Community Service Day
Join us in a morning of community service!
Celebrate Shannon – Wardrobe & Make-Up Party for YES
My cousin Shannon was a bringer of joy and what she loved most of all was to curate the perfect outfit for her friends. Although we sadly lost Shannon last year. we are throwing a Wardrobe & Makeup Party for the youth of YES in honor of her giving spirit.
YES – Youth Emerging Stronger – provides runaway, homeless, and foster youth with safety, stability, and housing, along with the relationships and resources to thrive now and in the future. Their vision is to nurture resilient, self-assured, and hopeful youth, free from a life of homelessness and achieving a positive, fulfilling future.
Due to COVID restrictions, we will be hosting the party later this year. But if you’d like to purchase essentials specifically for the youth of YES to use this holiday season and in the new year, please follow the Amazon link below. All items will be sent directly to the YES office in Los Angeles.
And if you’d like to donate directly to Shannon’s Wardrobe & Makeup Party, please follow this link below.
Takeout Utensils & Condiments Drive
Thank you to the Crescenta Valley Girl Scout Service Unit and Girl Scout Troop 6065 for helping us collect all the plastic takeout utensils and condiment packets we’ve amassed during the Pandemic! These items will be used at the St. Francis Food Kitchen and Pantry in downtown Los Angeles.
Martin Luther King Jr. Toiletries Drive
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.
What an INSPIRATION!
We had so much fun delivering over 350 homemade hygiene kits to Brown Bag Lady, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to feeding and providing basic necessities to the homeless population in the Greater Los Angeles Area and, specifically, on Skid Row. We watched as their volunteers prepared to go out and deliver hundreds of meals, hygiene kits and clothing to underserved communities in downtown Los Angeles.
Jackie of Brown Bag Lady took us on a tour of their new headquarters.
She is gave us an INSPIRING speech about the importance of following your dreams and helping others.
Thank you to all who donated items at RUNWAY, Playa Vista and The Martial Way in La Crescenta. Community service volunteers from Paul Revere Middle School, Mark Twain Middle School and Notre Dame Academy spent many hours creating these hygiene kits for those experiencing homelessness. You INSPIRE us all!
Helping Kids Thrive Drive
It’s easy to feel down about the state of the world these days . . . COVID-19, fires, racial injustice, divisive politics . . . but if you look closely, you’ll notice people quietly yet fiercely working to help those who need it the most. How do we THRIVE individually and as a community during this chaotic time?
One of the simplest ways to THRIVE is to acknowledge our own fears and insecurities. Then, think of one simple thing we can do now for another person to better someone else’s life. “Your life is not about you. It’s about the people you serve.” For me, this quote by Neale Donald Walsch sums up the best way to relieve depressive feelings!
Here are three organizations that are helping others THRIVE every single day.
Thank you to Brown Bag Lady for their donation of new backpacks and tote bags to CASA of Los Angeles. Brown Bag Lady is a grassroots organization that serves the homeless community in Los Angeles by serving hot home cooked meals, blankets, clothes and essential supplies. They’ve served over 14,000 meals since the Pandemic began in March!
CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Los Angeles is a wonderful organization that mobilizes community volunteers to advocate for children who have experienced abuse and neglect.
Please consider volunteering or making donations to these worthy organizations! Together, we can get through this. In fact, together we can THRIVE.
Update:
Brown Bag Lady just donated another box of 30 brand new backpacks and more new tote bags which were given to The Glendale Unified School District Student Wellness Services Department. This department coordinates programs for foster youth that break down barriers to school enrollment and create academic stability for their students. Immediate enrollment is ensured in the Free & Reduced lunch program which assists families with before-and- after school programs and facilitates communication and problem-solving between families and school site staff. In other words, they help their students THRIVE.
Extra Special Update:
A big thank you to our friend and frequent donor, Gary Allen, for his donation of hundreds of dollars worth of Target gift cards to CASA of Los Angeles. Every foster child who enters the courthouse for a hearing receives a stuffed animal or toy. However, during the pandemic, there has been a shortage of toys. Gary’s donation will go toward providing more toys. The gift cards will also be given to kids so they can purchase items they need. Thank you, Gary, for helping CASA of Los Angeles kids THRIVE!
And WOW! 81 pairs of brand new Vans shoes were donated to us by Brown Bag Lady! The shoes promise to bring smiles to the faces of CASA kids and huge grins to our volunteers (under the face masks, of course!).
Job Interview Makeup & Stylist Workshop
When YES – Youth Emerging Stronger mentioned that their homeless, runaway and foster youth could benefit from professional makeup and wardrobe advice, we knew just the people to call!
Our makeup artist and stylist friends from TV, movies and commercials jumped right in to plan and host a “Job Interview Makeup & Stylist Workshop” held on a Sunday afternoon at a YES group home.
Our volunteers and 12 youth played “Name that Job” wardrobe games and learned how to choose job interview clothes that best reflect their future professions. The youth also learned how to apply their makeup in a natural and professional way bringing out the beauty within each of them.
However, what we believed would be a workshop of teaching, actually turned out to be an afternoon about something much more powerful – CONNECTION.
CONNECTION is having a shared experience with others that involves laughter and goodwill. It involves a sense of being open and taking the time to listen to someone else and then feeling listened to and understood. It turns out that sitting in a makeup chair is one of the best forms of CONNECTION! We discovered a shared sense of intimacy, an ease of laughter and conversation, and a feeling of vulnerability and care. Genuine smiles lit up faces. And nervous giggles became full belly laughs.
One of the best things about Pop-Up Giving Events is that we are always learning more about what it means to share our gifts with others. We discovered that sharing our expertise in makeup and clothes was simply the entry point into CONNECTION and a way to truly see, not just with our eyes, but with our hearts.
We are especially proud to be supported by Pacifica Beauty – a vegan, cruelty-free clean brand of makeup products. Pacifica Beauty donated makeup kits to each young person attending our workshop. Thank you, Pacifica Beauty, for your kindness and generosity!
