Community effort spruces up downtown

FALLBROOK – Fallbrook residents were invited to join a community effort – "Spruce Up Downtown" – March 27 to help ready the area for the annual Avocado Festival coming up April 27. According to long-time resident Jackie Heyneman, that event is the town’s opportunity to put Fallbrook on the path for increased tourism, a goal that has been the aim for many years.

Close to 30 residents showed up that morning to help beautify the downtown area, removing weeds and invasive plants. Without volunteers, this kind of caretaking would not happen.

Fallbrook is an unincorporated community, not a city. Heyneman said residents chose to live here “to enjoy the rural qualities of this beautiful part of Southern California. There are no city taxes which means we have fewer amenities…just basic transportation needs, a library, law enforcement, and a few other necessities.”

These limits mean various organizations pick up the ball to provide the amenities that add to the quality of life. Each group works toward its own specific purpose. Pooling their resources, Fallbrook’s tremendous volunteers, seems a simple answer to making bigger things happen. Heyneman said the inspiration for this new venture, the Fountain of Giving in Vince Ross Square, at Alvarado Street and Main Avenue, epitomizes the giving nature of this community.

A new website is now online for groups and individuals to sign up to either receive notices as individuals, or organizations to post their coming events that could use more volunteers. That website is at fountainofgiving.org.

Heyneman added that for years big things have happened in Fallbrook through volunteerism. This effort can make it more achievable to move mountains.