A Brief History of the Friendship Club, 50 Years.
(Approximate Overview)

1. Co-Founders, Gary Ales and Jean Allan Ales, 1964-2014, 50 years of dedicated service to St. Paul Public Schools and the St. Paul Community.

2. 750-800 Service-Learning trips into the community serving others. These were done on vacation time, holiday time and after hours of school time. No class time was missed or used.

3. Over 15,000 wonderful members of the Friendship Club dedicated their time, love and friendship to serve others. No one was paid money, credits or grades. People of all ages, races, faiths, abilities, schools and boys and girls. We live altruism. Age range was 5-75, wonderful people. We joined hands and hearts to serve others. We teach leadership, citizenship and build character.

4. Gary and Jean have donated over 75, 000 hours proudly serving the St. Paul Community and St. Paul Public Schools.

5. We have reached out to serve over 320,000 people in the last 50 years.

6. We donated over $375,000 dollars of work time to proudly serve others.

7. We have reached out to serve senior citizens in the following places, Cerenity, Wilder, Harmony, Shalom Home, Little Sisters of the Poor, Bethel,
Cancer Home and many more. Norhaven and Greenbrier.

8. Environmental projects, cleaning parks, neighborhoods, rivers, schools.
Cherokee, Como, Phalen, Crosby, Lillydale and the Mississippi River.
Cleaning up Humboldt H.S., Johnson H.S., Riverside, and more. Over 50 stencils of drains warning not to pollute, drains to river. We have planted over 500 trees along the Mississippi River. Planted 3 gardens. We have served low income families with gifts and clothing. We have volunteered at the Midway YMCA we helped unload Christmas trees and volunteer at Halloween parties. We worked with Ecolab and Bank Cherokee to give out Christmas gifts to low income students, over 1,000 Westside students have received "Shoebox" gifts from our program.

9. It has been a joy and honor to volunteer and serve St. Paul Public Schools and the St. Paul Community for 50 years. ·

Thank you to the 15,000 super stars who came to "Share and Care" and give to -others, they are heroes and champions.

Thank You,
Gary Ales, retired counselor, teacher and coach,
Jean Allan Ales, Artist
Friendship Club