Signal Hill Homeless Count 2025
Ken and Les volunteered at the Signal Hill homeless count, along with a sergeant from the Signal Hill Police and the city commissioner. Having just volunteered at the Long Beach homeless count in January, Les was impressed that the city of Signal Hill is functionally free of homelessness. After driving around for almost two hours, covering residential and commercial neighborhoods, there was not a single homeless encampment to be found. Not a single person experiencing homelessness was found on the streets or parks.
In the surrounding blocks of Long Beach, homeless encampments were abundant, creating such a contrast between the two cities.
Bulldog Beauty Contest 2025
Bethany, Les, and Ricardo volunteered at the 2025 Bulldog Beauty Contest organized by Justin Rudd at Rosie’s Dog Beach. Volunteers overcame multiple obstacles at the event, including a large trash pile and multiple bulldog contestants experiencing vomiting and diarrhea.
Undaunted by the challenges, the show went on and many dogs got recognized for their gorgeous physical attributes and irresistible personalities.
Donation to Long Beach Animal Care Services
Ken and Les formally presented the donation from the Mutt Run to Long Beach Animal Care Services today. 70% of the event proceeds came up totaling $5,645. Ken came up with the brilliant idea of getting a giant check to present to the director of LBACS. T-shirts from the Mutt Run were also gifted to the staff working at Long Beach Animal Care Services.
The check is now prominently displayed at the entrance of Long Beach Animal Care Services. Registration for the 2026 Mutt Run is now open, which will take place on February 21st.
Long Beach Fixit Clinic
Long Beach Recycle and Algalita hosted another Fixit clinic at Sports Basement today to encourage the community to repair broken appliances instead of discarding them. Over a thousand pounds of household items have been repaired and earned a second life.
Emily from Algalita had just been the guest speaker at our meeting this week. Ken and Les brought snacks from an earlier Rotary district meeting to share with the volunteers and people waiting to get their stuff fixed.
2025 Mutt Run
The 3rd annual Bob Long Memorial Mutt Run wrapped up another resounding success, when more than 200 runners and dogs enjoyed a glorious sunny day on the beach to benefit the Long Beach Animal Care Services.
We raised $5,645 for the Long Beach Animal Care Services and engaged the animal-loving community from all over, including many out-of-state participants. We are also grateful for our sponsors, including the Rotary District 5320, the Port of Long Beach, Signal Hill Petroleum, Kaizen Wealth Management (Jose Quintanilla), Raising Cane’s, Sports Basement, and Bethany Schramm.
This year, the stars of the show were the adoptable dogs themselves. Each dog walked down the catwalk as supermodels as she was introduced to the adoring crowd. Dimarco had been in the shelter since May of 2024, and a family met him at the Mutt Run and welcomed him to a new home. We wish all of them will find new homes from the event.
2025 Long Beach Homeless Count
On an unusually warm winter morning, Frank and Les again joined a group of more than 300 volunteers to conduct the annual homeless survey. Les partnered with an experienced city employee to lead the count in the Shoreline Village area. Many people shared their personal and often painful story of how they became homeless.
Les interviewed an immigrant from Guatemala who worked his way to become a property manager, but was ironically evicted during the pandemic housing crisis. Another promising young man who has a degree in organic chemistry who fell to hard time due to unemployment. The homeless population is not just our neighbors, but they could be our friends and family members. They seldom get treated with respect, and the police chased them from one spot to the next so it was impossible for them to sleep at night.
Learning about their plight allowed us to be closer to our own humanity.
Hike and Pack
Ihor and Les practically spent the entire day together. Starting at 6 am, they drove to Mt. Baldy and completed a five-hour hike to Icehouse Saddle. Immediately after the hike, they volunteered at the District 5320 office to receive and pack relief supplies for the victims of the Eaton fire. Our district is collaborating with District 5330 in San Bernardino and Riverside counties to transport and distribute supplies. Many of the people affected by the fire include Rotarians.
Frank also volunteered in the morning at the district office to organize donated items.
Ken’s Craft Talk and Reed’s Exchange Update
Frank’s son, Reed, shared his Rotary international exchange experience in Denmark. He has already made plenty of friends from all over the world and learned enough Danish to thrive at school. Most importantly, he’s learned to be independent and solve problems.
Our newest member, Ken, shared his life’s journey with us and his passion for service. He is the blood product transport specialist and disaster relief coordinator for the Red Cross, after retiring from teaching for more than three decades.
District 5320 Leadership Forum
Kiran, Les, and our newest member, Ken, participated in the leadership forum in Fountain Valley. We learned about ways to contribute to the relief effort for the victims of the ongoing wildfire in LA, strategy for membership growth, and raising money for the Rotary Foundation through the Rotary Endowment. Les also presented a refresher overview of the Rotary Action Plan, with Anabella helping by illustrating the power of the Action Plan through a networking project involving the UC Irvine Rotaract club.
Starbucks Cleanup
Undeterred by the raging fire north of us, members of the Signal Hill Rotary cleaned up the area surrounding our meeting location at the corner of Long Beach Blvd and Willow Street. Featured in the photos are two of the hardest working attorneys in our club. The customers at Starbucks may not be tidy, but we Rotarians are cleaning up our neighborhood, one coffee cup at a time.
