Posted by Pamela Arnsberger on Jul 20, 2018

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS

There will be a board meeting on July 26th at 11:15 at Aptos Seascape.

Win’s debunking has been rescheduled for August. Watch the website for the final date.

Keith’s annual summer party will be Sunday August 26th at 3:00. There will be games and refreshments. Bring your favorite hors d’ouvre to share if you wish!

Amber Lennon, one our scholarship recipients, received her check today. She spent her summer in Hawaii where she worked on a farm where to make fresh fruits and vegetables available to the Native Hawaiian community. She just graduated from Soquel High and is now going to UC Berkeley.   

Dr. Art announced Santa Cruz Sunrise Club has a project to bring water to Uganda and their trip will be in January.  If interested let Dr. Art know.  

 

Jill Castagnola was our speaker for the day. She is from Wings, an organization that serves the homeless. She is an Aptos resident who taught at Chico state. 

 

Wings is a faith-based organization. After a quick unmet needs survey, they decided to give supportive rides to homeless individuals for medical appointments, grocery stores. They have dispatchers and volunteers that schedule and provide day to day transportation. They work with case managers of over 11 organizations for referral.

When a homeless individual gets into a house they bring mattresses and a welcome basket to help set up their kitchens and bathrooms. They even will help get things out of storage.

They also have two notaries on staff who help get people who need it a California ID.  DMV works with them to take the pictures right on the spot.  They also work with the Downtown Street Team with 30-35 members who pick up syringes and pick up garbage, sweep gutters and plant flowers. This Monday their volunteers will go downtown and help navigate the system to get homeless individuals ID’s, through case manager referrals. They also help fill out employment applications, do a quarterly haircutting event and a yearly barbecue for their clients and volunteers and case managers.

They also support Food not Bombs and help with food at the Winter Shelter where they also threw a Christmas party and work with Miracle Messages out of San Francisco who try to hook them up with a family or friend if the family or friend wishes to see them.

          How can we help?  Volunteer! Jill can be reached at info@wingsadvocacy.org