Chico
Making the Cut: Community Spotlight
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A community is made up of individuals who seek to enrich the world around them. Working in nonprofit, I am exposed to a wide range of folks who achieve this goal by using their unique ideas and talents. Earlier this year I had the pleasure of meeting with a generous mother-daughter duo, who contributed to this philosophy by giving up a unique piece of themselves…their hair!
Jayne Weston, a [then] 8th grader at Wildflower Open Classroom, and her mom Chrissie Weston, Owner of Bare Feet Creations, have been growing, cutting, and donating their hair to cancer patients through Pantene Beautiful Lengths (for women and children) for many years.
The impetus behind their ongoing gifts originated with a video in which a wig recipient shared her gratitude through raw, honest testimony. This video served to inspire the Weston women to donate together for the first time 5 years ago when Jayne was 8 years old and in the 2nd grade. She has since shared her locks twice more since then with an ultimate goal of 10 total donations!
When asked if there were any personal connections to family or friends that inspired this selfless act, she replied:
“No, I’m just lucky enough to have long, healthy hair and want to give back.”
In fact, the only tangible reward she receives comes from watching the videos that capture the excitement on women and children’s faces as they are presented with their wigs. She often wonders if the person getting her hair ever thinks about where it came from.
As Jayne embarks on donation #4, she want to encourage friends to participate in a collective effort and establish community support to create a fundraising event to contribute more than she can on her own.
“I really want to challenge others to do this.”
This experience has helped shape Jayne’s sense of community and she will continue encouraging others to give.
Many thanks to Chrissie & Jayne for sharing their time, generous spirits, and for continuing to make Caring Choices.
Toddler ‘Functionally Cured’ of HIV Infection
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Toddler ‘Functionally Cured’ of HIV Infection, NIH-Supported Investigators Report
Caring Choices has been working with those affected by HIV/AIDS for over 10 years.
This article, which has been flooding social media sites with waves of comments is an exciting and inspiring new take on the future of HIV/AIDS.
For more information on our work with HIV/AIDS visit our website or call us at 1-866-703-3873
Obama’s Inaugural Address and Nonprofits in 2013
President Obama’s Inaugural Speech gave hope to the nonprofit sector for 2013. Along with global warming, lack of post-partisanship between political parties, and gay rights, a major theme of his address was that the election was not about him, but about the American people.
Obama stated in his inaugural speech: “If you reject the notion that this nation’s promise is reserved for the few, your voice must be heard in this election.” So if we as an American people are able to successfully make our voices and needs heard, what can we expect from President Obama concerning the nonprofit sector in the next 4 years?
National Volunteer Week
- Obama has made it clear that volunteerism will play a vital role in his presidential term. He established National Volunteer Week which encourages citizens to participate in helping their local community. The President and his family also contribute to the local community directly by offering their volunteer services through schools in Washington DC
Adequate Budget for Nonprofits
- Along with increasing funds for development in fighting AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, Obama has made a budget plan for the nonprofit sector that provides adequate spending throughout the year without as many budget cuts for groups such as the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities
Even More Volunteer Opportunities
- Shortly after taking office, Obama signed in the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which takes one of America’s biggest nonprofit volunteer organizations, AmeriCorps, and plans to over triple its available volunteer members to 250,000 volunteers by 2017
- Service opportunities for elderly and youth have been expanded upon while making the programs available to said groups more cost-effective and accountable
Cap on Charitable Tax Deductions
- Obama has also called for a cap on charitable tax donations made by donors of nonprofit organizations in order to reduce the budget deficit. Nonprofit leaders have spoken out against this cap due to a concern that donors will make less large contributions to nonprofits if it makes less financial sense to do so. A Huffington Post blog explains the situation as: “Wealthy individuals give generously and they readily accept their civic responsibility through contributions to charity. Their corresponding deductions are simply equal to their tax rate.”
Personal Donations
- Last year Obama and his family donated over 20% of his annual income — $172,000 — to charity. Over $100,000 of that went directly to the Fisher House Foundation, a nonprofit low-cost housing opportunity available to families of injured military personnel. Obama’s charity does not stop there, however. Obama also teamed up will Republican Bill O`Riley to raise over $750,000 for Fisher House Foundation, showing the Presidents concern for nonprofits and volunteers in his second term
Fundraising
- It is reported that President Obama’s two terms worth of fundraising have netted his committee $1.4 billion dollars. In turn, Obama helped out his connected committees by raising them $1.2 billion dollars. His uncanny ability to fundraise mass amount of money in a short period of time was used to help Obama fundraise for matters he personally cares about. An example would be last yearObama Classic Basketball Game, which raised close to $3 million towards the NBA lockout that took place last year.
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Caring Choices Spotlight: The Fraternal Order of Eagles #218
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This weekend the Women’s Auxiliary of the Fraternal Order of Eagles #218 will be celebrating their Mid Winter convention, hosting members from all over the north state and highlighting the work they do for their community.
Caring Choices would like to spotlight the auxiliary for the hard work they do in the community including their continued support of our organization!
The Women’s Auxiliary of the FOE #218 have been consistent supporters for both our Baby Safety Program as well as the Recreation & Dreams for Kids with Cancer (R.A.D.) program.
- Our Baby Safety Program will provide a Registered Nurse to come into the home and provide a safety assessment at no cost to those who qualify under Medi-Cal. We also offer baby safety equipment to the families when it is available
- Caring Choices is always encouraging donations for new and unopened baby safety equipment. Every donation goes to a family in need!
- Our Recreation & Dreams for Kids with Cancer (R.A.D.) program provides social and recreational events along with social services to any child 17 years or younger who is in treatment, recovery, or remission.
- R.A.D. is sponsored completely by Caring Choices! Any donations or volunteers are always greatly accepted.
The Eagles have also worked with our partners, Home and Health Care Management, in sponsoring our Red, White, & Blue Christmas Tree for “A Christmas Affair,” a welcoming home dinner for the National Guard put on by The Oakmont Independent Living Facility in Chico.
A BIG thank you goes out to the Women’s Auxiliary of the Fraternal Order of Eagles #218. We appreciate all that you do!
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Staying Healthy: 8 Tips for Nutritious and Easy Meals
We live in a world where most social activities seem to revolve around unhealthy foods and drinks. Fast food chains reign over every street corner. It’s easy to forget that losing weight and healthy living is accomplished through proper eating habits.
What’s sad is that “healthy eating” has become the go-to for food marketing campaigns and catchy slogans.
Drinks such as Vitamin Water are sold at a marked up price, which is compensated by the beverage being packaged in a very misleading nutritious-looking label. All you really get though is a bottle of colored water that contains half the sugar content as a Coca-Cola of the same size!
At Caring Choices we take pride in helping our local community by providing well-balanced meals from our Emergency Food Closet which supports those affected by disabilities.
Keeping that in mind, here are our top 8 tips for nutritious eating and easy meals!
1. Farmer’s Markets are excellent for good vegetables, fruits, and sometimes other things. They are also usually extremely inexpensive compared to grocery store prices.
Did you know that Chico Certified Farmer’s Markets now accept Cal Fresh Benefits (formally known as food stamps)!? Interested in getting Cal Fresh benefits? Give us a call: 1.866.703.3873
2. Learn to cook rice properly because it goes well with most dishes. Use a microwave oven, a microwave rice cooker (like a plastic pot with a lid that clips on). 1 cup of rice, 2 cups of water, 15 minutes cooking time. Perfect rice every time.
3. Cook stews because they freeze really well and taste better over time. Stews also use cheap cuts of meat, taste great and they are really easy to make. Put meat and vegetables in to a pot, add just enough water to cover the meat, cook for a couple hours until meat is tender. Eat some, freeze some, reheat some later. Serve on rice.
4. Don’t keep “snacking” foods like chips and other things in your house, if you actually have to go out and buy them at local convenience store you will second guess yourself and say “is it really that important?”
5. Having problems with late night snacking? Brush your teeth! You don’t want to eat anything when your mouth tastes like toothpaste, right? Plus, you know, your teeth will be clean.
6. Don’t spike up your calories with unhealthy drinks. What you add to your favorite coffee drink counts toward the bottom line of your daily allotment of calories. Calories from juices add up quickly as well. Drink water! Some of the benefits of drinking clean water are an increased metabolism, boosted energy levels, and less water retention. Water also washes toxins out of your body.
7. Eat insoluble fiber every day. Example: Plain oatmeal or steel cut oats.
8. Buy bulk packages of meat as they work out at less per pound, cook the whole pack and freeze what you don’t eat in one-portion sized freezer bags. You now have home-made, healthy ready-meals for those days when you don’t have time to cook. This really removes the temptation to have a TV dinner or a takeaway, when you know homemade lasagna is only a microwave away!
Resolving Ourselves to a Better 2013
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2012 has been an interesting year for nonprofits around the nation. Increasing economic inequality in conjunction with government spending cuts on social services, Medicaid and education left many volunteer organizations reformulating a more strategic approach to funding their work.
For Caring Choices, this meant creating a more open organization where volunteers, donors and advocates can easily engage through social media and the likes and increase awareness of their organization.
This increased presence allows us at Caring Choices to start off 2013 with a resolution for our whole community–Volunteer!!
Our slogan has always been “Improving community service through volunteerism.” There are several ways to volunteer locally and make a difference in our community. Below is a list of volunteer opportunities that are currently available in the Chico area:
- Butte Humane Society
- Handi-Riders (therapeutic horseback riding)
- Torres Community Shelter (homeless shelter)
- Caring Choices Volunteer Center
- Stonewall Alliance Center
- Enloe Hospital Volunteer Services
- Chico Creek Nature Center
Did you know the government doesn’t let your volunteer work go unnoticed either!? An adult who contributes 100+ hours towards volunteer services qualifies for the Presidents Volunteer Service Award which awards a badge, certificate and letter from the president, and a significant bolster to anyone’s resume!
Caring Choices in 2012: Looking Back & Giving Thanks
2012 has been a fantastic year for Caring Choices to be involved with our local community!
With the help of our supporters, we were able to successfully organize several events which helped those in most desperate need.
With over $5,000 being donated to Caring Choices in the past month alone–we are proud to present a recap Caring Choices’ 2012 highlights:
Recreation & Dreams for Kids with Cancer (R.A.D.)
- Our participation in Courageous Kids Day!
- The December Holiday Party was a great success! A special thanks to all who attended, the Kiwanis, & the Canyon Oaks Country Club
- A special thanks to long time friend Lester Olsen for facilitating a recent $2,500 donation!
HIV/AIDS Assistance
- A special thanks to Nor Cal AIDS Cycle for donating $9,000 to keep our HIV testing free of charge!
- A special thanks to Kaiser Permanente for recognizing our HIV/AIDS Prevention Excellence and granting us the HIV/AIDS Diversity Award with $10,000 to help further our work in HIV/AIDS
- Our World AIDS Day 2012 campaign was a huge success! Thanks to everyone who helped us spread the message of “Getting to Zero” and participated in our social media campaign!
Food Closet For Those Affected by Disabilities
- We would like to thank all the individual donors who contributed towards making our December Food Drive a huge success. A special thanks to Brass Hysteria! and CSU Chico‘s Nutrition and Food Sciences Program for allowing our Food Drive to be as successful as it was.
- We would also like to thank the Stonewall Alliance Center for partnering with Caring Choices for our December Hunger Drive – mentioned in our blog – and helping to provide an abundance of food to those affected by disabilities.
From all of us at Caring Choices…..Thank You!!!
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Caring Choices partners with Stonewall Alliance for December Hunger Drive!
Caring Choices is proud to announce our partnership with Stonewall Alliance Center for our December Hunger Drive!
Stonewall is not just an outstanding local advocate for the LBGT community, but also has several recreation & social programs oriented towards Chico’s local community.
The Stonewall Alliance Center partners with Caring Choices to offer free HIV testing at the Center on the 1st & 3rd Tuesday of every month.
Stonewall has partnered with Caring Choices for many of our local events like World AIDS Day.
There are 22,000 individuals currently on food stamps in Butte County alone. That’s almost 25% of Chico’s entire population. When you pair this with the fact that nationally, one in every seven households are food insecure, you can start to see an alarming trend forming.
We look forward to our Hunger Drive helping those affected by disabilities. Any and all nonperishable donations are greatly appreciated.
Nonperishable donations can now be made on CSU Chico campus at Yolo Hall, or to Stonewall Alliance Center any day next week!
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World AIDS Day in Chico!
World AIDS Day 2012 is Right Around the Corner!!
A special thanks to everyone who has been following and commenting on our Caring Choices facebook page through World AIDS Day, your contributions are greatly appreciated!
Since November 1st, we have been posting HIV/AIDS related facts in preparation for WAD 2012 on December 1st. We also announced that our most liked Facebook post will be featured in today’s blog post! This was the most liked post :
For World AIDS Day 2012, let’s renew our commitment to zero! We have 1000 days to meet the 2015 global HIV targets http://ow.ly/fFTG0
For us at Caring Choices, the support regarding World AIDS Day has been at an all time high. Locally and globally, people are spreading the slogan of WAD faster than ever before.
This slogan:
“Getting to Zero: Zero New HIV Infections, Zero Discrimination, and Zero AIDS-related deaths,”
is the summary of a generations worth of struggling to make our population aware of a completely preventable epedemic that is affecting our world.
Caring Choices has been been working with local businesses and nonprofits to advocate the importance of World AIDS Day locally.
There will be FREE HIV testing from 10:00am – 4:00pm at the Stonewall Alliance Center, located at 358 East 6th Street Chico, CA 95928 (530) 893-3336.
There will also be a Candlelight Memorial & Reception at Trinity United Methodist Church, located at 285 East 5th Street Chico, CA 95926 (530) 343-1497.
Counting Down to World AIDS Day 2012!
Caring Choices strives to improve community services through volunteerism. This is why starting November 1, we have been posting relevant HIV/AIDS news and information every day on our Facebook and Twitter in anticipation for World AIDS Day 2012!
The theme for this year is “Getting to Zero: Zero HIV infections, and Zero discriminations. Help us in spreading the word about World AIDS Day and we would love to hear your feedback and comments.
We have been providing HIV/AIDS services throughout the north state since 1993, offering several programs that will help serve individuals with HIV/AIDS and their families. These programs are:
1) AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP): This program allows for eligible individuals to obtain their HIV/AIDS medications at no cost.
2) HIV Care Prgram (HCP): This program provides support for critical HIV/AIDS services. Services under this program include:
- Medical Case Management
- Case Management
- Emergency Financial Assistance
- Medical Transportation
3) HIV/AIDS Housing Assistance: The Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) Program is funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The goal of the HOPWA Program is to assist clients in maintaining housing stability and to improve their access to health care and supportive services.
4) HIV/AIDS Food Closet: Food items are made available to people living with HIV/AIDS and their families. This food is available thanks to a FEMA grant and community donations.
We are also partnered with Stonewall Alliance Center which provides free HIV testing and counseling!
It is also important for us at Caring Choices to honor our volunteers who keep this nonprofit alive and thriving! Here is a guest blogspot from one of our volunteers:
I chose to work for Caring Choices because the various programs that are offered here are ones thatreally are important and are in some forms lacking outside of Caring Choices. As a Marketing and Promotions Intern at Caring Choices, it is my job to build public interest and knowledge of CaringChoices and to keep the public up to speed on a daily basis. HIV and AIDS patients are being driven to counseling and medical appointments, and the recent news story about our Food Bank has brought us more people interested in receiving the food we have to offer.
Caring Choices 