May Happenings were amazing! Read all about it!Newsletter June 4, 2023
IT’S BEEN A VERY BUSY MAY! Our First Pop-Up Laundry A Great Pot Luck At Linda Fibich’s The May Food Distribution to 330 Families Food Bags For Weekend Food for Food Insecure Students Laundry Pop-Up
A Very Successful Toiletry Drive
Robin Pisz and Candace Guldeman led the annual Toiletry Drive for agencies we work with in South SLO County. This year there were 21 agencies. We had 10 drop off locations. Our Womenaders were impressively generous. We collected close to 1,500 pounds of toiletries – estimated value about $10,000! Robin and Candace pre-sorted items as they came in and with assistance from Lisa Murdoch and Rosemary Cleaves, all items were packed into cardboard boxes for the agencies. It was a sight to behold! Candace and Robin and their husbands, Phil and Jim packed up their trucks and delivered everything on June 1st. Much gratitude to all who donated these precious toiletries, to Candace and Robin for leading this drive and the drop off location people!
The May Food Distribution to 330 Families (Rain or Shine!)
Our monthly team of volunteers distributed food from the SLO Foodbank to 330 families, and we ran out early at about 6:10! We are scheduled to run from 4:30PM to 6:30PM on the second Tuesday of the month. We are the largest Foodbank food distribution in the county. The cutbacks in federal assistance to families in need and high inflation are affecting so many more people now.
Weekend Food Bags for Weekend Food for Food Insecure Students
Throughout the school year volunteers have been purchasing and packing and delivering brown bags with food weekly for 50 students in elementary and middle school who don’t have enough food on the weekends. In addition, this semester we have been stocking a pantry for food insecure students at Lopez High School which has served about 40 students every two weeks.
Laundry Pop-Up
On May 25 Ann McDowell led a team of volunteers for our first Laundry Pop-Up. Ann has been visiting Laundromats in South County, and she selected the one in Grover Beach on Grand and 13th Street as our first location. With the owne'rs agreement she intentionally chose a “slow” time of day for dipping our toe in the water. We ran from 3:30PM to 5:30PM.
We offered anyone entering the Laundromat to pay for 3 loads of laundry (both washer and dryer) until either our quarters ran out or our time ran out. Our volunteers took down some basic information for data tracking and put the quarters in the machines. (We don’t actually DO their laundry!) A few people passed up the offer, telling us to give it to someone who needs it more. Everyone else took us up on our offer. There were many puzzled people, but they were very appreciative and happy. One woman said she didn’t have enough money for all her laundry, so she was going to try to cram everything into one washing machine. We were able to help her spread it out to three machines and she was SO grateful!
Brenda Benassi has been interested in this project since she first started reading about it, and has volunteered to take over the leadership of the project. Hooray for Brenda! We have a great list of volunteers who are excited to work with Brenda to make this work.
The Next Potluck
Mark your calendar!
June 15th, Thursday at 6pm is the next South SLO County Potluck at Mariam Shah’s home at 2410 Green Place on the mesa in Arroyo Grande.
The Evite has been sent. If you didn’t receive one and would like to attend please email us at sslocwomenade@gmail.com. In addition to your donation and your dish to share, we are asking guests to bring a package of diapers and baby wipes (families are in great need) and a roll of quarters (for our Laundry Pop-Up). If you would like to host a potluck fundraiser for us, please email us at sslocwomenade@gmail.com. These are our main methods of fundraising. We would love a host for September/October! Please help us spread the word!
Happenings
We Missed the Bus
This year the leaders of “We Love Educators”, Lisa Arakaki, Piper Adelman, Marguerite McCurley, Kim Heyde and Sharon McDaniel are leading our teachers’ school supplies drive. Students have many avenues to receive school supplies before the school year. However, teachers are always dipping deep into their pockets to purchase the supplies they need that the school or district doesn’t provide. The average amount that a teacher spends a year is $800! In order to take advantage of the sales of school supplies during the summer, we are holding our annual Missed the Bus Drive from July 6 to August 14th. We’re giving a heads up so we can all take advantage of the school supplies sales when they happen starting in June. The team surveyed the teachers and they came up with this list:
Glue sticks
BABY wipes (to clean their headphones)
Clorox wipes (to clean surfaces)
Blue Painters Tape
Masking Tape
Tissues
Markers
Colored sets for students
Large Sharpies for Poster Board
Dry Erase both Color/Black
Strong Magnets/Magnet Clips
Scotch Laminating Sheets
Durable Folders
Avery Labels 6427
Drop off locations will be published in our next Newsletter.
HOW TO DONATE:
To make a donation write a check to South SLO County Womenade (Our bank asked that checks be made out with the full legal name on the account.) and mail to:
South SLO County Womenade, 1793 Farroll Rd., Grover Beach, CA 93433. We encourage you to become one of our monthly or regular donors. This can be easily done through your bank or charitable foundation. Please remember that if your company has a matching grants program to include us. As you make or update your wills, please consider adding a legacy gift to us for our future sustainability.
or go to our website sslocw.org
Our email is: sslocwomenade@gmail.com
Our website is: sslocw.org
Our EIN# 27-0809744
Phone number: (805) 270-5751
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South SLO County Womenade1793 Farroll Rd. Grover Beach, CA 93433