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 Letter from the President/CEO
...At the Heart of Practicing Empathy this Holiday Season
As we were celebrating World Kindness Day last week, our team was discussing a conversation we recently had with a local mom. The mother was telling us about an experience when her daughter came to her, unsure what to do, because her daughter's friend wanted both of them to be mean to another girl in their class.
That mom did what a lot of us do when our children face bullies or don't understand the actions of others... she encouraged her daughter to be kind and empathetic. Kindness is a powerful tool, and taking that next step to think about what the other person may be dealing with can make an
even bigger difference.
This is also a good reminder as the holiday season approaches and we look for additional ways to practice kindness. This is a joyful time for most of us, but it isn't that way for everyone. There's the volunteer who looks for service opportunities on Thanksgiving as a distraction from feeling sad, because there isn't family to share the holiday with, or the parent who has to depend on the kindness of strangers' donations so that the children have gifts to open on Christmas. Often a little kindness and compassion on our part goes so much further than we may ever realize.
May we all take time to show empathy and compassion for each other as we spread good cheer this holiday season,
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Donation-based Lunch THIS Saturday!
...At the Heart of Cuisine, Kindness and Connection
Join us at the heart of helping this Saturday afternoon, November 23 for a donation-based lunch as Urban Plates prepares for the Grand Opening their new Manhattan Beach location! You'll be supporting two organizations at once, since you're helping the Urban Plates staff get ready to open AND your donations will benefit our programs.
Registration is required, but don't wait - space is limited. Click here to register everyone in your party during one of the seven arrival windows!
We hope you'll take advantage of this opportunity to take a break from the busy holiday season, practice kindness, and really connect with family and friends during your meal!
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BONUS KINDNESS OPPORTUNITY
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Urban Plates is also launching the
#GoodIsServed Social Media Challenge to coincide with their newest opening and the start of the holiday season - and you can help!
Simply post your own "do good" moment on Instagram, tag @UrbanPlates and use the hashtag #GoodIsServed, and the restaurant will donate a meal to one of the families we serve!
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Help Us Kick Off the
Season of Giving
Click here to join us - and invite your friends - as we celebrate the past year
at the heart of helping and look to the future through a special
Facebook Fundraiser in honor of
Giving Tuesday!
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Packing Schoolbags for Operation Teddy Bear
...At the Heart of Volunteers Ready and Willing to Help
It was another awe-inspiring year as volunteers came together, ready and willing to help us pack more than 4,000 schoolbags for Operation Teddy Bear's 25th anniversary year! Volunteers representing the program's sponsors and other volunteer groups worked together over a day-and-a-half to fill the schoolbags with books, educational materials, wellness tools, and a very special teddy bear for local, underserved first graders.
Click here to see a video of one of the shifts in action at the warehouse generously donated by Sares Regis Group. You'll also hear a few words from Drs. Martha and Faustino Bernadett, co-founders of the Molina Foundation, at 1:38 in the video. They have been providing us with high-quality books through their Book Buddies grant program books for 15 years! You can also see more photos from packing in the album on our Facebook page.
Thank you to everyone who participated this year - we truly couldn't have done it with you! This year's volunteers included representatives from our Affinity Group, Beacon House, California Water Service, Herbalife and Herbalife Nutrition Foundation, John Deere, Kinecta, LMU Alumni Association, Molina Foundation, Moog, Rotary Club of Manhattan Beach, Sandpipers and Pipers, Sares Regis, South Bay Junior Women's Club, South Bay Touring A's, South High School's Interact Club, Torrance Refining Company, Valero Energy, and some of our wonderful Food For Kids volunteers. Click here for a complete list of program sponsors.
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Piles of Food For Kids
...At the Heart of Community Generosity
We are grateful to the members of our community who continue to show generosity and compassion by making donations to our Food For Kids program!
- As part of their annual Scouting For Food drive to benefit Food For Kids, Torrance's Boy Scout Troop 718 collected and donated 1,193 pounds of food, while Cub Scout Pack 718 collected and donated 1,631 pounds of food!
- Girl Scout Troop 1095 in Torrance collected and donated 225 pounds of food.
- The families from Girl Scout Troops 8825 and 70483, and Cub Scout Pack 955 in Rancho Palos Verdes collected and donated 537 pounds of food.
- Kathy Gray and the members of her mahjong group collected and donated 268 pounds of food.
- The team at L3 Technologies in Torrance collected and donated 208 pounds of food.
- Members of Las Vecinas collected and donated 232 pounds of food and more than $1,000 for Food For Kids!
- We also received a dozen boxes of Food For Kids donations through our Amazon Wish List, as well as Sam's Club and Walmart, with more than 200 pounds of food. Only one included who donated, so a huge thank you to former Food For Kids coordinator Trisha Smith and all the other people who sent us donations!
Click here to learn more about Food For Kids, including a downloadable copy of our Shelf-Stable Shopping List, and learn about the latest Food For Kids donations by following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!
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Deere Can Build for a Good Cause
...At the Heart of Kind, Creative Team Work
Our friends at John Deere ISG in Torrance recently hosted their second Deere Can Build Competition benefiting Food For Kids. This competition to build structures out of donated food cans and other non-perishable food takes place at John Deere offices nationwide each year, and the teams of engineering and software groups at this local Intelligence Solutions Group came up with very unique concepts, some involving 200-450 cans of food!
This project showed such creativity, team work, communication, and of course, kindness, resulting in a donation of 1,295 pounds of food for our food pantry! Each team worked together on the pre-design, and then they brought in the non-perishable food and other elements to build their structures. Once the competition began, they had 20 minutes to complete their creation. You can watch it all unfold and see the final creations in this video! |
Featured Kindness Opportunities
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THANKSGIVING
Join the men of Beacon House for a day of thanks and giving when you volunteer at their Thanksgiving Community Dinner on Thursday, November 28, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (shift times vary).
HOLIDAY GIVING
Many local organizations coordinate Adopt-A-Family programs to provide gifts to families that may otherwise go without. Adopting a family is a great way to teach young children about empathy and kindness while helping those in need!
Click here for a list of some of the organizations hosting Adopt-A-Family programs, and ways you can incorporate discussions about kindness and empathy throughout the process.
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THANK YOU TO OUR MAJOR SPONSORS:
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The Volunteer Center
South Bay-Harbor-Long Beach
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Recognizing the value of empathy and service to others, the Volunteer Center has been "at the heart of helping" for more than 50 years. The heart of our mission lies in knowing the most urgent, local needs. We learn these needs by regularly listening to the members of our community. When we discover a critical need is going unmet, we lead the response by assembling a team of caring, talented volunteers to create signature programs, such as Operation Teddy Bear and Food For Kids, offering members of our community the opportunity to contribute to the solution. Click here to learn more about our new Youth Mental Health focus and how we're helping youth, families and the community gradually reduce screen time, while increasing face-to-face connections, empathy and resilience.
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