Feel Good Friday - Underdogs Rock! Rescue

Time in Oregon is giving me time to find people doing fantastic work here in the Pacific Northwest, including today’s featured organization, Underdogs Rock! Rescue.

Founded in 2014, Underdogs Rock! Rescue is an all-volunteer nonprofit that rescues, transports, fosters and finds forever homes for dogs in Portland, Oregon and the surrounding areas.

Their work starts by rescuing dogs from overcrowded high-kill shelters in locations around the country including Southern California and Alabama. Volunteers transport these dogs to Portland where they are matched with people in a foster home. The foster provides “much-needed love, a warm bed, routine, some basic training, trips to the vet and adoption events, as needed.”

Dog lovers in the Portland metro area can go online to see all the adoptable pets and fill out an application. After reviewing the application, Underdogs Rocks volunteers visit the potential adopter’s home to make sure the dog’s needs can be met. If it’s a good match, the adoption is approved and the celebration can begin! If you’re thinking this sounds like a great program but you’re more of a cat person, you’re in luck. Underdog Rocks also rescues, fosters and adopts cats.

Successful adoption stories are posted on the Underdogs Rocks blog. If you’d like to be part of your own success story by helping an animal move from a shelter into a loving home, there are many ways to achieve this. People living close to Portland can volunteer their time, become a foster or adopt a cat or dog. All of us can show our support by donating money and amplifying Underdogs Rock! Rescue’s work on social media. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Feel Good Friday - Gleaners

I’m in Oregon City this week and learned about a fantastic local organization that distributes resources to people in need, Gleaners of Clackamas County Inc.

Founded in 1972 and headquartered in Oregon City, Oregon, Gleaners of Clackamas County Inc. (Gleaners) is a 100% volunteer-run organization that “collects and distributes food and nonfood items to limited income, elderly, and disabled residents of Clackamas County.” Their mission is to share food, reduce waste, and build community.

It all starts with gleaning, “the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest.” In the early days of Gleaners, a group of volunteers picked fields and distributed food in the community. Today, while volunteers still glean farms and fields, the organization now also distributes surplus food from grocers, restaurants and food manufacturers, as well as clothing and household goods from the public.​ Learn more in this short video.

One unique aspect of Gleaners is that it is an all-volunteer, cooperatively run program. Most volunteers are members of Gleaners who work within a team. In return for paying a small monthly membership fee and working 4 hours per month, members are given a food box one to two times a week and they have access to free clothing and seasonal events like a summer picnic, back-to-school giveaways, Halloween costume exchanges and more. Members also share a portion of their food with an adoptee, someone in the community who is either 65+ years old or disabled. There is no cost or work requirements for adoptees.

Gleaners also offers emergency food boxes to people in Clackamas County who experience a sudden change in circumstance, like job loss, that prevents them from feeding their family. Membership is not required to receive this box of food.

On average, Gleaners provides 3,000 individuals with a generous supply of food every week. They also distribute any excess to church groups, food pantries and other charities bringing their overall reach to more than 5,000 people per week. 

If you want to help Gleaners reduce hunger and waste in Clackamas County, there are several ways to do so. People who live locally can become a member or volunteer. The rest of us can donate money and spread the word on social media by liking the Gleaners Facebook page.

Feel Good Friday - Not Just Tourists

For those of you who like to do your traveling after school is back in session, it’s a great time to learn about Not Just Tourists, an organization that makes it easy for you to deliver humanitarian aid while on vacation.

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Toronto, Not Just Tourists (NJT) has two big aspirations. To “change the way people travel and start the journey for ordinary tourists to become humanitarians” and to “prevent the waste of usable medical supplies and get them to those in most need.”

Here’s how it works. Hospitals, clinics, and medical suppliers donate materials to one of 29 NJT chapters across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. The supplies donated are typically gauze, bandages, surgical instruments, masks, gloves, antiseptics, IV kits, urinary supplies and birthing kits.

Volunteers host weekly packing parties to fill suitcases with supplies. Travelers like you and me check the list of 625 clinics around the world to see if there is one near our destination. If so, you fill out a form answering basic questions like your destination, how big of a suitcase you can take and what type of supplies you are comfortable transporting. The suitcase you are given will include a letter explaining that you are transporting the contents to a medical facility in the destination country. Once you deliver the suitcase and return from vacation, you bring back a copy of the letter that was signed by the medical professional who received the suitcase. Easy!

Since they began, Not Just Tourists has sent more than 10,000 suitcases with travelers who have delivered over 2,000,000 pounds of medical supplies. NJT operates without a budget and does not accept nor solicit financial donations. Getting medical supplies to clinics in need is made possible by the 3,000+ volunteers who donate their time.

If you want to help NJT prevent waste and turn tourists into humanitarians, there are many ways you can do so. Sign up to deliver a suitcase, donate medical supplies or a suitcase to put them in, volunteer to sort and pack supplies at a local chapter, or start a chapter if there’s not one near you. Of course you can also make sure more people know about Not Just Tourists by spreading the word on social media. Like the NJT Facebook page, follow them on Instagram and subscribe to their YouTube channel.

Feel Good Friday - International Elephant Foundation

Monday, August 12th is World Elephant Day which makes today a great day to learn about the International Elephant Foundation.

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Azle, Texas, the mission of the International Elephant Foundation (IEF) is “to support and operate elephant conservation and education programs in managed facilities and in the wild, with an emphasis on management, protection and scientific research.” 

The African Forest, African Savannah and Asian elephant are all endangered species. Only 400,000 African elephants remain on the continent, and the estimated population of Asian elephants is 40,000 - 50,000, one third of which are living in human care. As the human population on both continents grows, people move into elephant habitat which results in both a loss of habitat for the elephants and more frequent human elephant conflict. This puts all involved at risk of injury and death.

In order to encourage the peaceful coexistence between humans and elephants, and to protect elephants and their habitats, IEF provides grants to institutions, organizations and individuals engaged in the field of elephant conservation, research, health, management, education and improvements in husbandry of elephants in human care. 

This 4-minute video discusses past IEF projects, while the following are examples of projects being done in 2024. The Big Tusker Project in Kenya provides aerial surveillance of elephants with tusks weighing over 100 pounds each. This helps with census and scientific research as well as anti-poaching operations. Guinea Forest Elephants is focused on education campaigns, prosecuting wildlife offenses and tracking elephants in the Ziama Biosphere Reserve. Conservation Response Units in Sumatra use “captive elephants, their mahouts, and forest rangers for direct field-based conservation interventions to support the conservation of wild elephants and their habitat.”

IEF also funds and produces publications for the improved management and welfare for elephants in human care, and holds symposia for conservationists and researchers to share conservation and research outcomes. In 2024, IEF awarded over $625,000 in funding to these projects, bringing their total contributions since they began to over $9 million. 

If you’d like to support the International Elephant Foundation and the organizations they work with, there are many ways to do so. Make an old school donation or sponsor an elephant. You can also amplify their work by following IEF on Facebook or Instagram and subscribing to their YouTube channel.

 

Feel Good Friday - Children Rising

As kids in the United States prepare to go back to school, let’s learn about an organization that is helping them rise to their potential, Children Rising.

Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Oakland, California, the mission of Children Rising is “to nurture and equip children to rise above the challenges created by generations of poverty, violence and educational inequity.”

As explained in this short video, 70% of 2nd and 3rd graders in Oakland’s low income neighborhoods are behind in their reading and math skills. Children Rising mobilizes community support for these children by working with school teachers and principals to provide in-school one-on-one literacy and math tutoring for primary grade school students.

Their approach is structured to provide a circle of care to support the children and help them become confident, engaged students. This is done through three targeted programs. 

Succeeding by Reading helps children build foundational literacy skills by working with a dedicated volunteer tutor for the entire academic year. Path2Math focuses on building functional numeracy skills with the help of a dedicated tutor and personalized learning strategy. The final program, Family Bridge, provides wrap-around services to help families support their children with in-home learning experiences and tools.

In the 2022-2023 school year, there were 268 first through third graders enrolled in Succeeding by Reading, 123 second through fifth graders enrolled in Path2Math, and 20 families participating in Family Bridge. Visit this impact page to see the gains the students made in their reading and math skills.

If you’d like to help Children Rising connect children in need with a caring community, there are many ways to do so. Bay Area residents can volunteer as tutors, and all of us can make a donation and spread the word on social media by following Children Rising on Facebook or LinkedIn and subscribe to their YouTube channel.