Long Beach community members can help North Long Beach teachers clear their classroom wish lists before the new school year begins by entering a raffle fundraiser, with prizes from several local small businesses.<\/p>\n
Three local mutual aid groups \u2014 Homespun Community Aid, Care Culture Collaborative and Norfside Long Beach Outreach \u2014 have come together to make this fundraiser possible. All proceeds will be going toward teachers at Long Beach Unified School District schools in North Long Beach, organizers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually partner a lot with Care Culture Collaborative but both of the mutual aid groups are who inspired me to start my own,\u201d Elizabeth Jackson, owner of Homespun Long Beach and founder of Homespun Community Aid, said in an interview. \u201cCare Culture and I did a book fair last year in December at Wood Coffee and this year, we decided to do it again but we wanted to add the raffle aspect to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Homespun Community Aid and Care Culture Collaborative decided to reach out to Norfside Long Beach Outreach \u2014 which provides food and supplies to homeless people in the Northside \u2014 to organize a book fair, support teachers, and show the area some love, Jackson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all chose a few businesses that we were already in contact with,\u201d she said about the raffle. \u201cSmall businesses, especially in Long Beach, are just always so willing to help each other out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prizes range from gift cards to a book-themed tattoo. Community members can enter the raffle now through Sunday, Aug. 9, at 8 p.m. The winners will be announced the next day on Aug. 10.<\/p>\n
A $5 donation equals one entry to win a prize and there are no limits on entries, organizers said.<\/p>\n
All proceeds will be donated to local North Long Beach teachers. Right now, the goal is to help one teacher at Jordan High School, one teacher at a middle school, and one teacher at an elementary school. But, more donations to the fundraiser will allow the groups to help more teachers, Jackson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a mom and my kids are in Long Beach Unified. I wanted to do something for the teachers and this is the time of year when everyone is doing school supply drives and backpack giveaways and we were just trying to figure out a way to do something a little different,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve noticed that the teachers that I\u2019ve spoken to \u2013 and some women in my group are or used to be teachers \u2013 they were saying how a lot of the time they would prefer to just buy their own supplies, especially with younger grades.\u201d<\/p>\n
To enter the raffle, make a donation through Venmo to @homespuncommunityaid, and use the designated code for each prize in the Venmo description.<\/p>\n
Here are the raffle prizes that people can enter for:<\/p>\n
$25 gift card to Wood Coffee, the Queer-owned, plant-based coffee shop in Long Beach. To enter the raffle, use code WOOD in the description.
\nA $75-valued luxury gift set from Burke Mercantile, a certified green business and modern lifestyle shop for slow fashion, curated goods and unique gifts in Belmont Shore. To enter the raffle, use code BURKE in the description.
\nA group photo shoot from Saturation Room, a photo studio operated by Northside Long Beach locals specializing in \u201890s and Y2K-style glamor shots. To enter the raffle, use code SATURATION in the description.
\n$40 gift card to Vine, Retro Row\u2019s natural wine and beer bar with free live music every night. To enter the raffle, use code VINE in the description.
\nA custom sign from Homespun Long Beach, the original creator of the miniature iconic Long Beach parks sign. To enter the raffle, use code HOMESPUN in the description.
\nBook-themed flash sheet tattoo from Garnet Stone Tattoo. To enter the raffle, use code GARNET in the description.
\n$50 gift card to Page Against the Machine, Long Beach\u2019s independent, progressive activist bookstore. To enter the raffle, use code PAGE in the description.
\n$25 gift card to Used Work Clothes, a retail shop in North Long Beach that specializes in new, used and vintage workwear for every job, style and budget. To enter the raffle, use code UWC in the description.
\nA gift set for Leah\u2019s Long Beach Adventures, an illustrated children\u2019s book celebrating the cultural diversity and iconic landmarks of Long Beach, which includes the book, keychains, stickers and a bookmark. To enter the raffle, use code LEAH in the description.
\n$75 gift card to Hellbent Silversmith, a community-focused studio sharing the craft of metalsmithing through workshops and handmade sterling silver goods. To enter the raffle, use code HELLBENT in the description.
\nA T-shirt and print from All We Do Is Float, a Long Beach artist and instructor who hosts a local drawing club and runs an independent zine circulation. To enter the raffle, use code FLOAT in the description.<\/p>\n
Another way to enter the raffle, using cash, will be at a free book fair that the mutual aid groups will be hosting on Saturday, Aug. 8, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Houghton Park, 6301 Myrtle Ave. In addition to entering the fundraiser, attendees will be able to pick from hundreds of free books \u2013 adult fiction and nonfiction, young adults and children\u2019s picture books, cookbooks and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more people that enter,\u201d Jackson said, \u201cthe more teachers we\u2019re going to be able to help.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long Beach community members can help North Long Beach teachers clear their classroom wish lists before the new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,3782,3739,131,133,132,137,3738],"class_list":["post-418116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-grunion-kindness","tag-grunion-news","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-the-grunion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418116","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=418116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}