The Finishing Touches to Project Color 2010 by MB Jessee Painting
The early morning chill was still in the air when the white vans pulled up and lined the block outside the Tenderloin Childcare Center on Leavenworth Street in San Francisco this past Saturday. Nearly twenty people clad in painter’s whites spilled out onto the sidewalk and quickly began unrolling tarps, carrying five gallon buckets of paint, and climbing up scaffolding. MB Jessee Inc, an East Bay painting company, chose the Center as the 2010 recipient of their annual charity event, Project Color. For Project Color every employee at MB Jessee donates their time and skills for one day to a worthy Bay Area nonprofit in an effort to give back to the community. Benjamin Moore, Mark’s Paint Mart Oakland, and interior designer Toni Berry are also on aboard this ambitious yearly charity endeavor. In this grim neighborhood, the Center offers a safe haven to learn and grow for the many young children who call the Tenderloin home. MB Jessee chose the Center to receive the $10000 exterior makeover this year because, as foreman Ricardo de Jesus said, “It’s all about the kids!”
The industrious activities of the MB Jessee volunteers did not go unnoticed in the neighborhood. Person after person stopped to peer up at the building and comment on the transformation underway. In an area of the city that is well known for its crime and drugs, everyone still seemed to know and respect that the Center is a place for kids. When told that the makeover was a gift to the Center and its kids and families, one passerby was so delighted he wanted to shake the hand of every MB Jessee volunteer. As the bright new purple, gold and green colors went up excited children could be heard shouting “Ooooh look! That’s my school! “as they walked by and waved up at the painters.
By two thirty in the afternoon it was all over. The painters eyed the walls, columns and windows, searching for any last bit of touch up that might be required. Then the tarps were re-rolled, the paint cans topped and labeled, and the trucks packed up. The volunteers were tired and dirty but clearly proud of their efforts as the smiled for photos and high-fived one another. Standing back to admire the transformation with Tenderloin Childcare Center staff, Matt Jessee, the company president, could be overhead thanking the volunteers for their efforts. A hard day of work for the MB Jessee volunteers but as Center staffer Amy Coleman put it “what a joy for each of the families when they arrive each day”!
