It all started when a club member was tidying up their dining room credenza. They found a bunch of things they didn’t need anymore. Offspring were asked if they wanted the goods, but they weren’t too keen. This raised the question of what to do with all that stuff? Donating to the Oakland Museum White Elephant Sale was a possibility, but then an idea formed, maybe the Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club could use a fundraiser? The idea of a yard sale was suggested at the annual meeting last December, and everyone was on board.

In the spring, Claudia Benton, Janie Hillyer, and Patricia Erwin formed a small group to put together the event. They picked a date, made some initial plans, and started asking lawn bowling members to donate items to help us get everything ready. Thus began an epic effort on their part to make this event work.

It looked like there were a few hurdles to overcome, but we managed to pull it off! First off, would members be willing to donate items for sale? The answer was a resounding yes. Donations were generous and plentiful, completely filling the clubhouse by the week before the sale. Second, could all the items in the clubhouse be moved outdoors and arranged for display before the yard sale started? Again, the answer was yes. A small group of volunteers met at 7 AM and took on the almost Herculean task of setting things up for the 9 AM start of the sale. Third, would people come to buy things? The news was good. Efforts to publicize the sale – flyers, posters, social media posts – were effective. We estimate that we had 250 visitors attend the yard sale, some of whom participated in free lawn bowling lessons.

Hurdle number four, would folks buy our yard sale goods? And indeed, our visitors bought an amazing number of donated items—stuff you thought would sell, stuff you could not imagine selling, and everything in between. This led to the final challenge of the exercise: how do we clean up at the end of the yard sale so that the PIMD Playdowns Tournament, scheduled for the next morning, would run smoothly? Again, the miracle on Acton Street continued as many helping hands sorted the unsold items into categories for prompt dispersal and neatly routed the leftovers to alternate ends. Within an hour and a half, the clubhouse was clean.

None of this could have happened without the dedicated volunteer effort of BLBC members. The club thanks everyone who donated items. We had a great turnout with 35 members (a full third of our membership) volunteering help with pre-sale, day of sale, and cleanup efforts.

In the end, the great yard sale of 2026 was a grand success. Members got an opportunity to declutter their homes, items found a continued useful life in new hands, and the club raised a tidy sum of money. Our thanks to all who helped!

“ Another One Bites the Dust! ” (to quote a Sander)

By 2017, the 20 or so benches surrounding green had fallen into serious disrepair. These benches dated back to the early 1960s and showed evidence of having been painted at least a half dozen times.. More significantly, the wood seats were rotting. So, the rotting seats were demolished and the steel standards sanded back to bare metal. New redwood seating and fresh paint on the standards made them good as new. Every few years the redwood is maintained with a light sanding and a new coat of stain.

Thanks to our enthusiastic crew of volunteers, our wonderful benches are stained and look great.  On Wednesday morning March 25 the Sanding Crew—Ben Corson, Patricia Erwin, and Ben Steinberg—under the tutelage of our in-house pro Janie Hillyer, finished all of the benches in an hour (a club record).

Not to be outdone on Friday March 27 the Staining Crew—Ann Brillhart, Ben Corson, Cathy Dinnean, Leslie Engler, Patricia Erwin, Stephen Harris, and Martin Kershaw—under the sharp eye of our other in-house pro Judy Hillyer, finished the staining in just over an hour (surely another club record). Another win for the volunteerism movement in the BLBC and for our beautiful club.

Staining Crew hard at work

On Sunday, March 15th , twenty-two dedicated BLBC volunteers participated in our euphemistically-titled Drill ‘n Fill workday. This was the spring version of the semi-annual operation that is a glorious manifestation of hard work, volunteerism, coordination, and teamwork that is required to maintain our green as the crown jewel of natural bowling surfaces in PIMD.

There are numerous articles on our website that offer a detailed description of the aeration, seeding, and sanding tasks; simply scroll down if you want to know more. As you can see from the photos, it was hard work but lots of smiles all around.

Many thanks to (in random order): Steven Kirby, Martin Kershaw, Lydia and Luis Zapata, Cris and Claudia Benton, Daniel Gorelick, Ben Steinberg, Ann Brillhart, Chris High, Chris Davis, Rolly Coe, Cindy Moss, Tom Birt, Mike O’Leary, Charles McFerran, Gary Samonsky, Cathy Dinnean, and an extra shout-out to our former greenkeepers
Patrica Erwin, and Judy and Janie Hillyer, as well as our new greens coordinators, Leslie Engler and Sarah Allday.

In our relentless effort to maintain our fabulous green, BLBC has purchased a brand new, state-of-the-art, electric roller to replace our ancient gas-powered one.  It was delivered last Thursday, and it was love at first sight.  It is a beauty.

Why an electric roller?  For the same reason many buy EV cars: economics, convenience, and eco-friendliness.  When we powered it on for the first time, we were stunned by how quiet it is; no more heavy, unsightly earmuffs and no more worrying about disturbing our neighbors.  Moreover, it is equipped with lights, so our greenskeepers can roll before sunrise if necessary.

Aside from the EV benefits, the new roller is about three feet longer than the old one so that it takes far fewer passes to roll the entire green.

We purchased the roller from an Australian-based company and ours is only the second electric roller currently operating in the U.S.  

If you are interested in learning more about it, go to:

https://www.truturf.com/digital_assets/BP60%20Lawn%20bowl%20and%20tennis%20roller.pdf

A huge collaborative success

On Sunday, September 19, BLBC volunteers showed up for our second semiannual greens maintenance workday.  The aeration (tining), seeding, and sanding is critical for maintaining our healthy and gorgeous green, widely acknowledged as the crown jewel of PIMD’s natural bowling surfaces. 

The weather was ideal: clear skies, modest temperature, low humidity, and a gentle cooling breeze.   Twenty members (including our 4-person greenkeeping crew) and Jose (our professional) worked together in perfect harmony.

The work consisted of three phases. Phase 1 started just after 8 AM, as four workers followed Jose’s tining vehicle to sweep up the extracted turf plugs and scoop them into wheelbarrows.  Two other workers replaced the full wheelbarrows with empty ones before wheeling the plugs off the green.  The coordination was extraordinary as the sweepers never had to wait for an available wheelbarrow.  After 90 minutes or so, a huge, motorized gas-powered blower was used to remove the stray plugs and excessive dirt, after which Jose spread calcium sulfate (aka gypsum) over the green to break up the compaction of dense clay soil.  

After a very brief break, phase 2 began.  One group of workers stood in the sandbox and shoveled sand into buckets. A second group transported full buckets to the green so that a third group could dump the sand into Jose’s mechanical spreader as it travelled slowly across the green.  A fourth group carried the empty buckets back to the sandbox to be refilled and the process repeated itself until the entire green was covered in sand.  Once again, the coordination was perfect as the sand spreader remained in constant motion.

In the final phase, Jose dragged a metal mesh with his tractor to distribute the sand evenly on the green while a few volunteers swept sand into the corners.  

The entire workday effort was completed in just under five hours, allegedly the fastest in BLBC recorded history.  

A hearty shout out to our volunteers (listed in random order):

Douglas Frey, Mike O’Leary, Annie Brillhart, Ben Carson, Stephanie Upp, Chris Davis, Phil Watson, Rolly Coe, Thomas Birt, Phillip Andrews, Gary Samonsky, Cindy Moss, Leslie Engler, Cathy Dinnean, and Mo Shooer.