Big Sunday happily welcomes you to Our Really Big Community Calendar.
We try to include all kinds of volunteering and helping opportunities for all kinds of interests, talents, passions, and ages! As you’ll see, these include volunteering opportunities (one-time and long-term) as well as the chance to support a nonprofit by attending fundraising events. Plus, of course, we include all of Big Sunday’s homegrown events, too! Whoever you are, and whatever you do, there is someone out there who could use your help.
If you have questions about our calendar, or would like to add a listing, please contact calendar@bigsunday.org or submit your event/opportunity via the button below.
For years, Big Sunday Weekend—an incredible three-day festival of helping each May—has been our signature (and largest) event. In 2015, thousands of volunteers turned out—some as individuals, others with their families, still others as part of a class, church, synagogue, mosque, business or club—to lend a hand at hundreds of different projects from San Diego to San Francisco, making Big Sunday Weekend one of the largest regional community service events in America. In 2016, Big Sunday Weekend is expanding to A Month of Big Sundays. After 17 years, we’ve simply grown too big to contain everything in one weekend.
In May 2016, Big Sunday is hosting and/or sponsoring special events every single day of the month. Now we can take on even bigger projects, reach more people, make new alliances, and more easily fit in with everyone’s (and every organization’s) busy schedules. We’ll still have all kinds of events for every kind of passion and every type of talent. If you are at a school, faith group or business making your 2016 calendar now, please set aside any day during May 2016 and know that we’ll find a project that’s both impactful and fun for you to do. If you want to host a project, please select any day during May. Of course, we’ll still be bringing people together from all walks of life in the name of making the world a better place. For many people, A Month of Big Sundays (formerly Big Sunday Weekend) is just the beginning of an involvement that continues throughout the year. In the mea
ntime, if you have any questions or suggestions, please visit http://mobs.bigsunday.org/.
Imagine LA works with volunteers and vulnerable families to break the cycle of homelessness, poverty, and neglect; and help every member thrive!
Their Family Mentorship Program matches a team of volunteer mentors from committed organizations to work directly with a family for 1-2 years. Imagine LA matches every family member with a one-to-one mentor; plus every family gets a Budget Mentor; and other volunteers help with tutoring, career development, childcare, healthcare, meal-planning and more. Imagine LA works.
Today, kids are excelling in school, parents are on career tracks, saving, maintaining budgets, and everyone remains in stable housing.
The Family Mentorship Program is a transformative experience for Families and Mentors alike. For families escaping the cycle of poverty, a mentor like you can make the difference between surviving and thriving.
All you need to do is take the first step –– please contact Outreach & Communications Manager, Tara Ignont at tara@imaginela.org or 323-944-0210 x412 for a Mentorship Application today!
NOTE: This is an ongoing, daily (M-F) volunteer opportunity!
The Fulfillment Fund is a college access organization with a 39-year history of helping disadvantaged students graduate from high school and access college. One of its key services is mentoring. Recognized as one of the best in the state, the Fulfillment Fund’s Mentor Program provides guidance from adult role models to students whose life circumstances challenge their opportunities for success. Each year the Fulfillment Fund Mentor Program shapes the lives of hundreds of young people. While there are many opportunities to volunteer with the organization, mentoring provides a direct avenue to create a meaningful impact by making a nominal investment of time. The Mentor Program provides the necessary structure for success in a mentor/mentee relationship; staff support, extensive training and amazing volunteers all play a role in the program’s success. The Fulfillment Fund is looking for mentors with the following:
- Minimum of 24 years of age
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Able to commit to meeting with their stud
ent once per month on their own schedule
- Willing to commit to a mentoring relationship for a minimum of two years
- Able to pass a criminal background check
- Interested in helping a student achieve higher education
For more info and to complete the application form, visit http://www.fulfillment.org/mentor. Please email Volunteer Recruitment & Engagement Manager Betsy Ann Mudd at bmudd@fulfillment.org with any further questions.
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Are you an animal lover? If so, don’t miss the chance to volunteer with Ahead With Horses every Saturday (unless otherwise noted) at their Shadow Hills facility.
Please note AWH is CLOSED the following Saturdays: 2/13/16; 3/26/16; 5/28/16; 7/2/16; 9/3/16; 11/26/16; 12/24/16 and 12/31/16.
Volunteers will assist in providing our developmental therapy to children with disabilities.
Duties include: Leading horses, spotting (walking along side the horse), grooming, cleaning tack, weeding, raking, etc.
Volunteers must be at least 12 years old and if under 18, an adult must come to sign a liability release form at their first session.
Dress code: must wear closed-toe shoes, long pants and a shirt with sleeves (t-shirt is fine; no tank tops). If planning on staying the entire day (which is not mandatory), please bring water and a sack lunch.
Questions? Please call Michelle at 818-767-6373.
Join the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy on Saturday, May 21st from 9 am –
12 pm at White Point Nature Preserve. Volunteers are needed to help care for the Native Demonstration Garden by planting shrubs, removing invasive weeds, grooming trails and more! To sign up please visit: http://pvplc.volunteerhub.com. Questions? Please contact Volunteer Program Manager Brittany Goldsmith at Bgoldmsith@pvplc.org or 310-541-7613 x215.
Audubon California’s 4000-acre Starr Ranch Sanctuary in southeast Orange County is pleased to invite you to join them as a volunteer "Weed Warrior." Weeds can alter habitats and have negative effects on wildlife. Volunteers help remove periwinkle, English ivy, and English plantain using non-chemical methods.
No experience necessary. Training and tools provided. Please wear clothes that can get dirty, long pants, close-toed shoes and layers for changing weather. Bring snacks and a picnic lunch, if you wish. A personal water bottle, a hat and sunscreen are strongly recommended.
Adults and children ages 8 and older are welcome. Children must be accompanied by adults. This opportunity fulfills community service requirements. Please take a look at their volunteer days from January 2016 through May 2016. Find the dates that work for you. Reserve your place by clicking this link http://goo.gl/forms/5AQCO3GsGm or by sending your name, available dates, number in party, source you found the opportunity from, and phone number to Sandy at sdesimone@audubon.org.
2016 Saturday Volunteer Days
9 am – 12:30 pm each date (*except April)
- January 9 & 23
- February 6 & 27
- March 19 & 26
- *April 9, 16, & 23 (1:30 pm – 4:30 pm)
- May 14 & 21
If you can’t find a date that works for you and would still like to volunteer, it is possible to volunteer with the organization any day during the week, Monday – Friday. Please reply with a suggested date to Sandy at sdesimone@audubon.org and she will get back to you.
Instructors: Crescent Farm Staff- Leigh Adams, Yara Herrarte, John Latsko, and Horticultural Supervisor Jill Morganelli
Free for members / Free for non-members (with arboretum admission)
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Don’t miss the LA Arboretum’s Crescent Farm Series!
Learn about water conservation and sustainable gardening, with hands-on experience! The Crescent Farm, located in the heart of the Arboretum just west of Baldwin Lake, is a reclaimed landscape where they explore new and ancient horticulture techniques for water conservation and food production. This is an educational training series. Please bring gloves, drinking water; wear close-toed shoes and a hat.
May 21 – Weaving Workshop
Learn to use your bio-mass (plant waste) to create garden structures. Simple weaving techniques can use leaves as cordage, branches as trellises, tomato cages, shade shelters, and various long lasting leaves as weavers. Design and build compost structures, plant guards and soil traps in your own Crescent Garden.
June 25 – Crescent Farm Plant Tour
The Crescent Farm at the Arboretum horticulture team put their minds and imaginations together to create an amazing drought-tolerant plant palette. We are happy to present our arid climate orchard and short-season fruit and vegetable production surrounded by a California native-based landscape of meadow and low water lawn alternatives. Not only beautiful, these plants provide habitat for an amazing insect and wildlife population. The flora and fauna here were sourced from local nurseries and are readily available for your own yards.
For more information, please contact Education Manager Ted Tegart at 626-821-4624 or ted.tegart@arboretum.org or visit http://www.arboretum.org.
Each year, the Garden School Foundation invites its community of supporters, friends and families into the garden for Fiesta de la Huerta, a fun family festival and fundraiser that celebrates their mission and all that the garden has to offer. Guests explore and adventure in the beautiful gardens, have fun with garden activities and arts and crafts, learn from the pros with DIY and cooking classes, enjoy lunch from amazing restaurants — and much, much more!
Guests will enjoy:
- Professional DIY Workshops from Maker’s Mess, Kings Roost, the Cool School, Nora Floral Studio, Best Bees and more
- A lesson in Cooking from the Garden with renowned LA chef Ricardo Zarate
- Family-friendly Yoga classes from Yogaworks
- Make-your-own Bike-blender smoothies
- Face painting and Photo Booth!
- Garden activities like plant potting, a sack race, farmers market and compost petting zoo
- Arts and Crafts like pressed flower art and fairy houses
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Lunch from amazing restaurants like Salts’s Cure, Cava, sweetgreen, Peddlars Creamery, Yalla, Jennie Cooks, Califia Farms- and more!
For more info or to volunteer, please contact Shelby Crowell at shelby@gardenschoolfoundation.org or 207-649-0998.
Tickets (5 ticket minimum) are $5 each and proceeds will go towards the support of GSF's Seed-to-Table program. Tickets will be available at the door, but advance purchase is advised, as attendance will be limited.
Join Team Big Sunday at the American Cancer Society Relay For Life for Griffith Park Communities and Hollywood. The Relay For Life events bring hope, encouragement and services to those struggling with cancer, remembrance for those who have lost a loved one, and provides fundraising for the cure. Registration is free. Donations are optional. Come walk with the team!
Looking for a great volunteer opportunity? Well, you’re in luck! Volunteers are needed to help the Mu Lambda Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. clean up the playground areas at Rancho Cienega Sports Complex.
For more details and to register, please contact Cheryl Gray at cdgray37@aol.com or call 323-236-2224.
