Christmas has passed, but homeless children need our help every day... "...Just as we should judge ourselves by how we care for our sick and elderly, we should judge ourselves by how we embrace and lift up the poorest among us. According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, 1.35 million children were homeless at some point this year; on any given night, at least 200,000 have no place to live." – Chris Bohjalian, Boston Globe, December 31, 2008
Written by Dianne Cox, M.S., Teacher On Special Assignment
Wednesday, 15 April 2009 11:57
Hallie Botkin and her husband are fighting a serious battle with cancer. Hallie works in the Special Education Department here at Chaparral High School. She teaches students with moderate disabilities community and functional life skills. She has been teaching for 12 years and has been in the Temecula Unified School District for 8 years. Her husband, Eric, is a Riverside City Firefighter / Paramedic diagnosed with brain cancer. Eric started his dream of becoming a firefighter by first working for the Orange County Fire Authority as a Paid-Call firefighter. His first career firefighter job was for the Marine Corps Air Station in El Toro. In 1998, he was hired by the Riverside City Fire Department. During his career with RFD he served as a firefighter, a firefighter/medic and an arson investigator. He worked for the RFD for 10 years, and then in 2007 he was diagnosed with brain cancer and had to medically retire in October of 2008. They have been together for 23 years, have been married for 16 and have a nine year old son.
In an effort to rally the entire Chaparral family and Temecula community behind them, I am organizing a Faculty Follies Fundraiser. It is scheduled for Thursday April 16th at 6:30 pm in the gym. We have some very talented teachers eager to showcase their skills for a very worthy cause. Tickets are $5. To avoid the long line, you may purchase tickets in advance at the book keeper’s office.
We will also have a silent auction that night. You can help by donating goods and services for the silent auction. No amount is too small or too big. Cash donations are welcomed too. Make your checks out to Chaparral High School Education Foundation. Please note that CHSEF is a non-profit, tax-exempt, 501 (c3) organization. Your contribution may be tax deductible. The CHSEF tax identification number is 33-0800705.
Thank you in advance for your support and commitment to this worthy cause.
For more information: Dianne Cox, M.S., Teacher On Special Assignment Administrative Designee, Special Education Department
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951-695-4200 ext. 427
Last Updated on Thursday, 16 April 2009 13:38
Be A Court Appointed Special Advocate
Written by National CASA
Saturday, 14 February 2009 14:32
Whatever time you have to devote to a child, it’s more than that child has ever had. You don’t need any special skills. It’s all about caring and common sense. ~ Sue and Steve Forestadt, CASA Volunteers
Today, approximately 500,000 children in the US are caught up in the court and child welfare maze because they are unable to live safely at home. Imagine what it would be like to lose your parents, not because of something you did, but because they can’t—or won’t—take care of you. Now, into these children’s lives come dozens of strangers: police, foster parents, therapists, social workers, judges, lawyers, and more. Hopefully, one of these strangers is a CASA volunteer.
CASA volunteers are appointed by judges to watch over and advocate for abused and neglected children, to make sure they don’t get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system or languish in an inappropriate group or foster home. They stay with each case until it is closed, and the child is placed in a safe, permanent home. For many abused children, their CASA volunteer will be the one constant adult presence—the one adult who cares only for them.
Last year, nearly 60,000 CASA volunteers served more than 240,000 abused and neglected children through 954 program offices. CASA volunteers have helped more than two million abused children since the first program was established in 1977.
Learn about current employment opportunities with National CASA and throughout the CASA/GAL network.
The Need for Volunteers:
Your local CASA program offers a volunteer opportunity like no other. As officers of the court, CASA volunteers, also known in some areas as volunteer guardians ad litem (GALs), are empowered to make a lifelong difference in the lives of abused and neglected children.
Last year, our 59,000+ CASA and GAL volunteers advocated for 243,000 children—an impressive number yet just half of the children in the child welfare system at any given time. Our volunteers are an amazing force for good, but we need more of them. Our vision is that every child who needs a volunteer will have one. With your help, we can reach that goal.
To learn more about the CASA program nearest you, click here
Read how four children's lives were changed forever by CASA volunteers
Are you interested in Volunteering in South America? Then, click here, and learn how. Volunteer South America lists free and low-cost volunteer opportunities in South & Central America. The site is designed for backpackers /independent travellers looking for a real volunteer experience abroad, without paying any middle-man or agency fees.
About the Creator of Volunteer South America:
The origins of volunteersouthamerica.net date from early 2005 when I was looking for grass-roots, zero-cost volunteer work in Argentina. Finding volunteer work that didn't involve paying a middle-man/third party a large amount of cash was much more difficult than I expected; the result was many happy hours searching on Google, travel forums and obscure spanish-language websites for a suitable volunteer work program.
In the end, for various reasons, I didn't volunteer in 2005; but I had found a handful of interesting volunteer programs and realised that lots of other people were in the same boat as myself - looking for genuine grass-roots volunteer work in South America. I didn't want my 40+ manhours of research to go to waste so I posted what I'd found on volunteerargentina.net, which later became volunteersouthamerica.net.
Its a widely held view that you have to pay to volunteer in SA, and its easy to arrive at that conclusion; internet Search Engines are dominated by the 'big ticket' volunteer placement websites, which offer a more packaged, higher cost volunteer experience than I was looking for.
In creating this site, I wanted to show potential volunteers that free & grass-roots volunteer programs do exist in SA - and there are some fantastic opportunities out there; secondly I wanted to raise awareness, support & promote these little-known organisations that do such great work. As you may have discovered, most grass-roots volunteer orgs do not have the resources to market themselves effectively and are therefore difficult to find online - so if you know of any I'd really appreciate it if you'd get in touch!
If you represent an organisation that accepts overseas volunteers but doesn't have a website, we can create and host a basic web page for you within volunteersouthamerica.net, where you can publicise your organisation and create a reference point for potential volunteers. See Fundación_Luz_del_Mundo and Wachimak_indigenous_community as examples of internally hosted pages, this service is provided free of charge and takes about 7 days to set-up.
The volunteer programs on this site fall into 3 generic categories; First there is the USD$~300 per month programs that provide full board and accommodation, these are 'flexible' programs that allow you to volunteer for long or short periods, at a time convenient to you. Whilst I'm confident that all the programs listed here do good work, personally, I would only sign-up to this type of program if I was confident that the money was being used properly, i.e. to cover genuine volunteer 'costs' and perhaps pay for other legitimate program expenses.
The second category of program is a day-centre type program, usually involving street-kids. In this type of program volunteers organise their own food & accommodation independently and volunteer during the day. Generally these programs charge little or no fees and are very pleased to see you. Good examples are LIFEargentina and the Cusco based street-kids programs.
The third category of program is the no-fees, longterm commitment operations e.g. voluntariosesperanza or fundacionsantamartha, which ask for 3-12 months of your time but charge no fees and offer free food & board to participants, you've got to love this type of operation and if you are looking to make a real difference and have a life changing volunteer experience, look no further.
In certain cases on the main page, I have given a brief opinion about a volunteer organisation (visible when you move the cursor over the web address). This opinion is based either on feedback received or just my gut feel about the program. Bear in mind that this is just one persons view; if you happen to believe I have something useful to say, then take notice, you would however be much better off contacting past volunteers from the program(s) you like, to get a clearer picture of what you are letting yourself in for.
If you want to write an article for this site on any volunteer related issue you'd be more than welcome, FYI the site gets hits from lots of countries, but the main ones are (in order) US, United Kingdom, Canada & Australia; presumably from people planning/researching their volunteer work. If you want to write for the site please note that you'll need to use your real name and (optional) include a picture of yourself looking fabulous.
I'd like to thank Elizabeth Sanders and Victoria Ferrero for contributing to the site (see their links on the main page). Elizabeth makes some good points about the maturity of volunteers, which I think would apply to all the programs, not just Bruceperu. Most volunteer organisations have minimal resources and the work is tough and challenging, requiring 100% full-on commitment. If travelling to SA to make a difference isn't the most important thing in your life right now, my advice would be don't volunteer; go backpacking around the continent for 2-3 months and see how you feel after that.
Finally, thanks to (my brother) Phil for his work on building the site, we tried to use lightweight images and gimmick-free pages to ensure the site will load quickly on low speed (that is code for South American) connections. This site is completely non-profit; at times its a pain in the backside to maintain, but if it has spread the word about free volunteering and maybe encouraged one or two people to volunteer who might not otherwise have done so, its been worthwhile.
Steve McElhinney London, UK
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(21-dec-2005)
HAWAII: Volunteers needed for humpback whale count
Written by Administrator
Tuesday, 03 February 2009 07:48
HONOLULU: The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary seeks volunteers for its 2009 Ocean Count, which will be held from 8 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Jan. 31, Feb. 28 and March 28 at selected sites on O'ahu, Kaua'i and the Big Island. Advertisement Quantcast
Register by calling: 1-888-55-WHALE, ext. 253, for the Big Island; 397-2651, ext 253, for O'ahu; and 246-2860 for Kaua'i. No advance training is required for Big Island or O'ahu volunteers. Kaua'i volunteers will be asked to attend a free training session with site leaders.
ZANESVILLE: Volunteer spots are available for area low-income senior citizens to help children in local schools. The COAD Foster Grandparents spend 15 or more hours in a local school or daycare, helping children learn their reading and basic living skills. Grandparents receive a small, non-taxable payment, help with transportation, hot lunch at school and other benefits. For more information, call Linda Gilden at 740-594-8499.
Help Needed
