Andy Perez, Union Pacific's Director of Port Affairs in Long Beach delivered a check in the amount of $15,000 from their foundation to Tonya Burns. Union Pacific has been a long time supporter of Children Today, giving its first donation in 2009.  This year's donation marks the 9th and largest amount awarded from the foundation.  We are extremely grateful to Union Pacific and Andy Perez for their consistent support and annual giving to our organization.

Children Today is really fortunate to be embraced and supported by so many members of our community, and at no time is that generosity better evidenced than during the Holiday Season.  

Every year, Children Today hosts a "Holiday Store" and invites current and alumni parents to select and wrap gifts for their children.  We ask for and receive donations from dozens of individuals, businesses, and community groups and one of our truly awesome donors is Debra Patalano.  

Debra spends a great deal of her time, talent, and resources to gift our children, families, and staff with beautiful and beautifully hand-made, one-of-a-kind creations.  From scarves, to blankets, to dresses, to aprons (and more), each of these items exemplify her creativity and care.  Thank you so much, Debra.  We are all really touched.

“National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week” is held each year the week before Thanksgiving. This year, it is held on November 12th  through the 20th.  As we prepare for the Thanksgiving Holiday and think about all that we are thankful for, we are asking you to remember that some families have it harder than others. And worse, there are many families with very young children who are experiencing homelessness in America.
 
At Children Today, every year we serve more than 100 children and their families who are experiencing homelessness. Some families are living in shelters or are temporarily housed in motels. And, yes some families are currently living on the streets. This is difficult for most of us to imagine. Recently, we enrolled Taylor (not her real name) into our preschool program. She is two years old. Her parents are Mary and Nathan (not their real names). Mary told us that their family is currently living at the beach and sleeping wherever they can.  She tried to make us feel better about her situation and assured us that she had lots of blankets and covers to stay warm at night. The family has been homeless since January when Mary lost her job. Mary is just like you and I. She is a very concerned and doting mother and she wants the best for her daughter. We connected them to the City of Long Beach’s Multi-Service Center for the Homeless. Here, Mary and Nathan will receive services from a collaboration of agencies that will help them to obtain housing and with other basic needs. In the meantime, Taylor is being cared for by our staff at Children Today. Our teachers provide her with social and emotional support and care, so that she feels safe and secure.  As you can imagine, this is not easy for her, given her family’s housing situation.
 
In recognition of “National Hunger and Homelessness Week,” you can help families like the one described above by making a contribution to Children Today.  Please make a tax deductible donation.

Thank you.

Donate to the Holiday Store and help make the season bright for dozens of children and their families.  See below to learn how!

We are very pleased to announce that we were approved for the Share A Story book grant provided by the Molina Foundation. This grant funds 100 high quality children's books that will be shared with the children and families served by our programs. These books will help develop our children's reading, language and communication skills.  We will also share these books with families, offering them a wider variety of books to share with their children at home. 

In the coming weeks, please look forward to other posts and pictures about this generous donation.

Thanks again to the Molina Foundation for their great work in the Long Beach community.

From all of us at Children Today, thank you IKEA Carson for investing so much time and effort, and so many resources into this IKEA Life Improvement Challenge week.  We thought we were getting a redecorated lobby. We got that, and so much more!

What a beautiful, cheerful and welcoming space!  It's just how we want to greet our families and guests. 

It's Christmas in July, folks.  Our new best friends at IKEA Carson just asked the teaching staff what other things they needed in their classrooms and then came back with - basically - all of those things. 

​I could go on.  

Stay tuned for even more wonderful things from IKEA as our Life Improvement Challenge week continues.  

Back in April, we won the IKEA Life Improvement Challenge to make over a space in our beautiful Eco House facility (thanks to all of you who voted for us)!

This week, our new friends from IKEA Carson have come out in force to build furniture, decorate our lobby, and provide us with storage solutions for our offices and classrooms. 

We are so excited to have IKEA Carson working with us this week and can't wait to see the finished product!  We'll keep you posted!

By Tondra Gardner

What better way to kick off our first summer in our new child care facility than with...

​The World Forum Nature Action Collaborative for Children introduced International Mud Day back in 2011 in order to bring awareness to the growing need to connect young children with nature.  Children Today joined the celebration by providing a variety of mud experiences to engage the infants, toddlers, and preschool children at their various stages of development.

Community Giving
Over the recent past months, Children Today has been very fortunate. We have received numerous gifts and donations from new and long-time supporters. Two of our newest supporters include Ralph Salcedo, a 7th grader from Leeland Middle School and Rachel Perry, a Girl Scout from Troop 2113.  These two young people exemplify giving at its best.  Robert recently gave $500 to Children Today, the result of a school project. We were very pleased to be the recipient of such a generous gift, and more importantly, from a person who is learning the importance of giving at such a young age.  We were equally excited to receive several boxes of Girl Scout Cookies from Rachel and her friend/neighbor Emily Furuta. Rachel gave a total of 50 boxes of cookies and Emily gave 10.  Rachel is also learning the importance of giving back and sharing. It was very important for her to share the cookies with the children and families served by our organization.  Rachel's father, Robin Perry is Children Today board member.