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| BE SURE TO CLICK THE "SAVE VOTE" BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE! One vote per person, per household, per category, per day. Multiple entries from the same person in the same day voids all entries throughout the contest period. |
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Point San Luis Lighthouse Keepers
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Our mission is to restore, preserve, maintain, and operate the Point San Luis Lighthouse Station, circa 1890, as an historical, educational, and recreational site, for the use and enjoyment of the public through tours, events, and educational programs. Point San Luis is part of the Harbor District's vision of maintaining a sustainable harbor that preserves our marine heritage and character. |
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San Luis Obispo Symphony
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The purpose of the San Luis Obispo Symphony is to support an outstanding community orchestra, to foster symphonic and chamber music education, and to contribute to the cultural and economic vitality of the Central Coast Community. |
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| Title: |
The Civic Ballet of San Luis Obispo
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The Civic Ballet of San Luis Obispo (CBSLO) is the premier professional ballet company on the Central Coast providing outstanding classical and contemporary productions to all members of our community. CBSLO is the premier ballet performance company on the Central Coast preserving the classical traditions of the art form, in balance with its contemporary evolution. We remove the barriers to ballet by welcoming all dedicated dancers, donors and enthusiasts in creating professional-quality productions that inspire audiences young and old, as well as dedicated followers, and new patrons. |
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Remembering Sam Ford Foundation (SOPA Competition)
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Started by a group of dancers from The Studio of Performing Arts, the Remembering Sam Ford Foundation was started to remember and honor the life of an inspiring dancer. Samantha Michelle Ford of Arroyo Grande passed away in May 2010 at the age of 24 after her third battle with cancer. Sam was a dancer despite losing her leg to her first bout with cancer at age 13. To honor her memory and continue her inspirational legacy, her friends and family have started the annual Remembering Sam Ford benefit concert, providing free musical and dance entertainment to the public. The goal of the Remembering Ford Foundation is to provide dance scholarships to students each year at The Studio of Performing Arts, where Sam grew up dancing. The foundation has also started donating to children's cancer research in her honor. |
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| BE SURE TO CLICK THE "SAVE VOTE" BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE! One vote per person, per household, per category, per day. Multiple entries from the same person in the same day voids all entries throughout the contest period. |
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United Way of San Luis Obispo County
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United Way of San Luis Obispo County is making community wide change that focuses on improving education, health, and financial stability - the building blocks for a good quality of life. By concentrating on these three initiatives, UWSLOC is advancing the common good by making long-lasting changes and increasing the quality of life for county residents. Our mission is to to foster structural change by addressing root causes in order to safeguard the future of our community. Our vision is a strong, healthy, compassionate community that gives youth the foundation to thrive and succeed. By encouraging the community to give, advocate and volunteer, we seek to highlight critical health and human service issues and to focus support and contributions where the need is greatest in this community. United Way seeks to address the origins of key issues and is accountable for stewardship of resources. |
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NatureTrack Foundation
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The mission of NatureTrack is twofold: to prepare school-aged students with leadership skills, attitudes and habits for lifelong learning; and to encourage students to embrace our natural world with respect and wonder, inspiring them to be stewards of our natural resources. Founded in November 2011, NatureTrack has provided nearly 14,000 students with an outdoor "adventure" at no cost to the schools or students, paying all student transportation costs as well. We have raised more than $368,670 in those six years and are poised to grow the program to reach 4,000 students in the coming school year and 5,000 students every year thereafter. Direct communication with teachers ensures that each docent-led field trip supplements the in-classroom units of study. Field trips take place during the traditional school day utilizing local trails and beaches throughout Santa Barbara County. While every teacher in Santa Barbara County is eligible to book a field trip with NatureTrack, historically 51% of our trips have been for North County schools. Our 80+ Nature Track trained volunteers provide inspiration for diving into natural environments. Our network of volunteers provides leadership of one (1) volunteer for every five(5) students, which ensures personal attention to each student. |
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CASA of San Luis Obispo County
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CASA of San Luis Obispo County advocates for the best interests of abused and neglected children within the court system. CASA recruits, trains, and supervises volunteers who advocate for this vulnerable population with the goal of ensuring that each and every child grows up in a safe, nurturing, and permanent home.
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Big Brothers Big Sisters of San Luis Obispo County
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Our vision is that all children achieve success in life. Our mission is to provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever. We partner with parents/guardians, volunteers and others in the community and hold ourselves accountable for each child in our program achieving: Higher aspirations, greater confidence and better relationships; avoidance of risky behaviors; educational success. |
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| BE SURE TO CLICK THE "SAVE VOTE" BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE! One vote per person, per household, per category, per day. Multiple entries from the same person in the same day voids all entries throughout the contest period. |
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Santa Barbara County Animal Care Foundation
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It is our mission to promote animal welfare and to better the quality of life for animals in Santa Barbara County through education, outreach, collaboration and promotion of the humane ethic and responsible treatment of all animals. The SBC Animal Care Foundation, is a local countywide all-volunteer 501 c 3 non-profit organization, who works alongside County Animal Services to play an instrumental and lifesaving role to actively save the lives of the neediest rehabilitatable companion animals within our local Animal Services Shelters. SBC Animal Care Foundation provides resources for ill and injured animals to receive medical treatment, heal and become adopted or move on to a local rescue organization, or Humane Society for placement. |
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Pacific Wildlife Care
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| Description: |
Our mission is to support San Luis Obispo County wildlife through rehabilitation and educational outreach. We are advocates for wildlife. By sharing our experiences, we inspire community participation to reduce harm to our wild neighbors. We are the only organization in SLO County that rehabilitates injured, orphaned, sick and oiled birds, mammals and reptiles. Our doors are open 365 days a year. We rely on the community to recognize the intrinsic value of our life-saving work and provide for animal's basic needs until healthy enough to be returned to the wild. It takes a village--wildlife veterinarian, trained staff and 250+ volunteers working diligently toward this mission in partnership with the community. Our clinic is filled to capacity with patients being treated, medicated, fed and caged, species-specific, since baby animal season is in full swing. Although, we are never without patients, we have seen 400 baby birds and mammals this spring. The second part of our mission is educational outreach which focuses on learning about and living compatibly with wildlife. We provide a volunteer telephone hotline for the public to call about injured and orphaned animals found, 805-543-WILD. The hotline is checked frequently from 8 am - 4pm daily. |
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Greener Pastures Farm Sanctuary of San Luis Obispo
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We rescue abused, neglected, and unwanted farm animals and tend to them with gentle patience, love and care. We then share them with children to teach kindness and compassion ?to animals, each other, and our planet. Our programs have an emphasis on children, but others can benefit as well. We share the history of each animal, their resilience and why it is important to show kindness to others. Visitors are invited to share hands-on time with the animals and experience the unconditional acceptance and healing that animals give naturally. In turn, this helps kids open up and have teachable moments that can last a lifetime! Each animal is an incredible character with an inspiring tale of courage and triumph. This evokes compassion in the toughest of kids. Troubled youth who have been abused or special needs kids who may have been bullied or had to overcome a disability or illness start to shed their survival armor and begin to heal. Hearing the animals' stories reaches inside of them and opens them up. It teaches reverence for all life and helps eliminate bullying and promote loving kindness for a more peaceful community and planet. We offer an educational, intimate experience that they will never forget. They learn that even though we all look different on the outside, on the inside we are all the same. Visitors come away happier and have a fresh new perspective on life! |
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Carrizo Plain Conservancy
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The organization works with agencies, civic and interest groups, and individuals to further the objectives of conservation and restoration of wildlife habitat in the Carrizo Plain National Monument and nearby areas. These efforts include land acquisition, educational programs, and restoration and enhancement projects, such as revegetation. To date we have acquired over 25 parcels of land for conservation purposes and are in the process of transferring those inside the Monument to the Federal government. We are also partnering with a fellow land trust to co-manage over 8,000 acres of land for wildlife habitat purposes. We have conducted educational tours, and are pursuing several grants to undertake restoration projects. |
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Animal Shelter Adoption Partners
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The mission of Animal Shelter Adoption Partners (ASAP) is to reduce the number of shelter animals that are euthanized by providing programs which increase animal adoptions from our county animal shelters. ASAP produces a daily TV program called Rescue Me! which highlights shelter animals available for adoption. ASAP holds Adopt-A-Pet events in the county bringing available animals to the community for adoption. ASAP assists with senior animal adoptions as well as providing support for animals who may need to be in foster care due to medical/emotional reasons. ASAP assists with adoption fee rebates on pets who are not quickly adopted. ASAP funds a behavioral assessment and training program at the shelter to find solutions for dogs that may be deemed ' unadoptable' because of their behavior. This program is extremely important and has had outstanding results with some difficult to place animals. ASAP works in conjunction with the SLO County Animal Shelter to provide a pathway for a forever home for the homeless animals in our community. |
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| BE SURE TO CLICK THE "SAVE VOTE" BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE! One vote per person, per household, per category, per day. Multiple entries from the same person in the same day voids all entries throughout the contest period. |
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Special Olympics Southern California
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The mission of Special Olympics Southern California is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community. |
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Tolosa Children's Dental Center
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It is Tolosa Children's Dental Center's (TCDC) philosophy that every child receive comprehensive, continuously accessible, coordinated and family-centered dental care - a dental home. Without a dental home in their community, the chances of a child having dental disease before age three is highly probable. Approximately 50% of the children in SLO County are uninsured or enrolled in the State MediCal program. TCDC is the only pediatric dental home, in San Luis Obispo County, dedicated exclusively to serving these children. In 2017, almost 6,000 unique children will receive care at TCDC. TCDC staff are committed breaking the cycle of poor oral health by focusing on prevention. At every visit oral health education and anticipatory guidance is provided to the entire family, reinforcing the instrumental role the family plays in good oral health, and thereby contributing to the goal of better overall health in the long-term. |
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Foodbank of Santa Barbara County
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The mission of the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County is to end hunger and transform the health of Santa Barbara County through good nutrition. We are committed to taking a negative thing “hunger“ and through our combined community efforts transforming it into a positive thing "health." This leap forward in health is achieved with three ingredients: food, education and empowerment. The challenges of Hunger, Nutrition and Obesity used to be separate areas dealt with by different approaches and by different agencies and groups. The Foodbank is now tackling all three of these problems at once through a nationally recognized continuum of programs that provide cradle to graduation intervention in children's lives. This builds what we call their food literacy: their ability to look after themselves with food to budget, shop cook and use food responsibly. If we can transform their relationship to food to being one of using it as a scarce and valuable resource to power their personal health, then that is going to create that tipping point that makes a huge transformation in the health of Santa Barbara County. |
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| Title: |
Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County
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| Description: |
The Food Bank holds a place of pride in the constellation of nonprofits, located at the center of concentric circles of care that spread throughout the County.
The Food Bank is the direct source of nutritious food for 200 affiliated organizations which serve nearly every vulnerable demographic in our community.
Every dollar of this prize would go directly to support the distribution of food to the one in six in our County who at some time during the year will not have sufficient resources to access food.
The Food Bank’s robust nutrition policy makes dense the moment of food distribution by encouraging healthy choices. Nearly 50% of the food we distribute each year is fresh produce. This advances important public health outcomes especially for those managing chronic health issues like diabetes and hypertension.
We live up to the “coalition” in our name by connecting directly with 200 other community organizations. Through this we are together able to help meet the second part of our mission, to build a healthier community.
Fully 20% of the food we distribute goes directly to seniors and 40% to children. This prize will help us and our partner agencies to complete this worthwhile mission.
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| BE SURE TO CLICK THE "SAVE VOTE" BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE! One vote per person, per household, per category, per day. Multiple entries from the same person in the same day voids all entries throughout the contest period. |
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| Title: |
Women's Shelter Program of San Luis Obispo County
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The Women's Shelter Program of San Luis Obispo County (WSP) serves victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) and child abuse. WSP is committed to recognizing and responding to our community's need for comprehensive multicultural IPV and child abuse services. We understand that IPV and child abuse, in their fullest scope, impact primary victims, family members, society, and future generations. With this in mind, it is our goal to stop the cycle of violence by providing crisis intervention, emergency shelter, advocacy, treatment, prevention and education. The mission of the counseling center is to provide a variety of counseling services to educate and heal those impacted by IPV and child abuse so they may develop the strategies and strengths that positively transform their lives. Incorporated in 1979, the services of the WSP have grown from a single safe-house providing emergency shelter to a comprehensive set of programs, encompassing both prevention and intervention services. These on-site services include emergency housing, transitional housing, Latina services, advocacy, childcare, mental health services, case management, safety planning, court accompaniment, medical accompaniment, and legal assistance and representation relating to a client's victimization. |
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The Central Coast LINK Family Resource Centers
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The Central Coast LINK (The LINK) is dedicated to a safe, healthy, and thriving community by linking children, youth, and families with programs and services to address their unique needs. The LINK received 501(c)(3) status in the spring of 2004. We support children, youth and families by providing services and linking to resources to foster a safe, healthy and thriving community. The LINK was created through the Atascadero Youth Task Force in 1998 to provide community members with information and referrals to local resources and services. The LINK has grown to provide community-based case management, Family Advocacy, Parent Education, Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing programs through Resource Centers in Atascadero and Paso Robles, while providing Family Advocacy services to over forty schools in seven school districts throughout the county. |
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Meals That Connect/Senior Nutrition Program
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Meals That Connect provides free, hot, noontime meals to seniors 60 years of age and over throughout SLO County. These meals are delivered every weekday to one of ten lunch sites throughout the county or directly to clients' homes. In addition to serving hot nutritious meals, our volunteers personally visit our homebound clients, offering social contact as well as emergency assistance when necessary. |
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5Cities Homeless Coalition
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Strengthening the Southern San Luis Obispo County community by mobilizing resources, support and hope for those who are homeless or facing homelessness.
5Cities Homeless Coalition is seeking support to operate a winter warming center again from November 2017 through March 2018 with the capacity to serve approximately 40 guests per night. As in prior years, the Warming Center will operate on cold and rainy nights. In addition to safe sleeping quarters, guests will be provided dinner and breakfast. Transportation will be provided. Additionally guests will be offered connection to a variety of community resources, including medical respite, detox and mental health and case management services.
In winter 2016-17, the Warming Center was open a total of 69 nights, and provided night-time shelter from the storm for a total of 1829 “bed nights†between Nov. 1 and March 31. The average number of guests per night was 27, with some nights as high as 42. This was an eight-fold increase in nightly attendance over the previous year, which was only open 11 nights. Throughout this past winter more than 231 people utilized the warming center. Guests at the warming center ranged in ages from 18-82, with nearly 50% being age 51 or older. Volunteers stepped forward to assist through nearly 600 volunteer shifts, totaling more than 3,000 hours; and individual donors invested some $30,000 in donations. |
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