We got the Crissy Fields Community Hero Award!

This is not quite motorcycle related, just thought it would be an interesting tidbit out of our day at Werkstatt Motorcycles.

As part of the Capp Alliance Project (CAP) we just got awarded the Crissy Fields Community Hero Award 2007 for pulling neighborhood resources together to implement a plan to keep Capp Street clean!

And last Saturday I took off the coveralls, put on nice jacket and pants and held a speech at Crissy Fields, San Francisco, in front of a bunch of people and officials, all proud of our CAP crew and of what we have accomplished, and what a great success it has been!

( And it was a windy day as you can see from my hair blowing and I don't have photo shop...)

There is also a year-long exhibit at the Crissy Fields Center, so when you are out there in the Crissy Fields which is part of the Golden Gate National Park System, drop by and check out the video of me and the crew wielding the brooms on Capp St...You can also check out the video here.

Since I kind of started at the end, here is how all that started in the beginning: There is a Homeless Center located a couple doors down from us, the Mission Resource Center, and I have been going to the meetings and working closely with the Center to improve the neighborhood and address some of the problems we are having here related to our homeless neighbors.

In one of those meetings we founded a group called CAP: Capp St Alliance Project, with the goal of improving our neighborhood and Werkstatt Motorcycle Repair is now sponsoring the CAP clean up crew that comes by Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning to clean the streets, and it worked: We now have one of the cleanest streets in San Francisco!

The way it works is that CAP hires and trains homeless people for a 2 month internship to clean the streets and become leaders of their community.

And the participants have taking this on with vigor and pride, and for some of them this became a stepping stone to get regular jobs and housing and to leave homelessness behind them, so this has been a real success on several levels despite having a nice, presentable, livable and safe street to boot.

Frankly, I am a little surprised how far we have gotten with not that much effort, but it goes to show that a little effort goes a long way!

I would like to thank everybody that has been part of CAP, especially Vero, Julie and Laura from the Resource Center, and all the guys that have been part of the clean up crew and made such a big difference!