PASADENA – Like all successful artists or businessmen, Augie Schlanger knows the suit makes the man. He never leaves the house wearing anything less than a suit and tie — a bow tie if he wants to feel particularly dapper.
Yet, like all 6-year-olds, he can’t eat a candy cane without staining his mouth and hands.
Still, Augie’s talents as an artist and leader are beyond his years. His several renditions of Jack Skellington from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” are more than just stick figures. People who make animated blockbusters at Dreamworks Animation buy up some his abstract drawings, like a Snowman barreling through cities a??la King Kong.
“I love to do art, art, art and draw, draw, draw,” Augie said with a blue mouth and half-eaten blueberry candy cane in his hand Tuesday evening at the Schlanger’s kitchen table in their Bungalow Heaven neighborhood home.
Rallying his neighbors and classmates, Augie led a fundraiser with handmade arts, crafts and baked sweets in his own front yard, attracting at least a hundred people and netting $457, plus non-perishable donations, for Union Station Homeless Services in Pasadena.
“If a 6-year-old can raise (almost) $460, our adult community can pull together, too,” said Augie’s mom, Nickella Schlanger.
When the Schlangers get onto the 210 Freeway from Lake Avenue every morning to take Augie and his 9-year-old sister Emory to San Rafael Elementary School, Augie always notices the homeless who congregate near the ramp.
“I felt sad and wanted to help,” Augie said, “because they have no food, money or houses.”
On the ride home from school, his mom usually rolls down her windows so Augie can give them some leftover Goldfish crackers or granola bar.
“That’s why I don’t eat all my lunch, just in case I see one,” Augie said.
He told his mom he wanted to round up all the kids in the neighborhood and at school to make art that could be sold, and then take the money to Union Station to help.
Initially his mother, knowing how busily her friends and family members hustle and bustle for the holidays, swept the idea under the rug. She hoped Augie would do the same.
He didn’t.
“He’s got a wonderfully big, kind heart,” Mom said. “I see him thinking outside himself. When you’re 5 or 6, you’re thinking me, me, me, me.”
Mom finally conceded to the art sale (“It’s not an art show,” Augie sternly corrected. “When I think of show, I think of dancing.”).
On Saturday, about a hundred people swarmed the Schlanger’s front yard.
“It’s that idea of community building,” said Augie’s dad Jed Schlanger, who is a Dreamworks animator. “It actually raised awareness, and it connected us with neighbors and friends.”
Money came in from as far as Illinois, where Mom is originally from, and Greensboro, N.C., where Grandma and Grandpa live, Augie said.
“I didn’t expect such a large donation,” Union Station spokeswoman Dana Bean said. “We were impressed with Augie and how much he raised.”
“I think it reminds us that everyone can make a difference,” Bean added. “Augie is really inspirational because he had this idea and had compassion to come up with all this. I think everyone can learn from Augie.”
For 41 years, Union Station Homeless Services has hosted Dinners-in-the-Park, an incredible community-driven holiday event. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, volunteers serve holiday meals to all who are hungry, including homeless and low-income adults and families, senior citizens, and those who are alone at the holidays or unable to afford a holiday meal.
Union Station will be holding its Christmas Dinner-in-the-Park celebration on December 25 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Central Park, in Pasadena, CA.
This event would not be possible without donors and volunteers. We invite the public to contribute in the following ways:
Donate Non-Perishable Food: Visit http://bit.ly/1iQ3a5q to see our Christmas Wish List, and help us gather everything we need to make a great meal. NOTE: Due to Health Department regulations, we may no longer accept home-cooked turkeys, side dishes, or desserts.
Donate Funds: Union Station serves more than 166,000 meals each year, and provides a full array of services to help people rebuild lives. Invest in transforming a life today:https://unionstationhs.org/help/donate/?program=dip/.
Donate a Pie: You can help two nonprofits at once! Purchase a pie through the Village Cookie Shoppe and you will also be providing valuable work experience to individuals living with mental illness! Visit http://bit.ly/1bxuI9X.
Become a Corporate Sponsor: Invest in our community and receive signage in the park by sponsoring Dinners-in-the-Park. Call (626) 240-4567 today. Current sponsors include Morongo Band of Mission Indians, Southern California Edison, Goldstar, Unified Grocers, Smart & Final, Sir Michael’s, Laborers’ Local 777, Pasadena Federal Credit Union, Paul Hastings, Pasadena Now, Valley Food Bank, Home Street Bank, Gonzalez Goodale Architects and Tsutayo Ichioka & Satsuki Nakao Charitable Foundation.
Volunteer Slots Are Full for this Event: Please check our website back after Jan. 1, 2014, for general volunteering opportunities in the coming year.
[Union Station Homeless Services is the San Gabriel Valley’s largest social service agency assisting homeless and very low-income adults and families. Our mission is help men, women and children rebuild their lives and end homelessness. Union Station provides comprehensive services to help homeless individuals achieve self-sufficiency, including intake and assessment, emergency shelter, case management, career counseling, transitional housing, medical and mental health services, women’s and family services, and housing resources.]
PASADENA–Union Station Homeless Services has been named by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation as a recipient of the 2013 Neighborhood Builder® Awards. The $200,000 in grant support and leadership training are awarded to high-performing nonprofits that have made a significant impact in the community working in the areas of housing, jobs and hunger relief.
“Union Station Homeless Services is consistently a high impact model in the Southland for how to effectively serve our most vulnerable residents, helping to set thousands of men, women and children on the path to better, self-sufficient lives. This highly competitive and prestigious award reflects Union Station’s record and significant contribution it makes in the community,” said Raul Anaya, Los Angeles market president, Bank of America. “The funding and comprehensive leadership training component will not only deepen their impact today but sustain their important mission and critical services of providing shelter and counseling over time.”
“We are deeply honored and thrilled to have received Bank of America’s Neighborhood Builder award,” said Union Station Homeless Services CEO Marvin M. Gross. “Their generosity and support of our work helping homeless residents of Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley rebuild their lives is wonderful, as the award will allow us to serve many, many individuals and families in need.”
According to the Bridgespan Group, Neighborhood Builders is the largest investment in nonprofit leadership development, 2.5 times the next largest program (in spending) and the third largest in number of leaders served. Through the program, now in its tenth year, Bank of America has invested $160 million in 800 nonprofit organizations and provided training to 1,600 nonprofit leaders. Neighborhood Builders furthers the company’s broader philanthropic commitment to addressing core issues that are critical to the economic vitality of local economies, with a particular focus on low- and moderate-income communities.
“It is truly humbling to receive the endorsement of one of the country’s most well-known financial institutions in this way,” said Gross.
Bank of America’s Neighborhood Builders® program helps address local challenges in community development, workforce development and education, and other critical needs. The program, an invitation only process for nonprofits addressing these three areas, provides high-performing nonprofits with $200,000 in unrestricted grant funding and leadership development for their executive directors and emerging leaders.
Threats of rain and stricter Health Department regulations negating prepared food donations could not dampen the spirit of Union Station Homeless Services staff, volunteers and the thousands of people who turned out to enjoy the organization’s 41st annual Thanksgiving Dinner In-The-Park.
Under sunny skies, 4000 meals were served to homeless and low-income adults and families, senior citizens and people who may have otherwise
spent the holiday alone.
“It is always rewarding and inspiring to witness how people come together for important causes and events such as our Dinners-In-The-Park,” said Union Station Homeless Services’ CEO Rabbi Marvin M. Gross. “Generosity and gratitude were abounding at our Thanksgiving gathering and we look forward to serving up more good times during our Christmas Dinner-In-The-Park.”
Among the countless memorable moments during the Thanksgiving Day festivities was the presentation of a $200,000 “Neighborhood Builders award” from Bank of America. The Reverend Dr. Mark Smutny of Pasadena Presbyterian also delivered the Invocation and Mayor Bill Bogaard was on hand to serve food.
Sponsors also included HomeStreet Bank, Gonzalez Goodale Architects, Pasadena Federal Credit Union, Super King Markets, Longo Toyota-Scion-Lexus, and Laborers’ Local 777.
People interested in volunteering for Union Station Homeless Services Christmas Dinner-In-The-Park and those interested in donating or contributing non-perishable food items, can find more information at www.unionstationhs,org.
What’s the hottest gift item in the Jewish world today? It’s a Hanukkah menorah in the shape of a turkey! And they’re selling like latkes.
We all know that ever since President Abraham Lincoln set the date, Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November; Nov. 28 this year, late for Thanksgiving. Hanukkah usually comes in December, but this year it’s early. For once in many lifetimes, Nov. 28 marks Thanksgiving and the start of Hanukkah.
Actually, Hanukkah only comes early in the Gregorian calendar. It always comes on the 25th of the Hebrew month of Kislev. It’s just that the Hebrew calendar is based on the movement of the moon and the sun, while the Gregorian calendar is based on the sun, and the two calendars don’t exactly parallel each other. That’s why Jewish holidays seem to fall at somewhat different times each year. It’s that old devil moon.
So what are we to make of what some are calling “Thanksgivukkah?” Thanksgiving and Hanukkah do have some aspects in common, not just this year’s shared date.
One is the idea of giving thanks for a miracle.
In the case of the Pilgrims, it was a miracle they survived that initial winter in Massachusetts when half their party perished. The first Thanksgiving was a thankful celebration they had made it through a second winter with the help of the local natives who taught them new ways to grow food.
Hanukkah, which means dedication, celebrates the miracle when a one-day supply of oil lasted an entire eight days in the Eternal Light in the Temple in Jerusalem. This was about 2,200 years ago.
Years earlier, Jerusalem had been conquered by the Seleucids who brutally defiled and desecrated the Temple. When Judah Maccabee and his Jewish warriors eventually revolted against the Seleucids, they re-took, cleansed, and re-dedicated the Temple by re-lighting the Eternal Light.
Food is another common aspect of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah. It’s not Thanksgiving without turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. It’s not Hanukkah without latkes – potato pancakes – and sufganiyot – jelly donuts. In celebration of Thanksgivukkah, some bakeries are even cooking up turkey-stuffed donuts. I think I’ll pass.
Each year at Thanksgiving, through my work at Union Station Homeless Services in Pasadena, I’ve been able to participate in a unique Thanksgiving dinner. On Thanksgiving Day, thousands of our volunteers gather in Pasadena’s Central Park to serve meals to the homeless and hungry, individuals and families, people of all ages and backgrounds. Volunteers as diverse as our guests serve delicious meals accompanied by smiles and warmth.
Last Thanksgiving, we served some 5,000 meals. Imagine coordinating the preparation and serving of 300 turkeys, 500 pies and 850 pounds of mashed potatoes. The logistics are daunting, but people open their hearts to their neighbors and extend a hand in friendship and hospitality. And for at least one day, we are all brothers and sisters, some giving, some receiving, in tremendously colorful variation, unified in the experience, together as family. And, to me, that’s a miracle.
The Pilgrims would have understood such a miracle. So, too, would have Judah Maccabee. So, Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Hanukkah!
Mayor Bill Bogaard said Wednesday evening that although “disappointed” he is in total agreement with a Pasadena Health Dept. ruling that bans donations of home-prepared foods for today’s Union Station Dinner-in-the-Park and ends a cherished Pasadena tradition.
“What it does,” said Union Station Homeless Services CEO Rabbi Marvin Gross, “is remove the very integral aspect of this event that’s actually going on for 41 years at Central Park — that integral aspect in which people give from their heart, give from their kitchen and help to feed people who are hungry and homeless, and that’s something that’s really unfortunate if it no longer can be part of that event.”
Monday, Union Station shocked many when it announced that “due to stricter Health Department regulations” it could no longer accept home-cooked food donations for its four-decades-running Thanksgiving Day event which serves thousands of needy people and families.
This year’s service is expected to feed over 4,000.
A key component of the event traditionally has been an outpouring of home-cooked food contributions by area residents who drive by the park and hand off tins and platters to volunteers.
Reaction was swift earlier this week as hundreds registered dismay and anger in calls and emails.
“This is one of the true holiday traditions that has not gotten mucked up by the forces that tend to do that, so, when I received this email from Union Station Homeless Services, I was shocked and then furious,” Pasadenan Susan Osen wrote in an email.
“I am disappointed because I treasure the generosity of the people of Pasadena and I am strongly supportive of every opportunity to contribute to the needs that exist,” Bogaard said.
“I’m hoping that they will be understanding as disappointing as it is to all of us, that this is what the law requires and the city’s failure to act on that once it’s fully appreciated at City Hall would not only be the subject of intense criticism from the public, should anyone turn out to be made ill by the dinner tomorrow, but it would extend liability to the city for its failure to act conveying the requirements of the law,” he said.
The mayor said that “if the law really is clear and strict” the city has no choice but to comply.
A source said that the Mayor spent much of Wednesday exploring alternatives which might lead to a resolution complying with health laws but in the end none was found.
The Mayor suggested that those who traditionally donated home-cooked foods could consider alternative avenues for participation.
“They could contribute financially or food products that are commercially prepared and packaged, or of course they could be among those like myself who will be at Union Station tomorrow serving the guests who come,” he said.
Both Mayor Bogaard and Rabbi Gross pointed out that Union Station has made up for the expected shortfall of food donations by securing additional donations from Health dept.-approved sources.
“No one will go hungry at the event tomorrow,” Bogaard said, “since the home-prepared food is only a part and it’s frankly a small part of the total food supply that is served to the 4,000 or 5,000 guests at Central Park on Thanksgiving.”
PASADENA >> Winter weather has begun to descend on the Southland, meaning freezing, and possibly deadly, overnight temperatures for the more than 40,000 people sleeping on the streets of Los Angeles County.
And this year, at least for many of the 772 homeless people in Pasadena, finding a warm place to stay the night is going to be more difficult. The city’s only emergency Bad Weather Shelter, operated by nonprofit Friends in Deed, has seen its funding cut in half, meaning it will be open fewer days this year and will be accepting fewer people.
“It costs $120,000 to have it open the way we have in the past, and this year we only have $60,000,” Friends in Deed board member Jackie Knowles said. “We just haven’t been able to get enough donations. … It leaves a lot of people in the lurch.”
The shelter was founded by Friends in Deed in 1986 “after a man died on a park bench in Pasadena and people said that’s not right,” Knowles said. This year, rather than being open for three months straight, the shelter will open only when the overnight temperature is expected to drop below 40 degrees or there is a 40 percent chance of rain. The official opening is Friday. The shelter will be available until March 15. The family shelter will be completely closed this year.
The cut in funding for the shelter, from the federal, state and city level, comes from an overall shift in “best practices” for homeless services, said Anne Lansing, of the Pasadena Housing Department. Rather than put funding toward emergency shelters, which are only a temporary solution, agencies — and the Department of Housing and Urban Development — are focusing more on permanent housing and homeless prevention.
“It’s more cost effective and it’s a much more generally effective approach to directly house people who are homeless,” Lansing said. “Particularly chronically homeless who have had long periods of homelessness, generally that happens because they have difficulty with the structure of emergency shelters or transitional housing, but they can do well when they are housed with services provided to them in that housing. Studies have shown time after time that that’s the best approach.”
Funds go toward services like motel vouchers, rent subsidies and family resources, Lansing said, and for more than 95 percent of those who are permanently housed, it works. But, she added, the problem is there still isn’t enough funding to help everyone.
The Pasadena City Council this week passed an ordinance to allow more areas zoned for small emergency shelters. But Lansing said because funding sources are steering away from shelters and toward affordable housing options, the ordinance will likely do little else than satisfy the state mandate that required the city to pass it in order to fill a need for 89 beds for the city’s homeless.
“The reality is that this shift in focus doesn’t come with additional resources,” she said. “What the resource providers are instead saying is you have these limited resources and each jurisdiction needs to look at what is the best way to use them. It isn’t the end-all answer, there is still a shortage of resources, there is still a shortage in funding for affordable housing.”
But not all emergency shelters are experiencing quite the same funding shortage.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority also offers its own Winter Shelter Program from Dec. 1 to March 14. There are 1,491 beds at 13 sites throughout the county. Individuals and families who need help can call into the 2-1-1 phone system and will be directed to an appropriate shelter or program, and the shelters also serve as a gateway into other social services.
“There are thousands of men, women and children that need a warm break from the increased risk that comes with cold and wet winter weather,” LAHSA spokesman George McQuade said. “We don’t want people to die on the sidewalks.”
And in Pasadena, there are some other options for those who can no longer count on the Bad Weather Shelter. On the days the Bad Weather Shelter is open, outreach workers from the city’s Passageways homeless services program also work to assess the need of each person that walks through the door and try to connect them to permanent housing and other services.
In addition, nonprofit Union Station Homeless Services offers a limited number of emergency beds for individuals and families, as well as a Family Resources Center, funded by LAHSA, in Duarte. Local churches and other nonprofits also offer shelter options for the area homeless.
“There will, sadly, I believe probably be people who are underserved by this shift in service model (away from shelters), but I’m going to suggest that there have always been people who have sadly been underserved,” Union Station Chief Programs Officer Gregg von Fempe said. “There is a potential that there will always be a need for emergency shelters … but people don’t want to be in the business of managing homelessness, they want to be in the business of ending homelessness.”
PASADENA>> A local charity that each year serves up a Thanksgiving meal for thousands of needy people announced Monday it can no loner accept home cooked food donations due to stricter Health Department regulations.
Rabbi Marvin Gross, CEO of Union Station Homeless Services, which feeds about 4,000 people a traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner in Central Park, said the organization can no longer allow people to drop off at the park on the day of its event turkeys, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casseroles or other foods cooked at home . “We were surprised because for the last 37 years, home-prepared turkey and other food items brought by community members have been an integral component of this event,” said Gross.
Gross was informed by Liza Frias, the city’s environmental health division manager, earlier this month that the tradition must be stopped because it violated the California Retail Food Code, which regulates how foods are produced for public consumption.
The code requires that any food that is made available to the public must come from an approved, regulated facility, Frias said.
Gross estimated at least 200 people each year would drop off items they cooked at home to share with the needy.
“It’s a shame that people can’t come and donate items that some of them have done for many years,” said Gross. “It was always a really loving way in which people participated in this event.”
Frias, who was hired by the city this summer, said she discovered the violation as she was reviewing different practices in the city.
“Quite honestly, I was really surprised that for all these years nobody has ever” looked at this, Frias said.
She said there is no way of knowing if home-cooked foods have been properly prepared and transported.
“It really took me by surprise,” she said. “Are you kidding me that people really drive up and drop off turkeys?”
Dr. Eric Walsh, the city’s Health Department director, said he didn’t know why this wasn’t flagged in the past. “I honestly can’t say,” he said. “I can only say once it comes to our attention we tell them the best policy and procedures.”
Frias said that as far as she knows, nobody has reported a food-borne illness as a result of the Thanksgiving feast, although many food-borne illnesses go unreported.
She said it is especially important to protect the segment of the population served at Union Station, who may not have access to health care.
Gross said that although people can no longer bring home-cooked goods, people are welcome to drop off nonperishable items, like canned goods, or packaged items such as a store-bought apple pie. He also invited people to make a monetary donation in lieu of cooked items.
That is no consolation for Susan Osen, whose family has made a it tradition over the past 20 years to drop off at Central Park mashed potatoes made in her kitchen Thanksgiving morning.
Osen said cars line Del Mar Boulevard and Raymond Avenue waiting to pass over hot dishes, including casseroles, turkeys, pies and more to a brigade of volunteers who relay the dishes down the line.
“In every sense there was a magical energy in the air with a community coming together to express their caring with the most universal of symbols — a fresh meal made from scratch with family recipes and delivered with many smiles and thank yous,” Osen wrote in an email.
“Frankly, this is one of the true holiday traditions that has not gotten mucked up by the forces that tend to do that, so, when I received this email from Union Station Homeless Services, I was shocked and then furious,” she wrote.
The amount of people served on Thursday will not be affected by the change. Gross said there will still be enough food to feed 5,000.
In 1973, Alice Callaghan and volunteers from All Saints Church opened a storefront hospitality center on Pasadena’s Union Street to serve poor and homeless men. Since then, the nonprofit organization has grown to become the largest agency of its kind in the San Gabriel Valley. Today, Union Station offers the poor and homeless emergency housing, emergency shelter, free meals, career development and job placement programs, medical and mental health services, showers, substance abuse recovery support services and domestic violence counseling.
–André Coleman
(Cavalcade of Stars: City leaders, business people and the Tournament of Roses lead the Pasadena Way)
