By Lois Requist

Script, still pictures, and video—we were ready when the team of students from Benicia High School met us. We talked about what we had prepared and how the process would work. A member of the Human Services Commission was there to make sure everything went well.
The product, a video about Carquinez Village, will be part of a fundraising campaign by the Human Services Commission, a commission of the City of Benicia. Carquinez Village, along with a number of other service organizations in town, receives a small grant from the city through HSC. The commission decides which applicant groups will receive grants, and the commission is required to raise some of the funds to support these groups.
As you probably know, if you’ve been reading this column or know about us in some other way, Carquinez Village serves seniors. There is a charge for membership, but we’ve always aimed not to turn anyone away who wants to belong. The majority of the funds that come from the city go to scholarships for those who need help paying their membership.
So, when the HSC let us know that their fundraiser this year would be done in April through a crowdfunding website for nonprofits—www.causevox.com—and that they would be doing a short video of each of their grantees, we started thinking about what would make a good video.
The services we provide came immediately to mind. We thought of two women, Carquinez Village volunteers, who installed a spa in one day for a member because she needed it for a certain health condition. We thought of the volunteer who goes to a member’s home and takes the laundry downstairs and does it because the member can no longer go up and down the stairs. I thought about the woman here in town who, when I dropped her at home after a dental appointment, got out of the car saying, “Everyone who has driven me has been wonderful!”
I went through my computer identifying pictures of activities and events: seniors boarding a colorful SolTrans Bus so they could learn where the routes are and how to use the service; members walking in the Fourth of July Parade, carrying our banner and passing out small flyers; a group enjoying a potluck; seniors listening to a speaker at our monthly informational meeting.
I was reminded of the many people I have come to know of working together to prepare for and then to start Carquinez Village. In April, we’ll be celebrating our one-year birthday since we launched. We’ve doubled our membership in that time and continue to reach out to seniors.
You’ll no doubt be hearing more about this video/fundraising project through the Human Services Commission. It will benefit all the organizations that receive money through their grant program. I’ve never gone on a crowdfunding website, so it will be a first for me.
When the young man from Benicia High School held up the camera and gave us the signal to start, Judie Donaldson and I read the script. Between the few takes it took, we visited with the two seniors doing the project. Like my own twin grandchildren that are graduating in June, these two have applied to several colleges, have heard back from some, and await word from others. By the end of this month, they will be deciding where they will be attending college in the fall.
In the meantime, they’ll be working with the material we handed them on a thumb drive—amazing how much can be stored on that small device—to develop a two to three minute video that, along with videos of other organizations, will be seen on various social media sites. In addition, HSC members will be taking their show on the road. Going to service and business organizations in town, they will tell our story and others. Members of the service organizations will join in the presentations.
I hope you get to see all the videos. You might be amazed at the nonprofit organizations that are working in Benicia to help those who need it! You might think Benicia is a great place to live! I already do!

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