Community Service Involvement, 2001-2008

The Community Service listed below represents only those programs in which Prema Drala Ashram (in Laguna Hills, California) has had involvement. The Foundation’s international centers and ashrams have similar, ongoing community service programs.

2008

• Held an emergency relief fundraiser for the Sandy Happy Children’s Home in Nairobi, Kenya after it was raided during the outbreak of violence that followed the country’s presidential elections in December 2007.
• Distributed fruit trees to individual families and several organizations in Los Angeles County and Orange County, as part of Louix Dor Dempriey Foundation’s ongoing Forests of Fruit initiative.
• Organized monthly Global Clean-up Project trash pick-ups in Laguna Hills neighborhoods, parks, and parking lots.
• Spent time serving the residents at Avalon Las Palmas (a senior living community in Laguna Woods, California) and revamping its library.

2007

• Assisted Journey School (a charter school in Aliso Viejo, CA), over a two-week period, in relocating to their new campus (including packing up classroom equipment, cleaning, loading, and dismantling equipment).
• Joined the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (as part of Louix Dor Dempriey Foundation’s ongoing project Forests of Fruit) to plant 11 organic fruit trees at San Ysidro High School, in south San Diego.
• Visited with and sang to seniors at Aliso Laguna Village, in Laguna Niguel, CA.

2006

• Joined the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation to plant two fruit orchards at Palmer Way School in San Diego, CA.
• Organized monthly Global Clean-up Project garbage pick-ups in Laguna Hills neighborhoods, parks, and parking lots. During 2006, 321 bags of trash were collected by Prema Drala Ashram, and a total of 3,111 bags were collected by volunteers worldwide.
• Cleaned the nine classrooms at Journey School (Aliso Viejo, CA) during their mid-year break.
• Visited Grace Children’s Home in South Tijuana, Mexico, where volunteers played with the children and prepared lunch for them.
• Provided gardening and landscaping assistance at A Children’s Garden (Waldorf pre-school playgroup) in Laguna Hills, CA.
• Prepared and served breakfast to families staying at the Ronald McDonald House in the City of Orange, CA.
• Joined members of the Laguna Hills City Council and residents of the community to participate in "Trees and Trash," a volunteer-based event to beautify the local area’s waterways and wetlands.
• Prepared meals and waited on tables at the volunteer-run Seva Café in Long Beach, CA.
• Assisted Shadetree Partnership, Inc. (in the City of Irvine, CA) to upsize hundreds of trees into larger containers and to plant groundcover clippings in smaller containers.
• Hosted four garage sales held at Louix’s ashrams and centers around the world, raising a total of USD$10,000 used to purchase rural acreage and to build the new, permanent site for Sandy Happy Children’s Home in Kisumu, Kenya.
• Prepared and served Thanksgiving dinners to the homeless, organized by Salvation Army in Costa Mesa, CA.

2005

• Organized monthly Global Clean-up Project trash pick-ups in Laguna Hills neighborhoods, parks, and parking lots. Prema Drala Ashram collected 1,136 bags of trash during 2005. A total of 5,596 bags were collected by volunteers worldwide.
• Organized an Earth Day rubbish clean-up event at Veet Park waterway in the City of Laguna Hills, CA.
• Organized a day at the beach for children and staff of the Olive Crest Homes in Santa Ana, CA.
• Cleaned and reorganized community facilities at Hagan Place, an apartment block for people with HIV/A.I.D.S. in Laguna Beach, CA, in conjunction with Laguna Shanti.
• Served breakfast to families staying at the Ronald McDonald House in the City of Orange, CA.
• Ashram community sang patriotic songs to celebrate Independence Day with seniors at Villa Valencia, Laguna Hills, CA.
• Raised USD$4,300 for Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts at Be The Cause’s 4th Annual "Walk for Hope" in Long Beach, CA. The money was donated to Operation U.S.A., a Los Angeles-based charity providing medical aid to those injured and sick in the areas devastated by the hurricane.
• Participated in the City of Mission Viejo’s International Waterways Day clean-up.
• Visited with and sang to seniors at Aliso Laguna Village, Laguna Niguel, CA at Christmas time and on Valentine’s Day.

2004

• Replanted and remodeled the gardens at the A.I.D.S. Memorial Bench Park in Laguna Beach, CA, in conjunction with Laguna Shanti.
• Organized monthly Global Clean-up Project pick-ups in Laguna Hills neighborhoods, parks, and parking lots. Prema Drala Ashram collected 1,140 bags of trash during 2005. A total of 6,239 bags were collected by volunteers worldwide.
• Participated in the 20th Annual Coastal Clean-up at Laguna Beach, CA.
• Collected 500 bags of trash at our Earth Day (Global Clean-up Project) trash pick-up in downtown Los Angeles.
• Visited with and read to seniors at Villa Valencia Retirement Village in the City of Laguna Hills, CA.
• Collected 202 bags of trash in the town of Mt. Shasta, CA, as part of a Global Clean-up Project event organized by Prema Drala Ashram.
• Visited with and sang to seniors at Aliso Laguna Village in Laguna Niguel, CA, at Christmas time.
• Prepared and served breakfast to the homeless in the Laguna Beach area.

2003

• Sorted food donations at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County.
• Served Thanksgiving dinner to residents in Julian, CA, after fires ravaged that area, in conjunction with Calvary Chapel (Julian, CA).
• Served meals and distributed clothing to the homeless in Santa Monica, in conjunction with Agape International.
• Provided baked goods for a fundraising effort for Ariel Rescue, a voluntary animal rescue service in Orange County, CA.
• Visited with and read to seniors at Aliso Laguna Village in Laguna Niguel, CA.
• Raised USD$25,000 through global fundraising efforts, to build a multi-purpose building at the Sri Ranga Patna Children’s Home in Mysore, India (100% of the funds needed for the project).
• Cleaned houses for clients of Florence Sylvester Senior Center in Lake Forest, CA.
• Participated in an Earth Day Beach clean-up and indigenous plant restoration project at Salt Creek State Beach in Dana Point, CA.
• Delivered "Meals on Wheels" for the Florence Sylvester Senior Center in Lake Forest, CA.

2002

• Launched our global Sri Ranga Patna Children’s Home (Mysore, India) fundraiser in December 2002.
• Prepared and served Thanksgiving dinner to hundreds of homeless people in Santa Monica, CA, in conjunction with Vineyard Christian Fellowship.
• Participated in an Earth Day beach clean-up at Crystal Cove Beach in Orange County, CA.
• Provided assistance with gardening and other backyard repairs for a disabled man.
• Sorted donations at Lake Forest Food Bank.
• Sang Christmas carols to seniors at Aliso Laguna Village in Laguna Niguel, CA.

2001

• Prepared and served lunch for residents of Skid Row Women’s Shelter in Los Angeles.
• Provided extensive personal care and home care over a six-month period for an elderly couple, one of whom was seriously ill with cancer.

For more information about the Foundation’s international Community Service programs, please contact graceinaction@Louix.org.

 

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Building upon the Global Clean-up Project (which was inaugurated in 2003, for Louix’s birthday), Grace in Action has expanded to incorporate an ongoing fruit tree planting project—Forests of Fruit. By planting fruit trees on public and private lands everywhere, and encouraging others to do the same, we align with Louix’s teachings that we are divinely designed to eat fruit, and that fruit is paramount to our health and vitality. Through this project, we provide food for people (as well as the animal kingdom) and help to bring an end to deaths from starvation and malnutrition, which claim millions of lives every year. The project also serves to help reforest, oxygenate, and beautify the earth.

Louix emphasizes the importance of spending time on the earth for our healing and upliftment. By planting and tending fruit trees, we will be in Nature and more open to communion with Mother Earth and nature spirits. There is a wonderful opportunity here to learn about and practice organic gardening and plant care, and to find ways to be in harmony and balance with the natural world.

It is recommended that you conduct research before you select and plant trees for this project. Use the Internet, read relevant books and magazines about organic gardening, and speak with your local nursery. You will need to know what varieties grow best in your climate, and how to grow and care for the tree organically—without using pesticides or chemicals. You need to ensure the tree will be adequately nurtured and cared for, not left to die, or you will be creating a negative effect in the Universe—more ill health, more starvation, and further deforestation.

As part of the tree selection and planting process, it is important to ask Mother Earth what variety or varieties She would like to receive, and where the trees should be planted. Louix recommends that we select heritage or heirloom varieties of fruit trees if possible (with the understanding that ones should gratefully accept fruit trees which are often donated by nurseries or other benefactors, provided they can grow in the climate wherein you would be planting them), and to avoid varieties which have been genetically modified, genetically engineered, bio-engineered, or are transgenic.

Once you have asked for and received permission from Mother Earth (and obviously from the owners, managers, and/or caretakers of each chosen site) to plant a fruit tree or trees, spoken with your local nursery and/or heritage tree expert about what the tree needs to flourish (adequate space to grow; proper variety for your climate; complementary tree, if the one you selected is not self-pollinating; water, sunlight, and soil; mulch and fertilizer; pruning; protection from winds, frosts, birds, insects), and, finally, purchased your tree/s (after asking God which trees from the selection at the nursery are the ones for you to take home), then you are ready to plant!

Bless every one and every thing all the time.

Please remember to treat the tree planting as a sacred act. Bless the soil as you dig the hole, bless the ingredients you add to the soil to enrich it, and bless the creatures (insects, worms, etc.) you find during the process. In your prayers, you can bless the earth, the tree, and the elements, and send a prayer into the Universe so that the tree will flourish and be bountiful, and its fruit will feed many people, all of whom will be blessed by the inherent health-giving, life-sustaining properties of fruit; and that the tree will restore the natural beauty of the planet and give us clean air to breathe. Bless the tree each time you water, feed, or care for it in any way. Talk to it—love it. And teach others to do the same. Remember:  trees are conscious beings, too!

Contacts

U.S.A.
Ronda Malchow:  rlmalchow@yahoo.com (Los Angeles)

Australia
Lynda Hansen:  babalynda@yahoo.com.au (Melbourne)

Shantaya Satyam:  shantayasatyam@hotmail.com (Sydney)

Sri Matanandamayi Ma:  pranashakti@Louix.org (Hobart)

New Zealand
Fenna Klein:  awhidesign@paradise.net.nz (Hamilton)

Other regions and general inquiries, please e-mail:
graceinaction@Louix.org

We would love to read your stories about any transformational experiences
you have had by participating in this project.

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Global Clean-Up was initiated in December 2003 as a special birthday present to Louix Dor Dempriey from His devotees worldwide. The project demonstrates our love and gratitude to Louix, and to Mother Earth, and provides a vehicle to deepen our attunement to their Divine beauty and grace.

The primary task of Global Clean-Up is a simple one:  pick up trash and dispose of it responsibly. By cleansing the earth of garbage, we also gift ourselves with the opportunity to expand and cleanse our own consciousnesses, to redefine areas of our lives where we are less than graceful, and the parts of our consciousness that are less than pure love.

The suggested bag for use during trash collection is the standard plastic or brown paper grocery bag. (For reference:  a 13-gallon bag holds three full grocery bags.) To include your trash collection in the global bag count, please e-mail your collection totals to graceinaction@Louix.org. Please read the suggestions below before participating.

Make your trash pick-up a sacred act:

• While collecting trash, sing devotional songs or chant your favorite mantra. Or you can simply be in silence.
• Set the intention to cleanse your consciousness (and release any non-loving habits) while you cleanse the earth.

Safety/Hygiene:

• Always use gloves.
• Do not mix syringes with other rubbish, and obtain instructions from local authorities on how to collect and dispose of them safely.
• Be very careful with sharp objects like broken glass; do not pick up anything that you are not sure that you can carry safely.
• If working in a group, have one person carry a bucket for dangerous objects.
• Keep toxic substances in a separate bag (paint cans, solvents, chemicals), many of which can be taken to a toxic waste facility.
• Wash your hands thoroughly when finished.

Re-use/Recycle:

• Use plastic shopping bags or larger garbage bags to collect trash. Three regular-sized shopping bags are equivalent to one 13-gallon trash bag.
• Wherever possible, separate the rubbish from clean, recyclable objects and dispose of them in appropriate garbage bins. Do the same for chemicals or toxic waste, if possible (see above).

Plan Well:

• If you organize a group collection, make sure you contact the local council for any  relevant guidelines.
• Keep plastic bags in the car or in your handbag. Once you start collecting trash, you begin to notice all kinds of rubbish wherever you go.
• There is no shortage of trash:  railway stations, train compartments, supermarket parking lots, beaches, parklands, and sports venues are usually in need of a clean-up! You will most likely find a lot of trash in your own neighborhoods.
• Remember to e-mail graceinaction@Louix.org with your bag count.
• Invite family, friends, or work colleagues to join you—why not have a picnic together?
• Have fun! Enjoy God’s creation as you walk about.
• And lastly, become one of the many souls who have adopted (Louix's) Law of Grace as their way of life:  Leave every space more beautiful than you found it.

Contacts

U.S.A.
Ronda Malchow:  rlmalchow@yahoo.com (Los Angeles)

Australia
Rose Italiano:  mariarosaitaliano@yahoo.com.au (Melbourne)

Narayana Rodriguez:  narayana.rodriguez@recruitadvantage.com.au (Sydney)

Sri Matanandamayi Ma:  raeg@tpg.com.au (Hobart)

New Zealand
Fenna Klein:  awhidesign@paradise.net.nz (Hamilton)

Other regions and general inquiries, please e-mail:
graceinaction@Louix.org

We would love to read your stories about any transformational experiences
you have had by participating in this project.

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