Love Placentia marks a decade of volunteers showing care for their town

Volunteers set out across several cities Saturday, April 25, to show their communities some love.

Among them was Placentia, where a decade of community service was celebrated with some elbow grease and care

For Saturday’s 10th annual Love Placentia, volunteers gathered at El Dorado High for a kickoff celebration — they would return later for an after-party — and then headed out to complete various projects around town, from sprucing up numerous school campuses to adding landscaping to local parks and helping refresh the historic Bradford House to making blankets for people who are homeless.

“We have so many people that have done this every year for the last 10 years,” said Joetta Preece, who has been leading the effort the last few years, but has been a volunteer since day one. “We also found a lot of new ones this year, so that is great.”

Love Placentia is part of the Love Our Cities campaign, which was founded in 2007 in Modesto and came to Orange County in 2014 with Love Fullerton. Now, more than a dozen OC cities participate in some way, with several hosting city-wide volunteer days on Saturday. Others host volunteer days at various times throughout the year.

“People really want to improve where they live,” Preece said. “They want to make it an even better place to live, work and play.”

The community service day is also popular with students who participate to help meet requirements for hours, but also involve their families, Preece said.

Preece, by the way, isn’t even a Placentia resident, but is a member of the Rose Drive Friends Church in town. The church is a sponsoring organization with Love Placentia, and since her mother had enjoyed participating in Love Fullerton events, Preece, an Anaheim Hills resident, decided to get involved in Placentia.

“We just want to beautify the city and all the things that go along with that,” she said. “I think that is what speaks to a lot of the volunteers.”