The Women's Conference

I was privileged to be able to attend Night at The Village at The Women's Conference in Long Beach in October.  I attended many great events and met wonderful people including

• First Lady Maria Shriver  spoke about her project called "A Woman’s Nation" which will take a new, empirical look at the status of American women, who, for the first time, will make up half of the nation's workforce. 
• Jane Fonda, Actor, Author, Fitness Advocate, Activist
• Giada De Laurentiis, Celebrity Chef, #1 New York Times Best-Selling Cookbook Author who spoke about how she broke from family tradition to follow her passion.
• Jessica Simpson, Singer, Actress, Entrepreneur spoke about her VH-1 docu-series,“Jessica Simpson’s: The Price of Beauty.”  Jessica traveled to Japan, Thailand, France, Brazil, Uganda, Morocco, and India then back home to Los Angeles to meet every day women and pop culture icons and reveal what is beautiful in the differing cultures.

I also learned about many new organizations including

• CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty, improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity, protect natural resources and deliver emergency aid.  CARE places special focus on women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty.
• Six Billion Paths to Peace represents the idea that it is possible to inspire new reverberations of peace if we each step up and investigate our daily actions and make a commitment to offer our unique contributions to the world.
• First 5 LA strengthening families and communities in L.A. count through public policy change.
• Ndebele Art Project celebrates the magnificent artisans of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and addresses the urgent need to fight AIDs and malaria.
• We Include employs Californians with developmental disabilities. 

October 2010

Upcoming Events

• Counterpoint Dinner Party Tuesday, November 16 6:30 PM.  See link for details Counterpoint Dinner Format .  Topics will include:
• Gift Ideas: Get your Christmas Shopping done while supporting good causes. 
• Womens Conference in Long Beach last month.
• Shopping trip to Ten Thousand Villages and dinner in Pasadena Saturday Nov 6.  Meet at Mona's at 2:00.  Get some Christmas shopping done, enjoy dinner with friends and support a good cause.
• Shoebox Packing Party for Operation Christmas Child Friday, November 12 at 12:30-2:00 PM in El Segundo.  Spend lucnh with friends while helping spread the joy to needy children throughout the world.

Things You Can Do

• Save your shoe boxes for us to use for Operation Christmas Child.
• Help pack and wrap at our shoe box packing party.
• Vote in November.  Pay close attention to local initiatives.
• Shop for gifts that help support others.

October Dinner Party Topics

• The Gift of Water: Drilling Wells, Saving Lives  Read a truly moving story of a Maryland businessman turning his work into a life-changing for himself and thousands of villagers in Ghana.

• Wesnet Health Solutions is dedicated creative uses of current technology to help bring medical care to those in need around the world.  Cell phones, digital media and the internet can help bring low cost health care in hard to reach places.
• A Day Made Better  See how OfficeMax is working to erase teacher-funded classrooms by $1,000 in supplies and find out how you can help.  If you know of any entertainers or celebraties who would like this publicity, please pass this on.
• Heifer International Study Tours  Travel to exotic parts of the world at very resonable prices while learning more about a good cause.

• Save the Children USA  Did you know 1 out of 5 children in the U.S. lives in poverty?  See what Save the Children is doing to protect, educate and care for children in our own backyard. 
• CalEarth’s Eco-Dome  See how houses and communities can be built out of nothing more than dirt, barbed wire, and bags that meet California building codes.
• The Ghetto Film School is a group of educators and students who share a love for storytelling and filmmaking.  Their mission is to educate, develop and celebrate the next generation of great American storytellers.