Wonderful local resource for individuals with disabilities who are looking to work, live and play…read moreindependently in their community.

There are so many wonderful things about Rainbow Girls it is hard to know where to start…read more As others have said it is a non profit service organization for young ladies from 11-20. It teaches them public speaking and core values like love, and to honor and give service to others. They have formal meetings the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month in formals. They sometimes have theme nights to keep things fun. But lets not forget they also do service events and fun things too. Like: horseback riding, bowling, skating, sleepovers, kidnap breakfasts, food events at places like pizza rev, selling sweatshirts and bake sales. They even manage to sometimes combined the two like when the girls raised money by selling Dodger tickets and then went to a truly exciting game. They raise money all year and then in Spring girls from all over the state meet in Fresno for fellowship, to do their traditional ceremonies, and see how much money they have raised for the chosen charity. When I was a girl we met at the same lodge at the very same time and evenings. This was and is a place for girls to feel SAFE and EMPOWERED. As they get further along in the organization they actually run things. They do have a group of very dedicated adults that are there to give them guidance but the ideas for fund raising, service events, and fun activities are theirs, and they conduct their own business meetings. Of course parents are encourage to attend any events or meetings. This wonderful organization helps prepare these girls not only for higher education but for life as well. It also instills values and creates life long friendships. I am constantly stunned and amazed at their kindness and willingness to help others. I personally am still am in contact with families that helped me and my family when my Dad had a heart attack in the High Sierras. These were Rainbow Girls who had never met us yet housed and feed us while my father recovered from emergency surgery. I will never forget their kindness and selflessness. These girls are a family among themselves and care for each other in word and deed. This organization helps these young women be the best they can possibly be. Truly there is no better training ground for life and I encourage anyone with girls from 8-20 to learn more and contact San Fernando Assembly at the following link: http://www.sanfernando223.org or contact Jodi Ranzinger as follows: Mother Advisor - Mrs. Jodie Ranzinger (818) 253-IORG (4674) or email sanfernando223@gmail.com There are many events you and your girl/girls can attend to get to know the organization and these girls better. Please come and join them.

When I joined Rainbow at age 13, I was shy and struggling to make friends. This organization gave…read moreme confidence and helped me make friends that have lasted twenty five years and counting! I am now a college professor and an assistant wedding and event planner, using skills everyday that I gained as a teenager in Rainbow Girls. I was a member of this Assembly, and was so happy as a teenager growing up in the San Fernando Valley to have a diverse group of friends from all over the area. The girls and adults are all friendly and active. They will make you feel welcome and like an old friend right away. To this day, I am active as an adult supporter, even though I live in New Jersey. This group is international, which is another great thing. I have made friends all over the country and have met wonderful people from as far away as Australia and Bolivia. This is a great way to make connections wherever you go. Rainbow Girls teaches girls to be actively involved in the community, to be respectful of others, to be confident leaders, and to work with others. I am happy to have been part of this group.

I believe the Special Olympics of Southern California…read more(http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sosc.org%2F&rct=j&q=SOSC&ei=A_X4TZi_IMLmiALt2On9DA&usg=AFQjCNEU3p0_qyinrO2cIVYIDMGAGrGdaA&cad=rja) has about 52 branches and I belong to the Long Beach chapter. The Summer Games at Cal State Long Beach have just ended and over a thousand winners went home with pride and more than a few medals. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing the huge smiles beaming across the faces of so many special needs individuals (I simply say "individuals" cause they range in age from 8 to 80!). 3500 law enforcement members, the Vons Corp and many others contributed over $2M to the Special Olympics this year and, like a proud mama, one of my own swimmers will be repping Long Beach at the international games in Athens, Greece this year! If you've never gone to the Special Olympics games before, I would urge you to go sometime. You will find such incredible energy, perseverance, strength of character and unbridled pride, without prejudice, enough to know that these are indeed very, very special people. P.S., I met "Jackass" star, Johnny Knoxville while awarding medals Sunday and then I learned of co-star Ryan Dunn getting killed this Monday so RIP Ryan (http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2011/06/20/jackass.star.dies.kyw), I heard Wee Man honors you with fresh ink.

Yay Support local, support Special Olympics! Lots of free…read moreevents near the waterfront from July 26 to August 1st, 2015 Lots of options for transportation. If you are coming from Los Angeles, take the Blue Line 'Long Beach'. Exit on 1st street station and walk south to Ocean Blvd/Long Beach Blvd. Walk left on Ocean Blvd and head east for a few blocks to Alamitos Beach for Beach volleyball, swimming, triathalon and cycling. For Belmont Pier-Sailing event For Marine Stadium-Kayak events-take LB bus #121 and exit on the southeast side on Ravenna and 2nd street. Walk across the street and veer left past some houses, you will see Mother's beach and grassy area. Keep walking left and you will see Marine Stadium.

I had the pleasure and privilege to join Trek Relief on the medical mission trip that we did in…read moreNepal earlier this year in March to the remote village of Salyan. All board members and the staff working alongside Trek Relief were very accommodating, friendly, and organized in what volunteers needed and letting everyone know about what kind of itinerary was going to play out. This organization brought all kinds of people from all over the world together to do good for less fortunate people. Along with completing a successful fundraiser to purchase medical supplies and restocking the village's basic needs for medical listings, Trek Relief also organized a trek to Everest Base Camp. What an incredible trek with an amazing group from Trek Relief. I truly appreciate all of the heartwarming volunteering, culture immersion, and the chance to see the Himalayas Mountains through trekking with this organization. Such an unforgettable experience. If I could join them for more mission trips in the future, I would definitely, hands down.

Incredibly beautiful treks with an even more beautiful purpose!…read more NEPAL: Through lovely Langtang Valley, all of our connections with the trekking guide & porter, teahouse hosts (who cook restaurant-worthy dishes), construction crews for our volunteer work, and locals were immensely deepened through our purpose of relief support. All in a gorgeous setting that is also stunning even in the aftermath of the earthquakes, in which seeing the landslides first-hand was also incredibly grounding and an invaluable tie to the overall mission. Both the 5- and 10-day treks are moderate hikes, with plenty of time to acclimatize as we reached our highest points at the apex of our trips before turning back towards our starting point. Scenery changes by the half-day, and there are mountain views like none other. Most moving was the impact of the school rebuild in Syafrubesi, in which we visited the backup school and personally connected with the faculty and students, before we proceeded to work on rebuilding with them. What a mission. MONGOLIA: Amidst rolling valleys of the Mongolian steppe, we rode horseback, camelback, and in a Russian Uaz camper van to take in the vast untouched landscape. Staying in traditional ger (yurts) with local families made for an unforgettably charming experience of true nomadic culture, with delicious homecooked meals to boot. To establish roots of environmental stewardship with those who visit and live off the land will assure future preservation of such natural beauty, which was met with gratitude by the locals. Less of a strenuous hike and more of an assisted trip, this is a great alternative to the moderate hiking and higher altitude of the Nepal trek. Time spent with the Rotary Club for cleanup days and welcome dinners made for a very fun time in the city. OVERALL: Trek Relief provides programs of adventure, mission, impact, and fun all in one. I loved it so much, I had to officially join the movement!

Toastmasters, as created by Ralph Smedley, is a wonderful idea that has stood the test of time all…read morethroughout the world. I have enjoyed my time in Toastmasters since 2009. However, the new headquarters is so unresponsive that I had to stay stuck on Icebreaker for 7 months on one path because they refused to resolve the issue. The issue is that they sent me a Level 3 manual before sending me a Level 1 manual. Of course, they made things worse by telling my president that he had to go into BaseCamp to approve the completion of Levels 1-2 when I had only given the Icebreaker. This, of course, makes BaseCamp completely unusable. When I do submit my Level 1 completion, they naturally won't be able to do anything with it. It was good that I was able to work on another path while waiting 7 months for this one to be fixed, but there was a point when I really wanted and needed to work on the path filled with roadblocks to move forward. Every time I contacted the Education Program, they responded that they hope my issue has been resolved. If they actually bothered to respond, then all I got was a list of links, which I could have found on the website. Every response is a canned response. Either a robot is staffing the Educational Program (the most important program there is for Toastmasters), or someone is getting paid for playing hooky. The reason I marked the organization as reliable is because the program itself is reliable when put into practice, but I was not referring to the service from Headquarters.

Toastmasters, founded in 1924, is an international organization that teaches people public speaking…read moreand leadership skills. During meetings, members give and evaluate speeches, and the speeches are either longer, prepared speeches, about five to ten minutes long, or short speeches, generally one to three minutes long, made up on the spot, inspired by a question or prompt. There are clubs all over the world, and clubs can be public, open to anyone, or they can be closed corporate clubs, meaning the club is only open to employees of the organization. My workplace has a corporate club, and I joined in November 2015, curious about Toastmasters. I'm not afraid of public speaking, and I love telling stories (as is evident from my Yelp reviews), so Toastmasters was the perfect creative outlet for me. At the time I joined, we had a thriving club, but over time, the club has died off, as people left the organization, lost interest, or got overwhelmed with their workload. Despite our dwindling membership (unfortunately we couldn't recruit members of the public), we continued on, and I was elected President in 2017. While each club has their own rules and style, Toastmasters has a certain format and protocol that clubs are supposed to follow. For example, there are executive members that are elected every year (President, VP of Membership, Sergeant at Arms, just to name a few), with specific job duties; there's a certain format to be followed during a meeting, complete with an agenda and people taking on certain roles, such as chair, evaluator, timer (the speeches are timed), and a grammarian, who records the number of times someone says "um" and "ah" and other fillers; and there are speech projects you work on to get certificates and designations (I'm a "Competent Communicator"). In addition, Toastmasters holds speech contests (I've been in a few), provides training for club officers, and more. There are also dues payable to Toastmasters every six months. At first, Toastmasters was fun, and I improved my speaking and leadership skills, made friends, and got to know my co-workers better; it was great! But after nearly four years, it's no longer fun. Toastmasters spams members with emails (as President, I get more emails than regular members), harasses them to go to club officer training, and pressures clubs to hold open houses and events to recruit members and such. The thing is, as a closed corporate club, we CAN'T easily recruit members, as we are not open to the public, and Toastmasters always wants clubs to hold events in March, during fiscal year end, the busiest time of year for our workplace, or in the middle of summer, when many people are on vacation. They just don't understand that THEIR schedule conflicts with that of the corporate world and are not willing to be flexible on things, or that our members, who hold club meetings during work time, do not want to go to some bullshit training after work or on a Saturday morning. (Also, they only tell you about the training less than a week before, not giving you enough notice to make plans to go.) I've met other Toastmasters members at contests and events*, and for some members, Toastmasters is their LIFE -- they go to several meetings a week, go to several training sessions a year, organize and participate in tons of contests, go to the very expensive conferences, etc. That's fine, that's their jam, but it's not mine, and they can't seem to comprehend that not all members are as into it as they are, or have a life outside of Toastmasters, and they just push and push. So after being in Toastmasters for nearly four years, two as President of our club, I decided not to renew my membership. Perhaps I may re-join later, but I've gotten what I needed out of it, I'm busy with life outside of Toastmasters (work, school, my recent marriage, other interests and hobbies), and their cult-like pushiness has soured my experience. If I were rating Toastmasters when I first joined, I would have given them at least four stars, but it's definitely now a two star experience for me. *I met KAV through Toastmasters. Read my review about "World Financial Group" for the background on KAV.

I volunteered at Baby2Baby to help those in need from the LA Fires in January 2025. It was a great…read moreexperience and I highly recommend others to give back with this organization. I arrived early as I drove to LA straight after dropping off the kiddos at their pre-school in Long Beach. Upon arrival, security directed me to the rooftop parking lot (he even ushered me to the restroom as I needed to go lol). Checking in was a breeze. You sign in either by their tablet or on your phone via QR code. The staff were all friendly, informative and very organized. For this particular volunteer session, our group packaged warm sweaters and jackets for women and children. We took inventory, wrote a little note, and then attached a little squishmallow for flare. Time went by super quick! Looking forward to going back to help out again!

I felt truly honored to volunteer with Baby2Baby. This nonprofit does incredible work supporting…read morefamilies--not only providing essentials for babies, but also helping parents in meaningful ways. Seeing the impact they've had on so many families was inspiring. If you're ever looking for a volunteer opportunity, I highly recommend reaching out to them. It's a great option for group volunteering, can count as a tax write-off, and most importantly, it's perfect for anyone with a big heart who wants to give back. An amazing organization doing truly important work.

Without FCRC I would never have been able to get into West Point (United States Military Academy)…read more Hands down the best program for those that want to learn and explore what a military career entails. The instructors/advisers here are all no BS, All veterans of wars past and present, and have a plethora of knowledge to share on any path regarding the military lifestyle. They are definitely responsible for most of my success here at the Academy as far as military application goes. without FCRC I wouldn't be the person I am today and I owe a lot of my success to the life lessons picked up at this awesome youth program

I have been serving with Manos Con Alas for several years and cannot say how rewarding it has been…read more Manos serves in different parts of Baja CA, and the ministry has a heart to reach the rural areas of migrant farmworkers. They also serve in larger cities partnering with local churches and pastors. Manos has a desire to love and serve those who don't have the resources to help themselves while showing God's love. While it may seem that we are blessing those we are serving, the true blessing comes from them to us! I am deeply touched and honored to be a part of MANOS CON ALAS.