Project Color: Our 8th Straight Year!
What an amazing day! For our 8th annual Project Color painting for charity event we'd picked the sanctuary of the wonderful George Mark Children's House in San Leandro as our $10000 painting makeover winner. As our June painting date neared on the calendar, the MB Jessee staff met on site to map out our plan. We powerwashed the sanctuary thoroughly and let it dry for several days. That recent Bay Area heat wave helped us out nicely with that!
In the early morning on Saturday June 22nd, MB Jessee staff and vehicles began arriving at George Mark. Our vans and trucks sprang open and two dozens white-clad painters poured out. As we fortified with coffee and scones, Matt thanked everyone for coming out and donating their time to paint for charity. As the sun came out and burned off the morning fog, our crews set to work in a meticulously organized whirlwind. Masking, taping, covering, we made sure the precious items in the sanctuary were safe and began on the interior walls, ceiling and wainscotting. Our exterior crews divided the building among themselves and got ladders and maskers going.
We worked at a fast clip through the morning. Come lunchtime we had a scrumptious picnic lunch catered by Oakland's Ike's Place on George Mark's beautiful garden grounds. We laughed and joked and ate. And ate!!
After lunch we started winding down. Foremen walked around the interior and exterior, eagle-eyed, looking for anything that might not be just right. Painters outside began to remove the liquid masking from the windows, letting the sunlight splash through the windows into the sanctuary -- giving our all white-clad painters a bit of a halo. We re-hung the paintings and positioned the furniture, leaving the sanctuary calm and serene and beautifully painted. As we began to pack up our vans several volunteers hugged us and thanked us again and again.
MB Jessee will begin accepting submissions for Project Color 2014 in September. Do you know a non profit or community group doing amazing work that really needs painting but cannot afford it? Send your story and pictures to julie@mbjessee.com
We can't wait for next year!