- CanDo’s Give!Guide Has It All, Even Bunnies!
- July 15 is CanDo's next Napa Food Project Orientation
- News from 🌸 FLOWER POWER 🌺
- Inspiring Inclusion: July is Disability Pride Month
- Spotlight on Local Nonprofits
- Highlights from CanDo's Community Calendar
- Compost Corner: Compost - Backyard vs. Curbside
- Quick Tip: the Right to Repair movement Comes to Napa!
- Bits & Pieces: What NPR readers wish you knew about living with a disability
- Words Matter
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Featured Project
CanDo’s Give!Guide Has It All, Even Bunnies!
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Coming up: July 15 is CanDo's next Napa Food Project Orientation!
Join a one-hour orientation to get started!
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Becoming a Neighborhood Coordinator is easy—and makes a big impact. Here’s how it works:
1. Attend Orientation
Spend just 60 minutes learning the ropes. We’ll walk you through the process and give you all the supplies you need.
2. Recruit Your People
Invite neighbors, coworkers, teammates, or club members to join this simple, powerful project.
Sign them up and hand out their green bags—it’s that easy.
3. Collect & Deliver
Every other month (on the second Saturday of even-numbered months), collect the filled green bags and drop them off at the CANV Food Bank Warehouse.
Cheerful volunteers will unload your car and hand you supplies for next time. No need to get out of your vehicle!
Ready to help fight food insecurity in your community?
Join us at an upcoming orientation and be part of something truly CanDo!
nvcando.org/food-project (more info and signup)
email: napafoodproject@nvcando.org
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News from 🌸 FLOWER POWER 🌺*
Susan has more volunteers now, and continues to bathe her roses (you heard that right), processing and distributing dozens of donated flowers 4 days/week! Here you see delighted staff members at various facilities receiving flowers for themselves and for their clients.
Want to learn more or volunteer? Contact Susan: grapeheartknits@gmail.com
| Susan bathes her roses in hot water to revive them | *🌸 FLOWER POWER 🌺 isn’t a CanDo Project, but it is a spin-off of CanDo's Food Rescue Team. As such, we are supporting Volunteer Susan Blake as she accepts donated slightly over-the-hill flowers from local retailers, rehabs them in her home, and then gifts them to people and places all over Napa. We think this is a wonderful endeavor! | | |
Peonies for Nazareth Classic Care
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Queen of the Valley Medical Center and Dr. Burke’s office
| | | | You can volunteer for one of our dynamic projects, even for just an hour or two, or help one of the many local organizations we support. Each individual action connects to others. Together, we‘re making our Valley and world better. | | |
In July, We’ll Bookend Disability Pride Month with Two CanDo Newsletters
This month, we’re excited to dive into the world of disabilities with the CanDo Connection. We’ll explore what “disabilities” really are, how they touch the lives of those who experience them, and share valuable resources available in our local communities.
To kick things off, today we’re introducing the history of Disability Pride Month and the ADA. Then on July 29, you’ll receive a CanDo Connection Special Edition focusing on mental health and celebrating the 150th anniversary of Napa State Hospital.
As always, we welcome your comments and questions in response to what we write. Contact us at info@nvcando.org.
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July is Disability Pride Month!
By Hannah Wallenbrock, CanDo’s Pro-Inclusion Napa
Disability Pride Month aims to highlight and celebrate the experiences, history, achievements, and struggles of folks with disabilities – including both visible and invisible ones. This national, annual observance also commemorates the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which was signed into law on July 26, 1990, marking this year as its 35th anniversary.
The ADA is a law that protects disabled people in many areas of public life, and prohibits discrimination against them. It guarantees that they have the same opportunities as everyone else to enjoy employment opportunities, purchase goods and services, utilize public transit, and participate in state and local government programs.
A disabled person is someone who:
- Has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities,
- Has a history or record of such an impairment (such as cancer that is in remission), or
- Is perceived by others as having such an impairment (such as a person who has scars from a severe burn).
Examples of disabilities include cancer, PTSD, Autism, deafness or hearing loss, HIV, blindness or low vision, ADHD, mobility disabilities, and traumatic brain injury. Not every disability is obvious to an outside observer (e.g. a blind person using a white cane to navigate the world) – many disabilities are invisible (e.g. an Autistic person).
The first Disability Pride celebration was a Disability Pride Day in Boston in 1990. Subsequently, Chicago hosted the first Disability Pride Parade in 2004. Now there are events nationwide to empower and uplift the voices of disabled people nationwide! 2025’s theme is “We Belong Here, and We’re Here to Stay.”
Why celebrate? Disability Pride Month is about persons with disabilities embracing them as integral parts of who they are, reclaiming visibility in public. Many of them still face barriers to being fully included and valued – including having their own voices heard in discussions about disability. Ableism is often ignored and even outright accepted, which limits access to education, jobs, health care, and respect.
At its core, Disability Pride is about disabled folks being accepted on their own terms. This month challenges the harmful notion that the disabled need to conform to externally-imposed norms to live meaningful lives or be “cured” of their disabilities. Everyone, regardless of ability, deserves inclusion, rights, and respect.
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Napa Resources for People with Disabilities
Did we forget something? Let us know at info@nvcando.org!
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Napa’s Better Together Ball was held on February 14, 2025.
It’s a prom-like community dance party, free for people with disabilities of high school age and older.
It’s sponsored by a variety of community organizations and businesses. Find out more on Facebook.
| | More Opportunities to Support Our Community | | |
Volunteer Opportunities & Events to Support Local Nonprofit Groups
Tell 'em you heard about it through CanDo!
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NAPA REPAIR FAIR
Sponsor: Reuse Alliance
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DAY/DATE/TIME:
Saturday, July 12, 1-4PM
LOCATION: Napa County Library, 580 Coombs Street, Napa
FFI:
Email info@reusealliance.org, call 707.257.9529, or visit their website
| | | If you represent a local nonprofit, you may submit a SPOTLIGHT EVENT or VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY by completing our online form. | | Space permitting, posts run up to three weeks prior to your event. Flyer or image is required and must be sent as a jpg. | |
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Sunday, 6PM for the following Tuesday's edition.
FFI: Learn more and submit your event here.
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Looking for Local Volunteer Opportunities?
VolunteerNow.org, maintained by the Center for Volunteer & Nonprofit Leadership (CVNL) connects local community members with the causes they are passionate about.
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Upcoming Events, Volunteer Opportunities, and Other Ways to Support Our Local Nonprofits | | | |
Compost Corner
Napa Recycling provides answers to your questions about recycling, composting, and the like.
What’s the Difference Between My Backyard Compost Pile and Curbside Composting? And What’s Wrong With Just Putting Compost in the Landfill?
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When food scraps, yard waste and other organic materials go to a landfill, their decomposition produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The production of methane is due to anaerobic decomposition, the absence of oxygen.
A compost pile on the other hand decomposes aerobically, with oxygen, and primarily produces carbon dioxide. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions can help reduce impacts from climate change.
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Commercial facilities are better at composting tough materials because they can reach higher temperatures. That’s why meats and bioplastics are accepted in commercial composting programs. Watch this video to learn more.
More info:
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From CanDo’s Dept. of TMI:
Yes, your toenail clippings can go in the compost bin.
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CanDo is excited that the Right to Repair movement has come to Napa!
Our very first local Repair Fair will be held at the Napa Library on Saturday July 12, 1:00 - 4:00PM, as part of Rooted in Action Week. It’s part of the Reuse Alliance, whose mission is to “prevent resources from becoming waste by advocating for and supporting reuse practices that recirculate materials in our communities.”
Both volunteers and participants are needed! See details in the Spotlight section.
More info and registration
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Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision.
– Stevie Wonder
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PO Box 855
Napa, CA 94559
Email: info@nvcando.org
Phone: (707) 225-8942
Tax ID: 46-2670379
| | | | New to CanDo? Want to receive this nifty eNewsletter? It comes out bright and early the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month, full of ways you can volunteer and connect with community. | | |
You Want to Help. We Make it Easy is a registered trademark of the Neighborhood Food Project. Used by permission.
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