Never Stop Dreaming. It’s the face of Mickey Mouse made of quarters!
Today a very special event took place: the Miracle Mile of Quarters!
Every year, the Division 100 Miracle Mile of Quarters Kiwanis Club San Diego (that’s quite a mouthful) raises money for Rady Children’s Hospital in a unique way. Thousands of patiently collected quarters are used by local kids to create works of inspirational art! The money is then donated to the hospital!
I took some pics of the glittering artwork late this morning. I thought you might enjoy them.
Would you like to help others with this important effort? Rady Children’s Hospital has saved thousands of young lives over the years. Click here and become a hero!
Judges look at the fun, original artwork. Kids assembled quarters collected by local Kiwanis Club Divisions.Division 100 Miracle Mile of Quarters Kiwanis Club San Diego created this annual event to raise money for Rady Children’s Hospital.Inspiration Fountain in front of the pediatric hospital shows children flying kites.Photo of beautiful Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, California. This is a world-class life-saving medical facility that touches thousands of lives.Kiwanis International, founded in Detroit, Michigan, is 100 years old!Artwork fashioned from shiny silver coins depicts two infants.Rady is the sixth largest children’s hospital in the country! It was established in 1954.A dolphin and a heart glitter in the sunshine.Kids (and adults) created unique artwork with the quarters. Millions of dollars have been raised over the years.Absolutely anyone can help out when it comes to a good cause! Kiwanis is celebrating its centennial this year.Hundreds of coins form one huge happy coin!Discover the Cure!Service is Timeless.A chef made of coins serves up a Kiwanis birthday cake!Most of the artwork emphasized service.Do you want to build a future?Bright coins on the long red carpet form thoughtful works of art.Young lady places coins to form a cool image as the art competition nears its conclusion.Unlock your heart with service.Be a hero for your community.Key leaders take the risk.Like Big Hero 6, service is super!Kirby is going to smash difficult diseases!Robot Hope and robot -ful.The Miracle Mile of Quarters is a special San Diego tradition.
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Got extra fruit? Got time? Help fight hunger and have a load of fun, too!
Do you love to be out in the San Diego sunshine, among friendly people and fragrant fruit trees? Do you hate to see delicious, nutritious fruit just lying there on the ground, beginning to rot? Do you, perhaps, own fruit trees in your backyard and struggle to give the abundant harvest away? Would you like to help some hungry people?
If you’re looking for a fun opportunity to volunteer and make a positive change in the lives of San Diegans, read on! Some fantastic ladies whom I met at EarthFair need your help! They’re the Glean Queens!
These three ladies are making the world a better place. Join them!
The Glean Queens have undertaken a very important project. It’s called CropSwap. The perfectly named CropSwap (part of their organization ProduceGood) solves a huge problem. The problem of tragically wasted food–locally grown fruit, to be exact.
Sunny Southern California is thick with citrus and other fruit trees. Many residents have them on their property. Many of the established trees provide more fruit than a family can possibly use. Why should the excess become useless garbage?
Help save valuable, nutritious oranges, lemons, limes, avocados, tangerines…you name it!
According to the USDA, a whopping 40% of crops go to waste. And here’s another shocking statistic: 20% of San Diegans have difficulty getting enough food to eat.
CropSwap coordinates fruit tree owners and volunteer pickers, and arranges the collection of excess fruit that would otherwise be wasted. The fruit is then delivered to San Diego food banks. An excellent (and common sense) idea!
So all you fruit tree owners and future volunteer pickers in and around San Diego! Click here to visit the ProduceGood website and learn how you can personally help, in a very tangible and rewarding way, to fight hunger!
You can easily make a positive difference in San Diego!
Spread the word!
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Young ladies perform classical music in Balboa Park to raise money for a very worthy cause!
A group of talented young people in San Diego have a lofty ambition. They want to make our world a much better place!
This afternoon I was walking along when I happened upon two members of the Westview Music Outreach Club skillfully playing classical music. They had attracted a small crowd on El Prado in Balboa Park. Their sign really caught my attention:
Westview High School Music Outreach of San Diego has important plans! Its mission is to spread riches of music.
The club is already engaged in many positive activities! Check out their website.
I don’t see why the Westview High School Music Outreach can’t became an enormous success. With a little help anything is possible. Their (and your) generous musical gifts might touch and enrich thousands of lives! Can you help them succeed?
High School students actively working to change the world into a better place!
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At the corner of Ash and Front Street, a San Diego firefighter volunteers to collect donations to assist burn victims.
If you’re driving about San Diego County today and you see a fireman standing at an intersection holding up a boot, throw lots of money in!
Today a small army of San Diego firefighters are volunteering to collect donations for the Burn Institute. The Burn Institute’s mission is to help the victims of severe burns recover from a devastating and very difficult situation. The organization has a strong focus on children. Be generous!
Television reporter and firemen spread the word about today’s Fill the Boot campaign throughout San Diego.Fill the Boot generously to help the Burn Institute help children who’ve suffered from critical burns.
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Participants in Susan G. Komen three day walk fighting breast cancer.
As usual, I ran into an unexpected cool sight during a walk. I was returning home from Balboa Park early this afternoon when I noticed a bunch of people wearing pink lining Park Boulevard. Sure enough! San Diego’s Susan G. Komen three day walk to raise money to fight breast cancer was underway. It was heading down the homestretch!
I took a bunch of pics as I continued home along the route of the walkers. They had roughly one more mile to go until the finish line at downtown’s Petco Park stadium.
San Diego walkers cheered by pink-wearing supporters on Park Boulevard.Mile 59. Just one mile to go to the Petco Park finish!Lots of fun pink stuff greeted the walkers along their route.Guy helping with traffic wears pink and lots of pins and buttons.Encouraging signs were everywhere along this beautiful section of the San Diego route.Someone stenciled LOVE on the sidewalk.Hydration station awaits some oncoming anti-breast cancer walkers.Cars coming down the street honked and featured optimistic messages.San Diego police officer wears pink for the special occasion.Someone wrote a personal encouraging note in chalk on the sidewalk.This cool bystander guy has a pink mohawk!U GO GIRL
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A little diving in San Diego grocery store dumpsters yielded lots of good food.
A unique event took place today. It was extremely unusual, fun and enlightening.
Rob Greenfield is an activist working to persuade grocery stores to donate expired foods to local food banks and hunger relief charities like Feeding America. His effort is called Donate Don’t Dump. To raise awareness, he has created unusual, colorful works of art in various cities, using perfectly good food he’s found while dumpster diving.
As part of my walk today, I took a few pics of Rob and his friends creating a fantastic bit of artwork on the grass in San Diego’s Balboa Park.
He told me that some grocery chains are better than others at donating their expired foods. He explained food retailers have nothing to fear from lawsuits should someone sicken from food poisoning, because of the federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act. $165 billion dollars of food is wasted each year, enough to fill two Rose Bowl stadiums every single day, according to Rob!
Once the art had been admired, bystanders were invited to eat! The food was great!
Wasted food includes vegetables, baked goods and expired packaged items.Rob Greenfield checks salvaged food to be assembled into activist art in Balboa Park.Rob Greenfield explains his goals on a bench, with Casa del Prado arches in the background.Laying out the food articles into an elaborate, very colorful design has begun!A crowd watches near the Botanical Building as the artistic food creation nears completion.Rob Greenfield explains that more needs to be done to save perfectly good food.
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Homeless by trolley tracks between San Diego Convention Center and Petco Park.
Living downtown, every day I see many people on the streets of San Diego who are homeless. When I take my “cool pics” I often consciously or unconsciously aim my camera lens away from less pleasant images. But the reality is, there are many urban neighbors who are in a desperate life situation. Whatever their story is, they need our help and compassion.
I’ve been walking throughout downtown for about 14 years now, and it has been a ritual of mine to reward street performers with a bit of money as I wander about. A fair number of these performers are homeless, or very needy. It just seems like a positive thing to do. When I talk a bit and get to know those who are homeless better, I realize that many are not so different than me, or anyone else. Life at times presents us all with extraordinary, seemingly impossible difficulties. A helping hand is often appreciated.
If you’ve thought of providing a helping hand to the homeless, or those at risk for homelessness, here’s a list of organizations in San Diego that could use your assistance. Check each website for opportunities to volunteer or provide a donation. Forgive me if I’ve overlooked anyone. If you can think of additions to this list, leave a comment!
Someone lies face down on the grass in Embarcadero Marina Park North.
Alpha Project provides the homeless with affordable housing, substance abuse treatment, basic and emergency services, transportation assistance, mental health counseling, employment training and placement, emergency shelter and more.
Urban Angels‘ mission is to nourish and provide food for the homeless of San Diego. They run the kitchen at Connections Housing, a new, state-of-the-art homeless facility.
San Diego Rescue Mission provides shelter, food, education, work training, rehabilitation and long-term care programs for the homeless.
StandUP for Kids provides assistance to homeless and at-risk youth throughout San Diego County.
Veterans Village provides homeless veterans with a safe place to live, care for Post Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury, help in overcoming addiction, and employment assistance.
The Salvation Army serves the homeless, low income individuals, and those facing difficult life challenges. Volunteers serve the homeless downtown with Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.
Father Joe’s Villages is the largest one-stop center in the region offering housing and services for the homeless. They help families with children, single women, and single men including chronically homeless individuals, veterans and people living with addiction and/or mental illness.
Interfaith Community Services empowers people in need to stabilize and improve their lives through comprehensive programs, in partnership with diverse faith communities and people of compassion.
Make Change Count meters in downtown San Diego raise money to help the homeless.
Monarch School‘s mission is to educate students impacted by homelessness and to help them develop hope for the future with the necessary skills and experiences for personal success.
San Diego Food Bank is the largest hunger-relief organization in San Diego County.
1st Saturdays are ordinary San Diegans who collect money, clothes, bedding, and other items that help those in need, to be distributed the first Saturday of every month.
Just Call Us Volunteers collaborates with other non-profits to serve free healthy meals in San Diego and teach cooking using fresh and nutritious ingredients.
Catholic Charities provides a safe, supportive, sober environment and opportunities for those with few or no resources to gather, begin, and continue self-help efforts.
PATH is a family of agencies working together to end homelessness for individuals, families, and communities throughout Southern California.
Family Health Centers of San Diego is dedicated to providing healthcare services to medically underserved persons, including homeless children and adults.
YWCAÂ has programs that support victims of domestic violence and homeless women in their journey from homelessness to stable housing.
Regional Task Force on the Homeless conducts a physical count of the homeless in San Diego. They can always use more volunteers for the annual census. Information gathered during WeAllCount helps determine which services and programs can do the most good.
Wheels of Change provides employment for homeless people who are staying in shelters. Those who’d like to participate earn wages for work cleaning up communities–picking up trash, pulling weeds, etc. The program would appreciate your help.
Small work of art I bought from a friendly gentleman walking down the street. He was in a difficult life situation.
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Selling very special edition Union-Tribune newspapers during Kids’ NewsDay!
Smiling volunteers could be seen throughout San Diego this morning selling special edition newspapers! Today was the 25th anniversary of Kids’ NewsDay, a much-anticipated yearly event whose purpose is to benefit Rady Children’s Hospital.
Over the years, thousands of children and families have been helped by the money raised by generous people who purchase this inspiring edition of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Since the first Kids’ NewsDay in 1990, about 30,000 volunteers have sold over a million papers, raising nearly 3 million dollars! That’s amazing! The featured section of the newspaper is filled with stories of kids overcoming extremely difficult situations, many with rare or life-threatening diseases. The stories are filled with optimism, and the most inspiring stories are written by children themselves!
If you would like to make a donation to Rady Children’s Hospital, please click this link!
Kid’s NewsDay helps raise funds for Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego.
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Habitat for Humanity is building a house in downtown’s Horton Square!
Yesterday–Sunday–I was leaving Horton Plaza when I noticed a small home is being built in the center of downtown San Diego! The house is rising just south of Broadway in Horton Square, the exact spot where a weekly farmers market and winter ice rink are located.
I swung by again early this morning hoping to see volunteers at work, continuing with the construction. One gentleman had already arrived and was carrying tools out of a shed. I asked him when the day’s work would begin. They were forced to work between 9 and 10, he told me, because of the noise of hammering!
The project is called Habitat Off Broadway. The unusual build site provides Habitat for Humanity an opportunity to share their mission with those who live and work in the heart of San Diego.
Once the house is framed, it will be broken down into pieces and transported to east county’s El Cajon, where it will become somebody’s home.
Gentleman preparing the day’s work told me a little about this unique project.Habitat Off Broadway aims to touch those who live and work in San Diego.Sign explains how home ownership is beneficial for families.The house is partially framed and awaits more work later in the morning!
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Perhaps you’ve attended a Padres game at Petco Park, gazed eastward along Imperial Avenue and seen a huge, gigantic mural on a building several blocks away. I’ve got the pics!
The amazing work of art, one of the largest glass mosaic murals in the world, adorns the Villa Harvey Mandel affordable housing building, a part of St. Vincent de Paul Village. The mural measures 43 x 72 feet and was created by the artist Italo Botti.
St. Vincent de Paul Village, located in East Village, offers assistance to the homeless population of San Diego. It has been run for decades by the one and only Father Joe Carroll, known and well-loved by many appreciative San Diegans.
Closer look at gigantic mural on Imperial Avenue.Beautiful mural is loaded with life and color!
Here’s a portion of a nearby plaque…
Volunteers and donors help neighbors.
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