2016 marks our first annual Community Volunteer Award for a community individual or organization who have made a significant impact in volunteering for Casa Pacifica either here on our campus or out in the community. These conscientious community partners help to support our mission by helping to better the lives of Casa Pacifica’s children, youth and families.
BrightView landscape crews recently spent two days on Casa Pacifica’s main Camarillo Campus doing some much-needed work by the main driveway. The crews tackled years of overgrowth, tree trimming, and clearing. The project came about when a BrightView employee participated in Casa Pacifica’s on-campus car show during quarantine. While driving through the campus, he saw areas in need of attention. He took the idea of volunteering BrightView’s services to management and they loved it. BrightView commercial clients then “donated a day” which allowed BrightView to redirect the crew that would normally work on the company’s property to work on Casa Pacifica’s landscaping instead. Clients who donated include: JLL of Thousand Oaks, City of Westlake Community Park, La Ventana HOA, and Westlake Park Place.
Fence Factory has been a major supporter of our Casa Pacifica Angels Wine, Food & Brew festival for over 25 years – assisting us both financially and through in-kind services. During the hectic week of setting up for the festival, their team is always hard-working, reliable, and flexible – making the process so much easier knowing that we can depend on them. Fence Factory is also a major supporter of our Care for Kids Golf Classic as a continued sponsor. In recent years, owner, Laurie Bennett, has joined the Camarillo Rotary and advocates for us and our needs. We can’t thank them enough for their continued support.
A longtime supporter of Casa Pacifica, PODS owner Steve Yapp has been involved in many capacities – from helping us manage storage on campus to supporting the children’s personal needs – PODS does it all. During the holiday season, they not only help us manage storing gifts and keeping all our kid’s presents organized and ready for distributing, but Steve also provide holiday gifts for our kids. This year, they sponsored a campus trip to Universal Studios – a highlight of the year for the youth. Additionally, they support all our storage needs during our annual Wine, Food & Brew Festival. They support not only Casa Pacifica but many other nonprofits in the Tri-Counties – thank you PODS for making our community a better place!
Mamba Sports Academy has been deeply involved and supportive of the kids we serve. In particular, this group developed and implemented a weekly program for the youth we serve, delivering sports training – both on our campus and at their facility, with the sport of focus changing regularly. This program has been a unique and profound opportunity for the youth we serve to not only work on physical fitness, but develop important life skills – teamwork, patience, good sportsmanship, mindfulness, communication and more. In recent years, they hosted our youth in their Full Circle Athlete development program – giving our kids the opportunity for individual training sessions, coaching and mindset development. The program was an incredible, once in a lifetime learning experience for the kids and is something they cherished. In the words of one of the kids, “This program has helped my confidence a lot. It has shown me not to give up when it comes to new sports or trying new things. I am more motivated to step out of my comfort zone.”
Each year, Pentair takes on the incredible task of creating a joyful, safe holiday for our children. They take the time to go shopping for the gift at the top of each of our kid’s wish lists – which is no easy task! Once the gifts have been purchased, they hold a wrapping party and beautifully adorn each of the children’s gifts, then deliver all the presents to Casa Pacifica’s campus. In addition, part of the group come to the party to serve as wait staff during the children’s special holiday dinner. The holiday party is a happy highlight of the year for our kids and Santa’s visit and the giving of the gifts is the high point of the party – and it would not have been possible without their generosity and hard-work!
Lydia and Rick are the organizers of the Annual Coats for Casa Pacifica event - a fantastic community event at Three Springs Park in Westlake Village benefitting our children and families with warm clothing for the winter months. This year approximately 500 people joined in the fun gleefully enjoying three different sledding runs, a Tiny Tots snow play spot, and a wonderful winter crafts booth. In addition to 30 tons of snow trucked in for the day’s snow play festivities, there were yummy beverages. More than 2,500 winter clothing items of all sizes - new and gently used coats, sweaters, hoodies, mittens/gloves, winter hats, and scarves - were donated to the Coats for Casa Pacifica benefit this year! The donation is so extremely generous, and we are very grateful for this assistance in outfitting the children and families we serve for the colder winter months.
Stefanie started the Boys Team Charity chapter here in Ventura County in 2011 - a volunteer service organization dedicated to developing a giving spirit in young men through active participation of philanthropic projects in their communities. One of the first places she brought the boys and their families was to help us at Casa Pacifica. For the last 7 years they have volunteered at our fundraisers and have participated in many Amigo activities here on campus. In addition to all she does on campus, she serves on our Board of Directors and on the program & oversight committee. She is a committed, generous and loving individual and we are blessed to have her sharing our story and donating so much of her time, talent, and treasures.