Status: Alumni
On the July 19, 2015, three sophomore school students from San Jose (Leo Tong, Kevin Lee, Wallace Lin, and Jae-Hoon Choi) founded the San Jose Branch for the Alliance of Youth Leaders in the United States (AYLUS).
Officers:
Mission This branch of AYLUS is located in San Jose, California. Students from schools city-wide and nearby locations comprise this branch. In this organization, we strive to incorporate enjoyment into our service to encourage passion in providing help to our communities. Also, we aim to achieve our goals by building youth leadership and assisting our community: this branch promotes creativity, collaboration, and meaningful service. Our goal is to better the community by offering problem solving solutions and actions. Feel free to contact us at anytime as we are open to anyone interested.
Activity Highlights
Sunday Friends 1/28/18
On January 28th, members of the San Jose AYLUS branch teamed up with the Sunday Friends to help kick off the New Years on a high note for the underserved community. Volunteers aided by cleaning up, and reorganizing supplies that were given to families in need. AYLUS members also helped by interacting with these families and making everyone feel welcomed and appreciated following the holiday season.
CVS Flu Concierge 11/27/2017
In this event, AYLUS members assisted those in the local community by serving as concierges for Target and CVS Pharmacy. Volunteers also advertised flu awareness to shoppers, and aided in CVS Pharmacy’s goal to vaccinate the entire community. Overall, the team’s efforts were successful, as CVS Pharmacy saw an increase in flu vaccinations that day and applauded the team’s success.
Calabazas Park 9/7/2017
AYLUS members of San Jose met at Calabazas Park to help clean up the park for the local community. The cleaning lasted two hours, and was powered by the group’s collaborative efforts. Many members of the community offered praise and words of motivation to the members as they worked through the morning. The park is often used by young children during the day, so keeping the park clean is crucial to the community’s safety. Without AYLUS’s efforts, the park would remain extremely messy and serve as a safety hazard to younger children at play. The organization’s efforts brought attention to AYLUS and several locals were excited to spread the word about the group’s work ethic and organization.
Bottle Collecting and Recycling 6/26/17
At the Bottle and Recycling event on June 26th, the monthly accumulated bottles and cans were turned in for a total of $21. This money will be used to donate to Brothers and Sisters non-profit organization.
Coyote Creek Cleanup 4/15/17
On April 15th, the AYLUS San Jose Branch participated in the Earth Month Challenge and visited Coyote Creek There, they plowed through the riverbanks, looking for trash brought by rainfall and the river current. Along the banks lay layers and layers of clothes and plastic bags covered in grime and mud. Using equipment supplied by the Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful organization, AYLUS members dug up all sorts of delights from the banks. From simple discarded pieces of plastic and trash to entire motorcycle engines, the event was similar to a treasure hunt. As our trash bags piled up next to us, the event exposed the sheer amount of trash accumulated along the Coyote Creek banks. The hardest part was not picking up the trash itself but the transportation of our heavy trash bags up the slopes to a disposal truck.
Members of this event had lots of fun utilizing their creativity to make the process easier. Two of our branch members actually found an unused shopping cart next to the river. With the wheels intact and usable, they filled the cart with the heaviest objects such as mattresses, broken bike parts, and even a grill.
Overall, the event was very successful and seeing the difference we made in just several hours gave us gratification that we were in the process of fulfilling our human responsibilities to help our beloved planet.
Stanford Asian Liver Center Awareness 1/29/17
On January 29th, AYLUS members attended the Vietnamese Festival at the Tully Fairgrounds. There, they collaborated with the Stanford Liver Center to raise awareness to the Vietnamese community about the mysterious Hepatitis B. Members were stationed either at the desk or the games. To engage interest in customers, there was a spin-to-win wheel that gave out prizes such as stress balls, pens, bags, and more. The Stanford Liver Center event was a very valuable experience because it not only allowed members to directly interact with other people, but members were also able to possibly save many families from possible grief in the future.
Bottle Collecting and Recycling 11/27/16
On November 27th, the Alliance of Youth Leaders San Jose Branch brought two months worth collection of bottles and cans to the RePlanet Recycling Facility. The project was initiated with the Conejo Valley Alliance of Youth Leaders (US) Branch and will continue to proceed year long. Members dumped the accumulated bottles/cans into trash bins then into bags for the weighing process. With each bottle/can worth roughly five cents, this run gathered a total of thirty eight dollars and ninety-one cents. In addition, Asian Americans For Community Involvement of Santa Clara County generously doubled our amount to a grand total of seventy-seven dollars and eighty-two cents. Hoping to increasingly bolster our efforts in this bottle and can collecting project, our branch hopes to raise at least five hundred dollars by next year. All revenue will be donated to local charities such as Bill Wilson Center.
CVS Pharmacy / Target Vaccination 10/30/16
In this event sponsored by CVS Pharmacy, the volunteers were required to endorse flu vaccinations to the community; the event entailed passing out flyers, promoting flu vaccinations and increasing public awareness of flu shots. The volunteers were able to surpass the CVS team members’ goals previously and were able to set a new record for flu vaccinations in the given time. AYLUS volunteers were able to change lives and increase the general public’s safety by vaccinating those who were not previously vaccinated. Volunteers went beyond promoting the flu shots within Target and journeyed out beyond and into the Oakridge Mall near Almaden where they were able to increase the range of people they affected. Overall, the experience was amazing for the AYLUS members, for they were able to receive a hands on look into some aspects of the pharmacy and also support a healthy cause and assist numerous people.
Greystone Park Clean Up
On April 3rd, 5 members of the San Jose AYLUS Branch participated in an Earth Cleanup day. The volunteers gave the community a new look by picking up litter and cleaning up the park. Members not only worked together efficiently, but collaborated and made the experience a team bonding moment. The event lasted for 2 hours and several park visitors thanked the volunteers for their efforts. Through this experience, the volunteers learned to work as a team and how their work is appreciated by those in the community. This event has truly brought the members together and brought awareness to the club as well.
Sacred Heart Community Service
During the week of March 28th, members of the San Jose Branch of AYLUS devoted their time from their spring break to help others in need at Sacred Heart Service Center. There, volunteers were in charge of either food or clothes in the warehouse. In the pantry, volunteers packed food items into bags that were ready to be taken by the less fortunate. As a long line of customers waited to pick up their food, volunteers worked relentlessly to ensure that the line was moving smoothly. On the other side was the clothes area. Customers were able to pick out the clothes they wanted in their designated time frame and within the limit count. Some volunteers worked behind a counter to “check” the items out, while other customers sorted and hung clothes on racks for the customers. All in all, this experience was very valuable to all of us because we got hands on experience with the needy.
Second Harvest Food Bank
November 24, 2015. On a chilly afternoon, members from the San Jose branch of AYLUS participated in food sorting at the Second Harvest Food Bank at the Cypress Center. Upon arrival, there were stacks of huge cardboard containers full of fruit that needed to be packed into organized smaller boxes. Our hosts were benevolent and guided us extremely well. Activities members participated in included box making, fruit boxing, and packing. Additionally, many other service groups were also present, so members all had a swell time socializing while packing fruit. Whether it was simply the act of helping the needy receive food for their holidays, or racing to see who could box thirty pounds of pears the fastest, everybody enjoyed the moment. Huge thanks to the employees at the Second Harvest Food Bank to allow us to help the needy during this holiday season. Last but not least, thanks to all the members that participated in the event!
