Fall Special Opportunity: Farmer's Market Wellness Booth

If you enjoy interacting with people (especially kids) this opportunity is for you! Help out at the Yoga Salad Wellness Booth at Mar Vista Farmer's Market (Sunday mornings from 9-2). We have crafts, games and information about health and well-being. You do not need to stay the whole time.

Are you good behind the camera? We also need someone who can shoot video or take photos. There will also be an opportunity to work with children after school at the Neighborhood Youth Association. Both of these activities are bus-friendly (just a few blocks from Venice Boulevard and Centinela). Contact Jeanne at (310)717-4518 or jeanne@teachingwellness.com.

Categories of Opportunities

Click on a category and be taken to a list of relevant volunteer opportunities!

• Animal Involvement: Provide love and care to abandoned animals; assist horses in their efforts to heal the human spirit.
• Caring for the Earth: Participate in hands-on activities to protect our natural resources.
• Food for People in Need: Prepare, deliver, or organize healthful foods for the sick, elderly, homeless and working poor.
• Helping Children: Support young people through mentoring and helping provide their basic needs.
• Helping from Home: Discover simple ways to help without leaving your home.
• Influencing Public Policy: Make your voice count through letter-writing, public events, political involvement.
• The Power of Art: Assist programs that use the power of the arts to improve children's lives.
• Walk/Run Events: Raise funds to support beneficial causes and improve your health at the same time.

Animal Involvement

• Karma Dog Rescue: Help to set up for pet adoptions, give TLC to dogs -- even 20 minutes of your time would be appreciated.
• Lange Foundation: Take dogs on walks, play with cats; your care perks them up, making them better candidates for adoption.
• Special Equestrian Riding Therapy: Lead and side-walk horses while disabled children and adults ride them in a supervised setting.

Caring for the Earth

• Ballona Wetlands: Protect native wildlife habitat in Ballona Creek.
• Heal the Bay: Coastal clean-up and education opportunities.
• Stream Team: Collect ecological data on the Malibu Creek Watershed.
• Tree People: Plant trees, attend FUNdraising events.

Food for People in Need

• Bread and Roses: Feed the soul as well as the body at this special cafe that serves the homeless.
• Meals-on-Wheels West: Deliver nutritious meals to housebound older adults-serving Santa Monica, Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Topanga.
• Project Angel Food: Prepare or deliver meals to men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses.
• Westside Food Bank: Collect food from local restaurants and deliver it to agencies for dispersal to those in need. Contact Allison Griffith at (310) 828-6016 x12.

Helping Children

• Aspiring Scholars Program: Mentor an elementary school student at Westminster Avenue School in Venice, near Rose Avenue and Abbot Kinney. Contact Janina Graves at (310) 396-3946.
• Neighborhood Youth Association: Tutor students or be a homework helper to children of all ages in this Mar Vista area after-school program.
• Operation School Bell: Help supply clothing and basic necessities to children from low-income homes-organizing, helping children select clothing, etc.
• Westside Children's Center: Play with children from low-income families while their parents get support and education at parenting classes

Helping from Home

• Children Helping Poor and Homeless People (CHPHP): Put together survival kits for runaway teenagers.
• Katrina Library Book Restocking: New Orleans Public Library is asking for any and all hardcover and paperback books to restock the shelves after Katrina. The books can be sent to:
  
  Rica A. Trigs, Public Relations
  New Orleans Public Library
  219 Loyola Avenue
  New Orleans, LA 70112-2007
  
  
• Stitches from the Heart: Knit baby booties and hats for premature infants from low-income families.

Influencing Public Policy

• Code Pink - Women for Peace: Attend peace actions, help with clerical duties, assist with online store.
• Environment California: Send a message to your elected officials, attend hearings.
• UNFPA - Women's Rights: Send a message to your elected officials, support women's reproductive health and dignity in developing nations.
• Veterans for Peace: Wage peace. Set up the memorial for US soldiers killed in Iraq; every Sunday, south of Santa Monica Pier.

The Power of Art

• Free Arts for Abused Children: Many opportunities to help children heal through the arts. Volunteers under 18 can prepare materials or help at Edelman's Children's Court.
• Inside Out Arts: This Venice-based organization offers a wide variety of community service opportunities with at risk youth.

Walk/Run Events

• AIDSWalk Los Angeles: Funds raised provide supports men, women, and children living with HIV/AIDS.
• Revlon Run/Walk: Join the world's biggest fundraiser for women's cancers.