When you wish upon a coin …

Water sustains life and wears down mountains. It falls from the sky and bubbles up from the ground. From space, our planet mostly reveals its beautiful blue, and we, ourselves, are made almost entirely of it.

Perhaps because of its mysterious and powerful nature, some cultures ascribed magical properties to water. In Europe, certain pools or cisterns were considered blessed or inhabited by spirits that would grant requests in exchange for a sacrifice of some sort—usually a coin.

Here on the Central Coast, we don’t have an abundance of ancient wishing wells. But we do have each other.

Each year, the Sun reports on local nonprofits, presenting their wants and needs in the coming season. Typically, we select a few organizations and make a few phone calls. For the tail end of 2012, however, we decided to shake things up and open the floodgates, asking any and all nonprofits to contact us directly with their lists.

We weren’t exactly drowning in submissions, but we did get a fair number of responses.

Here, then, are the hopes and dreams of eight groups. Our own hope is that readers won’t treat this as simply an interesting cap on the year, thinking it would be really great if someone could toss in a quarter and get something in return. We hope that you, our readers, will be motivated to give of your interest, time, and money.

Contact Executive Editor Ryan Miller at rmiller@newtimesslo.com.

Central Coast Literacy Council

Don’t take reading a story like this for granted, because not everybody can pick up a newspaper and work through the words.

The Central Coast Literacy Council has a simple goal: “To teach adults in Northern Santa Barbara County to read, write, speak, communicate, and understand English so they can develop their full potential and benefit themselves, their families and the community.”

The group is looking for new members; membership costs $25 per person per year. Send a check or sign up online at centralcoastliteracy.org/Membership.html. You can also help by providing

• print cartridges: HP88 Color and HP96 Black and HP97 Tri-Color

• postage stamps: a book or a roll—your choice!

• $750 to buy a new desktop computer for the office and have a place for a volunteer to work

• new copies of the book Goodnight Moon

• new sets of colored pencils and markers

• 10 new sponsors for spelling bee teams at $250 per team

• gift certificates to office supply stores or to Toy Zoo in Santa Maria

For more information, call 925-0951, Ext. 836 or 837.

CASA of Santa Barbara County

While this group is known as Court Appointed Special Advocates, the acronym is also Spanish for “home”—something abused and neglected children in this area long for. People who work with this nonprofit represent children in the court system, providing a warm, human presence for the kids and ensuring their needs are met as they work through the child welfare process and all of its labyrinthine legal twists and turns.

Kim Colby Davis, executive director for CASA of Santa Barbara County, reported that the group always needs new volunteers in Santa Maria and Orcutt, but also now in Lompoc.

“This is critical,” she wrote. “We need a minimum of 75 more volunteers this year to meet the needs of children in the foster care system.”

The group is moving into a new office space in Santa Maria and needs furniture for its boardroom/training area. Think large: Davis is asking for a table that will seat 22 people—and the chairs to go with it.

CASA is also opening a new office in Lompoc and is looking for an office space that will accommodate three desks on a “meager nonprofit budget.” Oh, and don’t forget the desks themselves, too.

“Finally, we always need the financial support of the community, and donations can be made to our year end campaign on our website,” Davis wrote.

Got to sbcasa.org.

Santa Maria Civic Theatre

The actors—and directors, tech folks, behind-the-scenes people, designers, and all-around volunteers—who populate the Santa Maria Civic Theatre don’t just entertain the community. They open our eyes to new ways of thinking. They challenge us. They expose us to novel ideas. And, yes, they delight us.

They may make the whole “let’s put on a show!” thing look easy, but each and every production is quite an undertaking. Plus, there’s the less-glamorous side of the stage, which is no less necessary.

Thus, board of trustees member Nancy Kunishige reported that the SMCT could use new toilets, sinks, and mirrors for the bathrooms, as well as new flooring in both bathrooms and the hallway.

The group also needs new flooring (carpet or recycled rubber) for the dressing room, and an upgrade for the electrical system in the light and sound booth.

And while the theater folks aren’t looking to sell their current building, they are looking to move. That way, they can rent the current space to other organizations or hold workshops inside, while maximizing their use of a new site. Donations to a re-location fund can move them closer to finding a location that:

• is well lighted

• has a sufficient amount of parking spaces

• is handicap accessible

• has high visibility to pedestrians and vehicles, day or night

• has high ceilings to accommodate lighting and sound booth

• has at least two emergency exits

• is ideally near restaurants

• is, of course, code compliant (electrical, earthquake, etc.)

Have a spot in mind? Call Clare Terrill at 928-4545.

Friends of the Santa Maria Public Library

Some people are keeping it simple with their requests this time around. Really simple.

The Friends of the Santa Maria Public Library, in the words of President Joyce Hall, would love to have a printer.

The nonprofit aims to support the library’s programs and materials.

“One of the ways we raise funds is by selling some donated books online,” Hall wrote. “The volunteers who work on this could speed up the listing of books for sale if we had a printer for their use.”

For more information, or to offer up a printer, call 925-7116.

The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County

“A startling one in four people rely on the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County for support every year, and nearly half of them are children,” the nonprofit reports. “They need your support.”

A contribution will ensure that the Foodbank can provide nutritious food to its network of 300 nonprofits and programs across the county. Here’s the math, though it sounds more like magic: For every $1 donated, the Foodbank can distribute $17 worth of food. Donate via foodbanksbc.org/donateonline.html. But it’s more than just money:

• volunteers: “Reward yourself, contribute your time.” Visit foodbanksbc.org/volunteer.html.

• food donations: “We always have a need for food, especially peanut butter, canned tuna, dry pasta, beans, rice.”

• community-held food and funds drives: “Collect nonperishable goods at your place of employment, school, and/or church, or participate in a Food & Funds Drive Challenge against another organization.” Visit foodbanksbc.org/food_drive.html.

For more information, visit foodbanksbc.org.

American Legion/Scouts

“If you have visited Pioneer Park in Orcutt lately, you may have noticed the structure being built on the east side of the park,” wrote Alan T. Munch, chairman of the Americanism Committee for the American Legion, Orcutt Post 534. “This structure is truly representative of the investment our community is making in the future of its young people, and of the value in preserving the historic legacy of our community’s Scouting heritage.

“As the sign in front of the new structure indicates, it is the reconstruction of the “Scout Hut,” the name given to the original building it replaces by the many generations of Boy Scouts of Troop 91, whose members go back as far as 1922. The original building served as Troop 91’s meeting place for more than 70 years, but was condemned and torn down nearly five years ago. The new hut is designed to replicate the original structure, and will serve to not only provide a meeting place for the Troop, but also to preserve the history and legacy of the oldest continuously chartered Boy Scout Troop in the Santa Maria Valley. Once completed, the “hut” will be made available to all Scouting units in our area: Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Explorers, and the BSA District and Council volunteers for their meetings. It is truly going to be the “Scout Hut,” and will serve the young people of our community for many years.

“Through the generous contribution of both labor and materials by local contractors, and the fundraising support of local service groups, the Hut’s reconstruction has progressed significantly—but it is still not inhabitable. To complete the structure, additional funds are needed. A volunteer group of the parents of the current Troop’s boys and the Chartered Organization, the Orcutt American Legion, have conducted several fundraisers, and are planning additional fundraisers in the near future to help with the costs, but need the help of the community to see the reconstruction project through to completion. We are reaching out to civic groups, service organizations, business entities, and individuals wishing to support the positive influence and values-based endeavors of the Boy Scouts by making a monetary contribution.

“As an expression of our gratitude, a complimentary commemorative wall tile, custom engraved with the name of the individual or organization (including a logo if desired). will be placed on the Hut’s walls in recognition of contributions of $100 or more.”

The Legion is asking that any contributions made by check be made out to “American Legion Orcutt Post 534” with a notation indicating “Scout Hut reconstruction.” Send them to 4663 Kennington Drive, Santa Maria, CA 93455.

Poetic Justice Project

You’re not going to find something like this anywhere else in the country.

The Poetic Justice Project began in Santa Maria in 2009, with an aim to “advance social justice by engaging formerly incarcerated youth and adults in original theater that examines crime, punishment and redemption.”

Artistic Director Deborah Tobola explained in an e-mail that the group does this through arts education and mentoring and theater production.

The first production, Blue Train, debuted at the San Luis Obispo Little Theater, and things snowballed from there. The project went on a 10-city prison-town tour in 2010 and had an even busier 2011, presenting Of Mice and Men at the 31st annual International Steinbeck Festival in Salinas and debuting Women Behind the Walls on Alcatraz Island.

More performances followed throughout 2012, with performances around the Central Coast and California. Participants have also been involved in improvisational acting presentations for third- through eighth-grade students in the Gang Resistance and Education Training program in San Miguel and Shandon, creative writing workshops at the Santa Barbara County Jail and San Luis Obispo County Women’s Honor Farm, and more.

For 2013, they’re planning to offer a 16-week theater arts workshop to incarcerated youth in Santa Barbara County.

“More than 70 formerly incarcerated people, mostly Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County residents, have participated in Poetic Justice Project’s productions,” Tobola reported. “For those participants, our recidivism rate is under 2 percent.”

Want to help this unique organization? They could use:

• Home: “Use of a building in Santa Maria at no or a very low cost—perhaps sharing with a like-minded nonprofit program? We would use it for rehearsals and performances, arts workshops and music/poetry/visual arts events. We have insurance!”

• Wheels: “A working bus or 15-passenger van would help us transport our participants to rehearsals, performances, and workshops.”

• Toys: “A professional quality video camera for creating documentary films, along with wireless microphones for use in performances.”

• Love: “We’d love a cash donation (of any size) from people who believe in the transformative power of the arts and know that formerly incarcerated people have gifts and talents to contribute to their community. Donations will help fund workshops and theater productions.”

For more information, call 264-5463 or visit poeticjusticeproject.org

American Cancer Society Relay For Life

This article appears in Dec 20-27, 2012.