 seniors to completely dismantle our church campus from a previous two weeks of setting up for our rummage sale in about 2.5 hours (60 individual labor hours). Led by head coach Rachel Matakas, the girls were up to the task and outlifted many of us older men in the clean-up activities.

What a pleasure it is to thank a large group of young people for their community service under the leadership of such dedicated coaches!