Incline Village, NV. On May 22nd, 2021 Lake Tahoe School in Incline Village, NV held an in-person gala! The Bubble Ball was the name of this year’s gala fundraiser, held for the first time in the school’s new Athletic and Performing Arts Center on campus. 130 guests enjoyed fine dining by Roundabout Catering in a space transformed by Creative Coverings and Celadon Events, plus a raucous auction that raised nearly $500,000. Kristen O’Donnell and Sarah Williams, (seen above) were the Gala Co-Chairs. (Photo credit Ciprian Cojac)
Matthew Hill, Kevin Kassekert and Keith O’Donnell
Venue transformed by Celadon Events, Creative Coverings and Crux Productions
Head of School Robert E. Graves
Auctioneer Keith McLane, BAS, (2nd from left) congratulates SpaceX Tour winners Melissa Green, Jason Green and Rob Alston
From Lake Tahoe School:
The Lake Tahoe School annual gala raises funds to benefit tuition assistance, faculty and staff development, facilities improvements, safety protocols, and special programming for our students. Lake Tahoe School is an independent, PreK-3 through 8th-grade school providing the highest standards of education in the Sierras.
San Francisco, CA. The James Irvine Foundation has a long history in southern California with investing in meaningful nonprofits, and it continues to bring support through grants to individuals and struggling communities amidst the pandemic. (Leaders are pictured above before the pandemic.) The organization was originally founded in 1937 by a man known as the “pioneer of California agriculture.”
James Irvine inherited vast amounts of farmland in 1886 which helped build his fortune in food production before getting involved in philanthropy. The organization has radically changed since its creation in the late 30s as California moved from an agriculture state to realty-focused by the mid-20th century. The James Irvine Foundation is currently located in five cities and has created tens of thousands of jobs.
The motto of the organization today is to assist low-income working Californians by investing in its grantees, which are primarily nonprofits with similar goals in mind.
The goals of the three different phases of initiatives were to invest in small grassroots organizations, persuade policymakers to listen to those who struggle the most, and assist working individuals affected by COVID. Additionally, the organization was concerned about the fact that the pandemic has affected a disproportionate amount of black and Latino communities who struggled on finding new employment as job loss continued to skyrocket in the States.
The James Irvine Foundation promised to use its $135 million initiative over a seven-year span in Fresno, Salinas, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Stockton in 2021. The James Irvine Foundation has currently given $28 million to 18 different grantees in support of the current workforce and creating new jobs.
The foundation canceled the event last year due to the pandemic but plans to move forward with nominations for the Leadership Awards starting on March 8th.
With over $3 billion in assets, the James Irvine Foundation will likely continue to invest in meaningful projects this year that help the most vulnerable in Southern California communities.
From The James Irvine Foundation:
The California Dream – doing better than your parents – is increasingly out of reach for millions of working people. As our state and nation rebuild our economy, we have a chance – and an imperative – to do so in ways that honor, protect, and advance all workers.
California’s future is tied to the success of the millions of workers who live on low incomes, often in poverty. We invest in leaders and organizations that can address the daunting situation our state faces (before the fallout of COVID-19 and as we work to rebuild after it).
Oakland, CA. More than fourteen different international organizations have agreed with the Global Footprint Network on bringing more awareness about Earth Overshoot Day (EOD). EOD is essentially a day calculated by the Global Footprint Network where humans’ usage and consumption of Earth’s natural resources exceeds or overshoots the amount the planet is actually able to produce.
The EOD is calculated by dividing the number of natural resources the Earth generates each year or biocapacity, by the human consumption of Earth’s natural resources that year or the world’s ecological footprint.
Generally speaking, the earlier the date is in the year, the quicker it was for humans to consume more resources than the Earth can produce.
The EOD each year generally shrinks back to earlier in the year as human activity and consumption of natural resources gradually increases. However, the 2020 EOD took place 24 days later than the 2019 EOD.
Some solutions the Global Footprint Network has put forth for this year include nurturing nature’s biodiversity in your local area, transferring to renewable energies, and transforming our systems when it comes to producing food and running our cities.
“All the while we cannot afford to wait before we take action, one city, one country, one company, one entity, one individual at a time…ultimately, a constellation of life-sustaining actions is what is needed in order to #MoveTheDate of Earth Overshoot Day intentionally and by design,” said Global Footprint Network.
From Global Footprint Network:
Everyone should be able to look forward to a bright future where we all thrive within the means of our one planet. However, our economies are currently running a fraudulent Ponzi (or pyramid) scheme with our planet. We are consuming natural resources faster than they can regenerate; we are using the Earth’s future resources to operate in the present; we are digging ourselves deeper and deeper into ecological debt.
Prosperity can only last if we embrace the limits of our planet. Accepting limits allows us to build an economy that works forever. Ignoring limits leads to a finite, time-limited economy which steadily since it erodes the planet it depends on.
A path to success – or to one-planet prosperity – requires robust metrics that relate our global context to local decisions. Measure what you treasure: To build a world where all can thrive, we need to know how much nature we have and how much we use.
San Francisco, CA. Palomacy Bird Care Coordinator Jill Shepard (seen above) discusses the organization’s root beginnings and why pigeons and doves make great pets for those looking to adopt a new friend.
Elizabeth Young, the founder and director of Palomacy, volunteered at San Francisco Animal Care and Control in the mid-2000s and monitored the small animals that came in like bunnies, guinea pigs, and pigeons.
“She would see these big white pigeons come in and they were put in the back of the kennel so nobody saw them,” Shepard said, “and they were later euthanized because nobody really knew what to do with these pigeons.”
Most of the birds that would be admitted to Animal Control were the domestic King Pigeons. These birds are popular as meat products as it only takes 4-5 weeks to fatten the young pigeons before slaughter. They are called squab on menus.
The ones that are taken away from slaughterhouses generally do not understand how to fend after themselves due to their domesticated and young nature. They will often starve as a result unless taken into shelters.
“There are over 300 breeds of domesticated pigeons that can’t live in the wild,” Shepard said, “it’s like releasing a puppy in the forest, they don’t have that DNA.”
Young wanted to focus her volunteer efforts on rescuing pigeons and doves after her experience at the animal control and adopting her first king pigeons.
“There was this parrot rescue group in the bay area called ‘Mickaboo’ and so she asked for their help,” Shepard said, “and that’s how it got started.”
Young would dedicate her spare time between jobs caring for rescued pigeons and doves in her own department at Mickaboo called Mickacoo.
Shepard first got involved with Young’s work in 2011 when the director decided to split off from Mickaboo and found her own organization called Palomacy.
“Every day is different,” Shepard said in consideration of the regular routine of Palomacy, “it’s all over the place.”
Shepard’s days can be consumed with all sorts of activities including reading through adoption or foster applications, making sure the birds’ needs are met, and transporting sick pigeons to The Medical Center for Birds in Oakley, CA.
Shepard discussed how pigeons are considered monogamous animals, and after they are about 5-6 months old, they live with a mate for life. Pigeons are “particular” about their mates and Shepard will often spend her day doing “pigeon matchmaking” to find the right pairs to live with each other in and outside of the rescue.
2020 has been an interesting year for several nonprofit organizations and Palomacy has missed out on continuing its educational outreach programs that help bring more positive attention to the birds. Despite this slight setback, Palomacy has been able to stay open strictly following CDC social distancing guidelines.
“We’re actually adopting more out than we ever have, so our numbers are pretty high with adoptions,” Shepard said.
The bird care coordinator credits the increase of adoptions to people staying at home and finding out about Palomacy themselves.
The organization runs entirely from its donations and will continue to accept new rescues to find more loving, safe homes for life.
“They’re not disposable animals,” Shepard stated, “they are very emotionally driven, they’re smart, they’re one of the few species that can self-recognize in mirrors, they’re very emotional birds, they love love.”
From Palomacy:
Palomacy (a Community Initiatives project) is a volunteer-powered, donation-funded rescue for domestic (unreleasable) pigeons & doves in the San Francisco Bay Area. Palomacy provides avian vet treatment, foster care & adoption services locally & consultation & referrals all over the country. Started in 2007, Palomacy has directly saved the lives of more than 1,000 birds & assisted countless others.
San Francisco, CA. The Latino Community Foundation (LCF) is an organization whose goal is to unleash the power of Latinos in California. In response to COVID-19, the organization launched an initiative called Love Not Fear Fund which is focused on protecting Latinos from the economic burden of the pandemic. LCF raised around 1.5million dollars for the fund which was then distributed in three phases. In the first phase, the fund provided immediate relief to 47 Latino-led organizations. For the second phase, LCF gave out grants to organizations whose goals aligned with their own: building civic and economic power and investing in economic opportunities for Latinos. The third phase of the fund focuses on civic engagement and building lasting power to enable systemic change for Latinos.
Central Valley, CA Giving Circle (Pre COVID-19) Picture taken from https://latinocf.org/
Chelsea Lopez the foundation’s Program and Administrative Assistant described the foundation as “a group of individuals who want more for the Latino community because they deserve more”. In addition to the Love Not Fear Fund, LCF has also founded Giving Circle Networks across California. Latino Giving Circles are groups of individuals who come together and chose which Latino-led organizations they want to donate to. Through these Giving Circles, LCF has developed the largest network of Latino philanthropists in the country. “At the Latino Community Fund we are really trying to expand the definition of the word “philanthropist” so that anyone can be a philanthropist”, Lopez explained.
The Latino Community Foundation also focuses on politically mobilizing Latinos. This year they started a movement called “To Resist We Must Exist #Census2020” to encourage Latinos to fill out the census. As a result, 2020 saw record numbers of Latinos in its Census reports, which is an incredible accomplishment for the Latino community.
San Francisco, CA. During COVID-19 restrictions the nonprofit serving veterans, Swords to Plowshares, had to adjust several group-oriented services, especially permanent housing. Development and Communications Director Colleen Corliss stated that Swords to Plowshares faced a “huge challenge” in making sure veterans received the benefits they needed while adjusting to CDC guidelines. “We immediately had to cancel all of the congregate meals that we serve in our housing sites,” Corliss said, “and yet we still had to feed people which creates a lot more work and money to prepackage every meal for every person, for 500 vets.” This November, Swords to Plowshares and Prubechu served over 200 Thanksgiving meals to homeless veterans throughout the SF area (seen above).
Swords to Plowshares was first established in 1974 by a group of six veterans who were growing concerned that the Veterans Administration (VA) was not appropriately addressing the issues returning soldiers faced like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other debilitating conditions.
There is evidence that the VA had turned away a Vietnam veteran with undiagnosed PTSD for decades when he attempted to reach out for help. Corliss added that veterans were often denied their full benefits only because they had a less-than-honorable discharge from their military service.
The lackluster economy of the 70s, minimal benefits handed by the VA, and the divisive cultural shift Americans had for Vietnam vets caused them to struggle even more in adjusting to a new life after the war.
Veterans needed support and validation that “the military service caused some trauma, and the Department of Defense caused some suffering,” Corliss said.
Swords to Plowshares started as a safe community for veterans before being officially recognized by the VA in 1976 as a nonprofit organization formally representing the benefit claims of veterans.
Swords to Plowshares then started to provide a range of services in the coming decades to veterans that include legal support, financial advice, and housing assistance.
“Primarily, our [permanent housing] residents are seniors,” Corliss said, “all of them are formally homeless and all of them have one or more disabilities.”
As the 2020s began, the nonprofit would have to start making major adjustments to its services when the pandemic began to endanger the lives of millions of Americans.
Veterans and their families who are in the middle of transitioning to permanent housing are typically placed temporarily in hotels for a few days to a couple of weeks. However, due to the pandemic, they have been forced to stay in their hotel rooms for several months due to the slowed process of getting permanent housing.
Mental health services were another challenge as Swords to Plowshares had to cancel all group-oriented meetings which is a major part of supporting veterans with mental health issues.
Currently, Swords to Plowshares has figured out how to continue supporting veterans with “a ton of new food partners, building up our emergency housing program out of nothing, and making those folks in hotels are getting on-site case management.”
Despite Swords to Plowshares’s successes in making the necessary changes to function in the pandemic, mental health for veterans continues to be an issue due to the current limitations on group meetings.
“It’s been sort of a creativity game of what can we do to make sure that people aren’t isolated and actually engaged in the community without actually violating any of the public health placed orders,” Corliss said.
One of the major goals of Swords to Plowshares in the coming years is to find an “in-between” with normal senior living facilities and their permanent supportive housing units for veterans. Several veterans are unfit for traditional senior living facilities due to substance abuse issues, mental health needs, and other problems that require special assistance.
“In the city, there’s no such thing as a boarding care facility anymore because of greed, they’re no longer profitable,” Corliss stated, “that’s our biggest priority right now because three-quarters of our residents are seniors.”
If you would like to help Swords to Plowshares to continue providing veterans with all of its immense services, click here to donate.
From Swords to Plowshares:
We are a community-based not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. We are dedicated to supporting nearly 3,000 homeless, low-income and at-risk veterans in the Bay Area every year. We offer employment and job training, supportive housing programs, permanent housing placement, counseling and case management, and legal services.
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