October 2011 – South Mar Vista Neighborhood Association

ABOUT OCB
The Office of Community Beautification (OCB) serves as a resource for the enhancement of the City of Los Angeles. OCB programs are designed to support neighborhoods and community groups. By utilizing OCB services, participants improve their environment while building partnerships within the City of Los Angeles.

Project Orange Thumb Grant

Do you have a green thumb and want to start a garden in your area? If yes, apply for a Project Orange Thumb Grant which is provided by Fiskars Brands, Inc. Fiskars will be awarding 10 winners with $5,000 in cash and tools to create a new garden and one lucky winner will receive a Complete Garden Makeover in which Fiskars’ representatives will help with the installation of a garden.

The last date to apply for the grant is December 5, 2011. Start now and write a winning application.

Youth Services America Offers Grants
Youth Services America (YSA), with over $350,000 in funds to award, is now accepting applications for its three grant programs. All these projects shall launch on MLK Day (January 16, 2012) and culminate on Global Youth Service Day (April 20-22, 2012). The grant programs are:

UnitedHealth HEROES Service-Learning Grants
Application Deadline: October 23, 2011
Grant Info: UnitedHealthCare, in partnership with YSA, is offering grants of $500 or $1,000 to support youth programs that fight childhood obesity.

State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning Grants
Application Deadline: November 9, 2011
Grant Info: State Farm, in partnership with YSA, is offering grants of up to $1,000 to educators in K-12 public schools that promotes service-learning in youth where youth learn about academic achievement, workplace readiness and community involvment.

MLK Day Lead Organizers
Application Deadline: November 18, 2011
Grant Info: Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), in partnership with YSA, is offering $4,000 grant to 16 Lead Organizers in support of their community event on MLK Day of Service, January 16, 2012.

Please click here for more information on Youth Service America and/or to access the grant applications.
TBD- Free One-Day Beautification Workshop
Hosted by Keep Los Angeles Beautiful

We thank those who have RSVP’ed and stated they were interested in the One-Day Beautification workshop that was tentatively planned for the end of this year. Keep Los Angeles Beautiful (KLAB), the organization that is hosting the event, is currently undergoing new management and creating bylaws to make it an “official” organization. As such, the Beaufication Workshop will be postponed until further notice.

Free Supplies for Your Event Day

Keep America Beautiful and its partners have donated many supplies to our department that is still sitting in our warehouse. Our supplies include plates, plastic and paper cups, soil, bottles of water, etc. We would like to share it with those organizations who are working on their grant project or planning a community clean-up event.

To request for supplies, please email the request form, two-weeks in advance, to cbgrant@lacity.org. All we ask is that you pick it up from our warehouse.

2nd Annual Shoe Drive

This is why we are doing this….

SAVE YOUR SHOES. Last year our generous community donated over 800 pairs of shoes to the charity Soles4Souls. That’s a lot of shoes! Melissa Stoller, drive organizer, is collecting shoes again on October 30 at the Mar Vista Farmers’ Market MVCC Green Committee booth. There are also two new collection sites: Mar Vista School is collecting shoes at their Big Boo carnival October 29, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.; Manu beauty salon, 2920 Wilshire, Santa Monica, is collecting shoes through November 2 (thanks Kris de la Vara).

Soles4Souls offers a simple way to help reduce the strain on our environment: donating gently worn footwear. Soles4Souls saves these shoes from early death in a landfill by distributing them to needy people around the world. Recipients treasure this gift for years to come; for some, it’s their first pair of shoes. Since its inception following the Asian tsunami, Soles4Souls has distributed nearly 15 million pairs to people in 127 countries, including the United States.

Start cleaning your closet now. Soles4Souls wants all types of shoes, from your kid’s outgrown tennis shoes to those rarely worn heels. Look in your closet and ask yourself, “Am I really going to wear these shoes again?” Every pair can make a difference.

Remember, this is about RECYCLING as well as helping others. Please bring you donation in a reusable bag—or stuff them in an old pillowcase. You can dump your shoes in the collection box and keep your bag for another use.

Want to help? Employees at the Radisson LAX are collecting shoes again this year. Perhaps your school, sports program or business can collect shoes for the drive. Melissa also needs help sorting and packing the shoes, as well as boxes to pack them in. Contact Melissa Stoller at melissa@stollerdesign.com.