At the Heart of Helping...

"At the Heart of Helping..."

September 2016

Dear,

This Sunday is the 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance which honors the victims and heroes of the terrorist attacks while also reminding us of the spirit of unity and service that arose in the aftermath. We encourage you to volunteer to help someone in need. Our VCYC youth volunteers will be waking up bright and early to cook and serve a hearty breakfast to veterans at the VFW Center in Torrance. They will also share handmade thank-you posters and cards with the veterans and visit with them as they eat. We will post photos of our Sunday service on our Facebook Page and we'd love to have you do the same with your personal photos and tag our page. Let us all honor the memory of those we lost through heartfelt service to others.

Corporate Volunteer Council Event: ENGAGE

...At the Heart of Employee Volunteerism

More than 70 people showed up to help celebrate the re-launch of our Corporate Volunteer Council, South Bay (CVC) at an evening mixer called Engage. Our loyal corporate partner, Saatchi & Saatchi generously co-hosted the event in their beautiful offices. Local business reps were treated to two terrific keynote speakers: Brianne King with the City of Torrance and LaVal Brewer, Executive Director of Playworks and a corporate trainer. The event started a frank discussion about the benefits and challenges of increasing employee volunteerism. Several nonprofits from the South Bay were also in attendance to provide information on community needs and the best ways for large groups to volunteer.

Our CVC members meet monthly and membership is open to all businesses. Our next luncheon will be Thursday, October 20 at noon. Benefits of CVC membership include peer-to-peer brainstorming and shared leadership in planning 2-3 joint service days a year together.

For more information, or to obtain a membership application, please call Melissa McCormick at (310) 212-5009.

Good Neighbors: Torrance Refining Company-

...At the Heart of Investing in Tomorrow's Volunteer Leaders

We are so grateful to the Torrance Refining Compa ny for generously sponsoring our VIVA Summer Y outh Volunteer Leadership Program. Teen participants spent the summer working with peers to c reate and lead three group service projects while simultaneously completing twenty hours of individual service at local nonprofits. At the Completion Ceremony, students shared their final reflection projects with the attendees. For some of the participants, this was their very first volunteer experience!

Operation Teddy Bear School Supply Drive

...At the Heart of Preparing Children for School

There is still time to help us collect supplies! We are looking for businesses, service groups and nonprofits to conduct collection drives to help us put even MORE great school supplies into the 5,700 schoolbags we will give out during the 2016-2017 academic year. This is a great opportunity to have a little fun while helping a great cause. Consider a competition and see how many boxes you can fill! Drives must be completed by October 15. Take advantage of the back to school sales, and pick up an extra box of crayons and a toothbrush or two!

For more info about this opportunity: http://volcenter.org/otb-supplies/

We Love the Molina Foundation - THANK YOU!

...At the Heart of Literacy

We are so grateful to the Molina Foundation for donating more than 9,250 early elementary age books for our Operation Teddy Bear program! We were one of the lucky participants in their unprecedented, extraordinary one-day distribution of more than 140,000 children's books.

The Molina Foundation is a national nonprofit organization focused on reducing disparities in access to education and health. Since its inception in 2004, the Molina Foundation has worked hand-in-hand with community based organizations in vulnerable communities and donated an astounding 4,000,000 books!!

A special thank you to Dr. Martha Bernadett, Rachael Voorhees Orose, I'Nella Douglass-Scott, Dawn Bayer, and the rest of the team! Help us thank them by visiting their Facebook Page and "Like" them for their generosity!

We Need Volunteers! Can You Help?

...At the Heart of Service

There are several opportunities for groups to support Operation Teddy Bear in the next month or so. Can you help us?

SORT BOOKS: Now that we have all these terrific books donated, we need help sorting them by reading level and age at a warehouse in Gardena. Please call us if you are available Thursday, September 15th from 1 pm to 4 pm. We also need volunteers to bring laptops to help us catalogue the books, and volunteers who can bring tables for us to borrow for set up.

FLIP SCHOOLBAGS: We plan to have 5,700 schoolbags delivered to our warehouse in Gardena. They are coming directly from GreenVetsLA (a local program support homeless veterans) where they are sewn inside out. All the bags must be flipped right-side out. Can you help us?