Jerry D. Holland Middle School in the city of Baldwin Park graciously accepts one of our biggest donations toward a pinewood derby program for the school.  The pinewood derby program is designed for interested students in the fields of STEM and helps them apply knowledge from their core classes into something tangible for real life application.   The funding will go toward our fall inaugural race with the purchase of an electric timer and 500 cars. This funding is designed to be a start-up, and the pinewood derby program will be a sustainable program with students and local businesses maintaining the event for the next 10 years. For individuals who do not know what a pinewood derby is — students will receive a basic grab bag of parts and will be instructed to build the fastest moving object that will roll down a 32-foot ramp. The hope of this program is to get students interested in STEM fields and introduce a possible future career pathway for middle school students. https://hrvatskafarmacija24.com

The Awesome Foundation of Los Angeles is pleased to award its most recent grant to Strive Kitchen. Strive is an after-school academics and arts program operating in the Watts community of South Los Angeles, with the mission of educating well-mannered, academically prepared, individually responsible children who do not allow their lives to be defined by personal circumstances. As part of Strive’s efforts to educate students about nutrition and health, the program is introducing the Strive Kitchen and Cafe, where students can have a nutritious meal and buy daily homemade treats.   This month’s grant will go towards Strive’s goal of transforming their kitchen into a classroom and training facility, where students can not only learn about healthy eating and lifestyle choices, but also develop skills as cooks, servers and managers. As the Strive program approaches its 25th anniversary next year, the Awesome Foundation is proud to contribute to their efforts to make physical health the basis for academic success. Learn more at www.strive-la.org, and congratulations to Strive Kitchen!  

Have you ever planted a seed in soil and returned five years later?If you have, you’ll know the potential of one tiny seed and the impact it can have on a community.Luckily, long-time Girl Scout Lori from Back To Natives has a commitment to bringing trees to our concrete city.Her goal is to enable youth to lend a hand in community conservation.Through Back To Native’s habitat restoration program, she plans to take a group of interns and volunteers on a seed collection trip to the National Forest.They will return with the seeds and plant them in our local Los Angeles wildlands. https://hrvatskaedfarmacija.com Date for next seed collection trip: September 23. Meet at Back to Native’s Nursery at 7AM and head over to Silverado Canyon and up Maple Springs Road.Return by 3PM.If you’re interested, please email: volunteer@backtonatives.org.Address: Back to Natives Nursery at Santiago Park600 E Memory LaneSanta Ana Ca, 92705

  Did you know that at the end of the school semester, college students might have hundreds of pre-paid meal points (or “swipes” on their meal cards) that disappear at the end of each term?  Neither did we, until Awesome LA learned about ‘Swipes for the Homeless’, our March grant winner, who told us about their program that allows students to convert the unused dollars to food for their local homeless populations.  In addition to feeding the homeless, the organization also educates students on campus about local homelessness and hunger issues in their area.  We thought that sounded awesome. ‘Swipes for the Homeless’ was originally created at UCLA in 2009 to address the hundreds of thousands of dollars that disappeared from student meal plans every semester, and by 2012, the organization became an incorporated non-profit to help the program spread nationally.  They’re no up to five, student-run chapters, headquartered at The Hub LA in Downtown.  Here’s hoping their Awesome grant helps them develop more chapters across LA and beyond. Learn more at swipesforthehomeless.org.

Twelve-year-old Riley started Rainbow Pack at the ripe age of ten, after noticing a severe lack of basic supplies at a local Los Angeles elementary school.  In hopes to remedy what she considered basic student needs, Riley raised money to supply low-income schools with backpacks filled with educational staples: pencils, erasers, crayons, folders, pens, bookmarks, etc.  The organization has since been called “Rainbow Pack,” which officially is  “dedicated to providing homework supplies to students in need.”   This past August, Rainbow Packs provided over 2,000 backpacks containing these supplies, nearly doubling the success of its previous year. Now, as the project grows, Riley and her team of parents and colleagues have set out to distribute at least 4,000 backpacks to elementary schools in the Los Angeles area. Visit the Rainbow Pack website at http://www.rainbowpack.org/