I am contemplating volunteering to be a writing mentor at a Los Angeles-based nonprofit called WriteGirl. Launched in 2001 by Karen Taylor, #WriteGirl provides weekly one-on-one mentoring, schedules monthly workshops on a variety of writing genres, shares mentee work in public meetings, and publishes books with writings by its mentees. Where do WriteGirl mentees come from? WriteGirl mentees come from high-density public middle and high schools in central Los Angeles. These girls are recommended by their English teachers and are both low and high achievers. Where do I fit in? WriteGirl searches for professional women writers and women with strong communications skills who use writing in their careers in all genres – some like me, who work in multiple genres – who will volunteer to mentor these teen girls. I first heard of WriteGirl at a friend’s birthday party. My friend asked for donations to WriteGirl instead of gifts and hosted WriteGirl staff, volunteers, and … [Read more...]
WriteGirl – a huge success story
Voter registration volunteer – quite an experience!
Last Saturday I went to Las Vegas Nevada as a volunteer to help register voters. I got up at four in the morning, got ready, and left my home by four forty to get to Hillary's headquarters in the Westchester part of Los Angeles (just north of the airport) by five. I arrived a little early and glad I did. A half hour later the line was almost out the door with people waiting to sign in. However, I waited more than an hour before we got on the bus and on our way at six fifteen. I was assigned Bus 2 two full buses left from the Westchester headquarters one of fifty-three people. I felt lucky to find a seat on the left aisle next to a young woman named Gabriella. We chatted a bit she teaches four and five-year olds pre kindergarten and then decided to partner for the day. Having a partner at the registration sites was a requirement. It took us around four hours to get to Las Vegas I whiled away the time writing of course, reading, and dozing I don't go anywhere without … [Read more...]
