{"id":410350,"date":"2026-07-24T03:51:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T03:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/410350\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T03:51:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T03:51:17","slug":"news-briefs-film-festival-ceo-joins-ngo-day-council-shuttle-survey-costco-desert-willow-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/410350\/","title":{"rendered":"News briefs: Film Festival CEO joins NGO Day council, shuttle survey, Costco desert willow plant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Coronado Island Film Festival CEO joins World NGO Day Global Council<a href=\"https:\/\/coronadotimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-e1784833204428.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-257404\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-e1784833204428-238x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"227\"  \/><\/a>Merridee Book. Courtesy photo<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\">Merridee Book, CEO and Artistic Director of the Coronado Island Film Festival, has been named an Executive Advisor to the World NGO Day Global Council, the international advisory body\u2019s founder announced this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\">Book brings a background in arts leadership, nonprofit development and strategic partnerships to the council, which works to strengthen recognition and collaboration across the global civil society community. Under her leadership, the Coronado Island Film Festival has expanded from its Southern California roots into an international platform, screening acclaimed films such as \u201cFlow,\u201d \u201cSugarcane,\u201d and \u201cThe Seed of the Sacred Fig\u201d alongside work from emerging filmmakers. Before joining the festival, she co-founded a media company and served as Vice President of Development at the San Diego International Film Festival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\">In her new role, Book will advise on strategic communications, cultural leadership and nonprofit partnerships, supporting World NGO Day\u2019s mission of recognizing organizations addressing social and humanitarian challenges worldwide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\">\u201cFilm and media have taught me that the most powerful stories are the ones that move people to act, and NGOs are where that action lives every single day,\u201d Book said. \u201cServing as an Executive Advisor allows me to bring a storyteller\u2019s perspective on narrative, visibility and recognition to a global community of changemakers whose work deserves greater attention.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\">World NGO Day founder Marcis Skadmanis said Book\u2019s background in arts and storytelling adds an important perspective to the council. \u201cThe work of NGOs represents millions of individual acts of commitment, compassion and leadership that deserve to be documented and shared with the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\">The World NGO Day Global Council includes leaders from institutions such as the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, the Ulrich Museum of Art and the American Battlefield Trust. World NGO Day is observed annually on Feb. 27 and is marked in more than 145 countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coronado Island Film Festival CEO joins World NGO Day Global CouncilMerridee Book. Courtesy photo Merridee Book, CEO and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-410350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}