All Ages, All Abilities, All Welcome! | | |
Dear Community Member,
We are thrilled to announce an exciting new collaboration between the St. Francis Center and the Magical Bridge Foundation to bring an inclusive "pocket park" to our beloved North Fair Oaks neighborhood.
The proposed pocket park on Buckingham next to the Casa de Sobrato Apartments will transform an approximately 5,000-square-foot parcel into a vibrant community space welcoming all ages and abilities.
We are especially proud to dedicate a section of the park in honor of our beloved staff member, Tess Rowell Weber, who touched the lives of so many. This will serve as a fitting tribute to her spirit and dedication.
To make this vision a reality, we invite you to share your ideas on what you would like to see in this exciting new space. We are also seeking donations to support the park's development, which is estimated to cost around $1.2 million. No matter the size, every contribution will help us create a truly magical space.
Thank you for your support. We look forward to creating a beautiful gathering place for our community.
In community,
Kate Young
Executive Director
St. Francis Center
| | Magic Comes to the Neighborhood | | |
The following excerpts are from a March 11, 2025, San Mateo Daily Journal story by Ana Mata.
The Magical Bridge Community Playground and Gathering Space is a collaboration between the St. Francis Center and the Magical Bridge Foundation. This proposed park will address the need for more community spaces and open play areas.
Executive Director Kate Young highlights the importance of developing such spaces, especially following the pandemic, underscoring the need for communal gathering spots. “While our focus has largely been on affordable housing, this is a remarkable opportunity to create a welcoming area away from the concrete," she noted.
Renowned for building universally accessible playgrounds, the Magical Bridge Foundation's Founder, Olenka Villarreal, is eager to bring this project to life. “This pocket park will be unique as it's the first of its kind on privately owned land and is designed to serve all ages,” Villarreal explained.
Accessibility is a cornerstone of this initiative. Plans include creating a space where older community members feel welcomed and engaged. The design will cater not just to children but to everyone in the community, fostering interaction and togetherness beyond the Center's walls.
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As more feedback is gathered, next steps will include refining the park's design and launching a capital fundraising campaign with an estimated goal of raising $1.2 million.
All residents and workers in North Fair Oaks are invited to share their ideas for the park's design by visiting https://www.magicalbridge.org/stfrancis. Donations to support this project are being accepted at the same link.
Click to read the entire San Mateo Daily Journal story!
Please note that the park renderings are conceptual. The final design will depend on community feedback.
| | In Celebration of Earth Day | | On April 26, in the spirit of Earth Day, volunteers will be sprucing up the community garden next to the parking lot, including painting, composting, trimming, and clean-up. If you would like to volunteer, please fill out the form on our website at https://stfrancisrwc.org/contact/. | | |
April 26 is turning out to be a day of revitalization at the St. Francis Center! In addition to our enhancement of the community garden, a team of volunteers from Rebuilding Together Peninsula will be on-site that day to tackle various fix-it projects.
Rebuilding Together is an essential partner of the St. Francis Center. We greatly appreciate their vital and ongoing support!
| | On March 14, Holy Family School eighth graders celebrated Pi Day, a playful international celebration of the mathematical constant pi (π). Pi Day also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday. We are pretty sure we have some Einsteins in the making! Congrats to our Pi Day Champions, who accepted the challenge of memorizing the digits of Pi! (L to R) Angel: 75. Dania: 203, and drumroll, please...Andrea: 318! | | |
Siena Youth Center is leaping forward into springtime activities! The adventures began with a dodgeball-themed Sports Night that started as a friendly competition and ended in riotous laughter.
Later in the month, Acting Assistant Director and artist Joanna Contreras led a moving Art Night workshop. In honor of Women’s History Month, Joanna guided the community in painting portraits of the women we love most— our cherished mothers and sisters, wise grandmothers and aunts, and caring friends and neighbors.
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Finally, in a few short weeks, the North Fair Oaks Youth Initiative will embark on its annual youth leadership retreat. This sleepaway is an opportunity for our dedicated high-school students to rest and revitalize while also strengthening their ties with each other. The youth leadership will participate in team-building games, self-reflection exercises, and good old-fashioned fun!
We are blessed to be in a beautiful community and to see the bright flowers bloom once more. SYC is enjoying the longer, sunnier days.
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| As we celebrate Earth Day, it is only fitting that we recognize long-time volunteer and landscape designer extraordinaire Fran Albrecht. Recently, Fran used her green thumb to rejuvenate the flower garden in the courtyard in front of the Center. She removed dead plants and replaced them with gorgeous, vibrant flowers! Thanks to Fran's TLC, the courtyard is looking better than ever! We also look forward to seeing Fran every Monday morning at the Clothing Closet, where she greets staff, volunteers, and clients with a warm smile, a welcoming attitude, and a helpful spirit. |
| Peninsula Food Runners:
A Vital Partner in Fighting Hunger | | |
At the St. Francis Center, we firmly believe in the right to access nutritious food for all. That's why we are proud to partner with Peninsula Food Runners, who deliver rescued food to our Food Pantry three times a week! Their mission focuses on alleviating hunger and minimizing food waste in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties by connecting surplus food from various donors to individuals and families in need.
Founded by Maria Yap, Peninsula Food Runners operates on a simple yet impactful idea: to deliver excess food from local restaurants, grocery stores, and catering companies directly to organizations like the St. Francis Center that serve those facing food insecurity. Thanks to their innovative web-based application, Chowmatch, donors can efficiently sign up. The system then matches donors to appropriate recipients and successfully coordinates pickups with nearby volunteers. Nearly 400 volunteers work diligently to deliver an impressive 1.03 million pounds of food each week, which equates to 911,001 meals provided to 193 partner organizations from 183 donors.
This collaboration has transformed our approach to hunger in the community. By harnessing local business resources, Peninsula Food Runners offers nourishing meals to clients who often lack reliable access to healthy food. As Maria Yap insightfully points out, "I asked myself a very simple question: Where are all the people who are in need of food? They're not just at the shelter, and we know food insecure people sometimes don't have the transportation to get their food, so why not bring it to where they're at?"
This partnership reduces food waste and fosters a community spirit of contribution through donations or volunteer efforts. With Peninsula Food Runners' support, the St. Francis Center can deliver essential nourishment to families facing economic hardship.
Together, we strive to create a community where no one goes hungry. Thank you, Peninsula Food Runners, for being an invaluable partner in serving our community!
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