Mission
CityServe trains, equips, and mobilizes the local church to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its community through compassion.
Board of Directors
Wendell Vinson
President
Wendell and his wife Lynda Vinson became pastors of Canyon Hills Church, Bakersfield, California, over thirty years ago when it was a small congregation in need of revitalization. Today Canyon Hills is one of the leading multisite churches in Southern California, pioneering fresh approaches to church planting, church renewal, and taking the gospel to unreached tribes.
The Vinson’s unwavering compassion to love people to Jesus inspired innovative ways to serve their community better, such as Fort Faith, an award-winning children’s ministry center; Champion’s Club, a state-of-the-art center designed specifically for children with special needs; Florence Gardens Senior Living Center, an affordable housing development for seniors; and Frazier Woods Conference Center. Canyon Hills is a forerunner in the CityServe network with the ongoing renovation of a nearly 200,000 sq. ft. commercial shopping mall that serves as an inner-city outreach center and CityServe warehouse HUB.
Wendell has trained pastors, advised world leaders, and helped coordinate government briefings in Washington, DC, as part of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
He currently serves or has served as a member of the board of trustees for Vanguard University, Costa Mesa, CA; Covenant Foundation of California; Convoy of Hope, Springfield, MO; Covenant Community Services Kern County; Kern Leadership Alliance; Mission One Eleven; and National Faith Advisory Board.
Wendell and Lynda have two adult children and are proud grandparents of their four grandchildren.
Dave Donaldson
Vice President
Dave has invested his life in inspiring, equipping, and resourcing leaders in more than one hundred countries to bring aid and opportunity to millions of underresourced people. As the former national director for Operation Blessing and co-founder of Convoy of Hope, Dave forged global partnerships with churches, organizations, and businesses to mobilize tens of thousands of volunteers worldwide.
A veteran of Washington, DC, Dave coordinated government briefings between the government and faith-based leaders and served on the C-SAT Council for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association (SAMHSA). He also hosted the first National Summit on Foster Care and Adoption with the US Children’s Bureau and has served on numerous boards including the National Football League (NFL) sanctioned National Courage Awards. He is a former trustee at Vanguard University and an advisor to Missouri State University’s graduate college.
In 2016, Dave retired from Convoy of Hope to co-found CityServe International (CSI). As initiatives of CSI, Dave hosts trips to Israel and spearheads efforts to provide aid and education for refugees in the Middle East. In 2019 Dave and CityServe launched “Neighborhoods to the Nations” to unify churches and organizations around church-based compassion initiatives, and to provide an advocacy office in Washington, DC.
Dave is the author of the bestselling Rock Solid discipleship program and coauthor of Revolution of Compassion and Relentless.
Dave earned his MA from Fuller Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Kristy, reside in California and Washington, DC, and have four adult children.
Don Crabtree
Secretary - Treasurer/CFO
Don Crabtree has owned and operated successful businesses in Kern County for over four decades. Early in his career he served as the Vice President of Western United States Marketing for California Audit Company. He built an accounting firm, Individual Tax Records, which he owned and operated from 1976 until the end of 2010, at which point he directed his attention full time to California Drilling Fluids, a second company he began in 1996 and remains as the president and principal owner.
Don’s legacy will be his generosity to many projects in Bakersfield that impact the lives of children through education and spiritual formation. In addition to serving on the board of CityServe, Don is also a member of the endowment board of Bakersfield Christian High School.
Don is married to Kathleen and together they share two children, eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren. He is an avid outdoorsman and loves to travel the world in search of the best places to fish.
Karl Hargestam
Executive Director
Karl Hargestam is passionate about empowering the church to reclaim their missional mandate to love thy neighborhood and show the loving-kindness of Jesus from the neighborhood to the nations. Karl leads the CityServe Network team as the Executive Director and manages all operations and personnel. His visionary leadership guides the network and leadership team in growth and strategic partnerships.
In 2010, Karl and his wife Jennifer founded Mission One Eleven, a missionary program that trains and raises up missionaries to fulfill the Great Commission and take the Gospel specifically to unreached and unengaged people groups.
Karl is an author, speaker and life-long global missionary and evangelist. Karl and Jennifer reside in Bakersfield, CA and have 3 children.
Robin Mangarin-Scott
Robin Mangarin-Scott is the vice president of marketing and communications for Dignity Health's Southern California North Division. She oversees 11 hospitals and on the Central Coast and Central Valley. An active member of the community since her days in television broadcasting, Robin is the recipient of multiple awards and honors, including the State of California's Woman of the Year. Robin has a masters degree from Loyola Chicago in clinical bioethics and healthcare mission leadership. She is the founder and chairperson of Bakersfield's Mayor's Ball which has raised nearly 800k for CityServe in just two years.Shannon Grove
Senator Grove was born and raised in Kern County. After graduating from high school, Senator Grove served in the United States Army. While stationed in Frankfurt, Germany she witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Following her service to our nation, she established a staffing company with her sister-in-law called Continental Labor and Staffing Resources. Senator Grove currently serves as the CEO. Prior to her election to the State Senate, Senator Grove was the first woman veteran elected to the California Legislature as she served the 34th Assembly District from 2010 to 2016. Senator Grove was elected to represent the 16th Senate District which includes Kern, Tulare, and San Bernardino counties in November 2018. In January 2019 she was elected Leader of the Senate Republican Caucus. She is the first female veteran and third female to serve in the top leadership post of the Senate Republican Caucus. Senator Grove is an advocate for small business, the developmentally disabled, farmers, and families. She currently lives in Kern County with her husband, Rick. They are the proud parents of five children and six grandchildren.
Jack Pandol
Jack Pandol is the founder of the company Grapery dedicated to producing the finest table grapes in the world in Kern and Tulare counties. Best-known for their “Cotton Candy” grapes, their line includes other delicious varieties such as Gum Drops, Tear Drops, Moon Drops, and their Flavor Promise line. He is also founding partner of International Fruit Genetics, the source of our unique and flavorful varieties.
Jack comes from the third generation of successful Central Valley farmers and grew up working in the fields of his family’s diversified agri-business, Pandol Brothers. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Plant Science at the University of California Davis. He spent twenty years at Pandol Brothers, honing his skill in his family’s vineyards. Through this journey, he pioneered and developed new growing methods such as drip irrigation, unique fertilization techniques, and trellising systems that expose the grapes to the ultimate balance of sunlight and air movement.
He briefly left Pandol Brothers for a few years, accepting the role of Undersecretary for the California Environmental Protection Agency under former Governor Pete Wilson. A few years later, he returned to the grape vineyards and founded Grapery, becoming a leading innovator in the table grape industry and growing some of the most flavorful grapes in the world.
Jack Pandol has 26 years of experience as an advisor and board member of multiple organizations and committees in the government, education, religious, and agricultural sectors.