Imagine LA Times - Dec 2020
Help more families this holiday season and in the new year.
Last Saturday, more than 50 families joined us -- from the safety of their cars -- for our Winter Wonderland: Drive-Thru Edition!
Complete with Santa, a rocking DJ, and festive décor, this annual event provides joy and warmth, plus boxes of gifts and supplies, to our families as we head into the holiday season.
Every family took home a brand new space heater, comfy new towels and blankets, incredibly fun Disney Paper Parks and plush toys, a tote filled with home and personal care goods, like spa and makeup kits, toys and board games, gas cards, a hot meal for the whole family, and much more.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this event a success, including our Wish List donors, volunteers, and every family that attended!
Baby2Baby
First Congregational Church
Pacific City Church Big Sunday
Walt Disney Imagineering
The Little Market Pixi Beauty
Upward Bound House
Chica's Tacos NGA Hancock Park
Thank You for Helping Us Reach our #GivingTuesday Goal!
This Giving Tuesday YOU helped us reach our goal of raising $10,000 to support our families and mission! Every dollar donated adds to our capacity to provide love and compassion, tools and resources for our families.
We are thankful for everyone who gave their support by participating and showing your generosity. Together we are creating a more just and equitable world for all families.
Imagine Hope Blog
Looking Back, Looking Ahead: An Interview with Jill Bauman
Imagine Hope is a one-year blogging project by Caitlin Newby as she engages with Imagine LA at the deepest levels and shares her experiences and reflections.
"A few days before Thanksgiving, I managed to catch Jill Bauman, President and CEO of Imagine LA, on the phone to discuss what she was most proud of accomplishing at Imagine LA this past year, as well as some of the things she is most looking forward to in the year ahead.
As someone new to the Imagine LA family, I was astounded by all that Jill and the Imagine LA team have accomplished and set in motion!"
Papa's Got a Brand New Brand!
After months of self-reflection, wordsmithing, and lots of collaboration, we are thrilled to have a new brand and website that reflects the love and ethos of our work. It's more than just a logo: it's our values, our mission, our goals, and our vision. Together.
If you're not following us on social media, it's a great way to see our new look in action, and stay up to speed on our all our activities and ways you can get involved.
Join our family on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
As a year of tumult comes to an end, we can only say THANK YOU for your enduring support. Your encouragement, partnership, and hope have helped sustain us.
At the same time, the need remains great. Not being able to host our annual Image Ball means we are still short of our annual fundraising goal. Your support during these final weeks of 2020 will help us fill the gap and continue our critical work with families and address our community's greatest needs.
With Imagine LA, families access the tools, skills, and spaces to advance their goals around career, finance, education, health, and more.
Your year-end gift gives families the greatest gift of all: a brighter future. Donate today.
Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem
By Dr. Maya Angelou
Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.
Flood waters await us in our avenues.
Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche
Over unprotected villages.
The sky slips low and grey and threatening.
We question ourselves.
What have we done to so affront nature?
We worry God.
Are you there? Are you there really?
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?
Into this climate of fear and apprehension, Christmas enters,
Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope
And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air.
The world is encouraged to come away from rancor,
Come the way of friendship.
It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Flood waters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.
Hope is born again in the faces of children
It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets.
Hope spreads around the earth. Brightening all things,
Even hate which crouches breeding in dark corridors.
In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At first it is too soft. Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
It is loud now. It is louder.
Louder than the explosion of bombs.
We tremble at the sound. We are thrilled by its presence.
It is what we have hungered for.
Not just the absence of war. But, true Peace.
A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.
Security for our beloveds and their beloveds.
We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.
It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.
On this platform of peace, we can create a language
To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.
At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ
Into the great religions of the world.
We jubilate the precious advent of trust.
We shout with glorious tongues at the coming of hope.
All the earth's tribes loosen their voices
To celebrate the promise of Peace.
We, Angels and Mortal's, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.
Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul.
