Friday, October 23 · Thank you
On Friday evening, October 23, families, friends and volunteers filled the Field of Hope on Beech Street for decorated trunks, pumpkin painting, costumes and games on the lawn. Here's what the night looked like, and why it matters.
By the time the sky over Beech Street turned pink, two inflatable dinosaurs were hugging it out on the lawn, a kid in a bright green costume was strolling past like that was perfectly normal, and the cornhole boards were already in use.
That was Harvest of Hope: an evening set aside for families, friends and neighbors to simply be together, with our kids right in the middle of it.
The first thing you saw was the checkin table. Yellow volunteer lanyards. Clipboards. A stack of purple Halloween tote bags waiting to be filled. Volunteers signed families in, handed each kid a bag and pointed the way.
It's a small thing, a welcome table. It's also the moment a family decides whether a place is for them.
Then came the trunks. Our community turned ordinary cars into small stages, and every one was loaded with treats.
A trunk covered in bright signs: Shine God's Light. Be Kind. Be Brave. Be Joyful. Be the Light. A Noah's Ark with giraffes, a lion and a rainbow. A fuzzy blue cookie monster with googly eyes and a mouth full of snacks. A video game trunk with purple lanterns and “Victory Royale” spelled out in black balloons. A 49ers locker room with a football and little tubs of modeling dough. A neon “Let's Glow Crazy” trunk with streamers and balloons. And a pickup bed spread with candy between two apple carts, under signs that read Keep Jesus at the Core, Pick Jesus and Bushels of Blessings.
Each one took real time and imagination. Thank you to everyone who decorated a trunk and handed out treats.
Behind every fun moment was someone working. Under the pergola, volunteers lined up rows of juice pouches and water bottles and kept the food table going, ladling from slow cookers and keeping the hot dog buns and chips stocked.
Some of the helpers in yellow lanyards were young people themselves, standing behind a table of cookies like they'd been doing it for years. That might be our favorite picture of the night: young people finding out they get to be the ones who welcome others, too.
To every volunteer who set up, welcomed, served and kept things moving: thank you. The evening worked because you did.
At the pumpkin tables, paper plates became paint palettes. Some pumpkins got faces sketched on before any paint came out. One went blue from the top down while an adult held it steady and let the young artist do the work.
That says a lot about how good things grow here. Not someone doing it for a child. Someone standing close enough to help while the child does it.
There were princesses, superheroes, cats and at least one tiara paired with a pumpkin held like a trophy. There was a bounce house, a ladder toss game and cornhole on the grass. There were little ones running and older kids pretending they were too cool for it, right up until they weren't.
It's easy to call a night like this simple fun. It is fun. It's also something more.
A child who looks around and sees the adults in their life together, laughing and making time, learns something no lesson plan can teach: there are people here who care about me. That feeling goes home with them. It comes back on a hard day at school.
No child builds a future alone. Every one of them needs pillars, the parents, grandparents and caregivers whose daily love holds so much together. Foundations, the teachers, mentors and volunteers who learn a child's name and keep showing up. And bridges, the neighbor who says “try this” and opens a door a child didn't know was there.
On Friday night, a whole community did a little of all three. Hope Horizon has been part of East Palo Alto since 1984, and nights like this remind us the work has always rested on people.
To the families who came: thank you for sharing your evening and your kids with us. To our volunteers, staff and trunk decorators: thank you for the welcome, the food and the fun.
Harvest of Hope doesn't end with the evening. Our fall campaign continues through November 15, investing in the people, programs and places that hold up a Hope Horizon student. If Friday made you smile, help make the next chapter possible.
Our fall campaign continues through November 15
Every gift goes through our Harvest of Hope giving page, and gifts of any amount count. Or give your time on a weekday afternoon.
Our fall campaign
Help their next chapter grow.
For forty years, this corner of Beech Street has been a place where a student who is behind can sit down next to an adult who is not in a hurry. This fall we are raising $200,000 by November 15 to strengthen the people, the programs and the places that make that possible.
Every gift goes through our Harvest of Hope giving page. Gifts of any amount count toward the goal.
Pablo's story
Over three summers, Pablo joined a mission trip led by one of our church partners in partnership with Hope Horizon. On his first trip, he struggled with homesickness. As he returned, he grew in confidence. He worked through challenges, including bullying last summer, and found a sense of belonging. Eventually, he brought his younger brother and a friend with him. A place that had once felt unfamiliar had become a community he wanted to share.
A space becomes important because of the people who fill it.
Pablo's story is a picture of what we want for every Hope Horizon student: caring adults who keep showing up. It rarely comes from one person. It comes from the circle around a young person, family, Hope Horizon staff, church partners, mentors, and neighbors who notice them and stay. For Pablo, that circle included a church partner walking alongside Hope Horizon, and a community he came to call his own and then shared with his younger brother and a friend. Keeping that circle strong for every student is what this campaign is for.
Pablo's story, shared by Josie at the town hall.
Photos supplied by Hope Horizon.
The relationships
Two students, both anonymous here as they are in the stories we have published. Each one started with somebody making room for them.
Alumni story
It's been cool to see everything come full circle.
Hope Horizon alum, Class of 2021
Her first taste of technology and coding came here, as a high school freshman competing in the Technovation Challenge with the EPA Chica Squad. She finished a degree in computer science and engineering, came back, and now coordinates three programs at once: Lego Robotics, the high school FRC team, and a hands-on STEM workshop for younger students.
Read the full story
Student story
Other teams were surprised there was even a team from East Palo Alto...
A Hope Horizon student
In March 2024, East Palo Alto's FRC team 8048 won the Silicon Valley Regional. Getting to the World Championships in Houston meant raising $40,000 for flights, hotels, food and equipment, and the community did it in under a month. The team draws students from more than ten different high schools, and the City of East Palo Alto honored them with a proclamation.
Read the full storySupport the person who stays, and the project that sparks curiosity.
Support the next chance to try.
Spaces for discovery
Flexible furniture, organized supplies and teaching tools can help a classroom adapt to tutoring, reading and hands-on projects. Staffing and training help educators use those resources well, turning a prepared room into an engaging learning experience.
Spaces for belonging
Help renew the large gathering room for student showcases, celebrations, family gatherings, worship and reflection. Flexible seating, presentation tools and thoughtful storage can support the staff and programs that bring these moments to life.
The same campaign covers a welcoming office for lesson planning, staff preparation, and conversations with families and volunteers. The adults who serve students need somewhere to get ready, and refreshed halls and student artwork can make the walk to class feel more welcoming.
The room is only the beginning. What fills it, and who is standing in it, is the rest of this campaign.
Your partnership
A student is held up by three things at once: the adults who know them, the program that meets them where they are, and a room that is ready when they walk in. This campaign invests in all three.
Staffing and consistent support for students, so the adult a child trusts is still here next semester. And training and professional development, so that adult keeps getting better at the work.
Improvements to what we teach and the materials students learn from, across reading support, tutoring, after-school, robotics and camp.
Learning rooms, gathering spaces and the campus improvements that support them, inside the building and out on the Field of Hope.
We will discuss the purpose of your gift, the relevant budget and timing, and a payment schedule that works for you. We will also agree on updates that keep you connected to the work you support.
Scope, budget, timing and any designated gift are agreed with you, not set in advance on this page. Gifts to this campaign are unrestricted across people, programs and places unless you tell us otherwise.
Questions
Into the three areas on this page: people, programs and places. We file a Form 990 every year and will send a copy on request, along with our financial statements.
Hope Horizon East Palo Alto is a registered 501(c)(3), EIN 77-0151434. Gifts are tax-deductible to the extent the law allows. We are not tax advisors, so check specifics with yours.
Yes, all three. Our ways to give page has the details, or email Eric and he will walk you through it.
Yes, and it is the steadiest kind of support there is. The Open Door Circle is our monthly giving community.
Introduce us to one person, or come volunteer. Both are worth real money to this organization and neither costs you any.
The event
It finished with all of us in one place.
Harvest of Hope took place on Friday, October 23, from 6 to 8 pm. Thank you to everyone who came, volunteered and decorated a trunk. The full recap and photos are at the top of this page, and the campaign continues through November 15.
It happened on the Field of Hope, which opened in October 2021: a basketball court, a turf field, a picnic area, a walking path and a gathering circle around a campfire ring. More than 230 neighbors came to the opening, the California State Senate recognized it that November, and the Jeremy Lin Foundation covered a majority of the cost of the court. It is a good example of what this campaign is for, because it was built by a lot of people who each did one part.
The campaign so far
From September 23 to October 22 we told this story one week at a time, then gathered at Harvest of Hope on October 23. The campaign continues through November 15.
Where this started, who planted it, and the ground it grew in: 1984, this block, and the Field of Hope out front.
What steady care actually looks like. The rooms, the programs, and the adults who keep showing up on an ordinary Tuesday.
Families, volunteers, churches and neighbors. Nobody does this alone, and this is the week we say so out loud.
What the next forty years need from us, and the invitation to be part of building it.
Last updated 2026-10-23
One more thing
Give to the campaign, or tell us about one person who should know this place exists. Both move it forward.
