Volunteer and Community Work

July 21, 2011-Association of California Symphony Orchestras

Valdez Hill, member of the Board of Directors of the Young People's Symphony Orchestra was awarded the MOST VALUABLE PLAYER Award, our highest honor at the 43rd annual ACSO Conference in Pasadena CA from July 21-23, 2011 at the Westin Pasadena in Pasadena, hosted by the Pasadena Symphony and POPS. Over 350 orchestra and chorus trustees, volunteers, musicians, conductors, and staff members came together for these three days of panels, peer forums and musical events.

Initiated in 1996, the Most Valuable Player Award was created to recognize exemplary volunteers, volunteer projects, and organizations working for California's symphony orchestras and choruses throughout California.

Founded in 1969 at Asilomar as a means of sharing information and resources for California orchestras, ACSO is the largest state orchestra association in the U.S. Over the past 40 years, ACSO membership has grown to include over 400 individuals and organizations from California and other states. Its 25-member Board of Directors is representative of organizations with different budget sizes, from different geographic areas, and consists of trustees, music directors, musicians, volunteers and staff.

Membership is open to orchestras, choruses and classical music presenters of all sizes, symphony leagues and guilds, youth orchestras, festivals, artists' managements, businesses, and individuals associated with orchestras or wishing to access our services. Over 200 orchestras and choruses are represented in California.

Mission Statement

The Association of California Symphony Orchestras is a nonprofit membership association providing leadership and services to classical music producers and presenters in California and the region encouraging and supporting their artistic, organizational, and fiscal development.

Vision Statement
The Association of California Symphony Orchestras will be recognized as the preeminent leader in providing programs and services to assist, educate, and act as advocate for classical music producers and presenters in California and the region.

Young Peoples Symphony Orchestra (YPSO) Board of Directors Member
Founded in 1935 in Berkeley, CA, Young People’s Symphony Orchestra (YPSO) is the oldest independent youth orchestra in California and the second oldest in the nation. Founded in Berkeley in 1935, it has inspired generations of musicians and educated tens of thousands of audience members. Our alumni include many internationally distinguished musicians and prominent community members. David Ramadanoff has been Music Director/Conductor since 1989. Under his leadership YPSO has grown to a membership of 93 young players from throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and has gained wide recognition as an outstanding youth ensemble. The members, ages 12-21, from 31 cities and 5 Bay Area counties, attend weekly rehearsals and coaching to learn challenging symphonic repertoire. YPSO presents four to six concerts each season in select Bay Area concert venues.

YPSO has performed in prestigious locations including Carnegie Hall, the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, CA, San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, the Calvin Simmons Auditorium, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the International Kiwanis Convention and has been broadcast live on KGO and KKHI Radio. In 2008, YPSO was on tour in Australia and New Zealand, including a prestigious performance as the chosen "showcase orchestra" for the Australian International Music Festival in the world-famous Sydney Opera House. Several members of the orchestra has performed on the AIDS/lifecycle cocnert series as soloist or ensembles, along with several Board members. A portion of the funds raise were donated to YPSO.

Wendy Howe, is the first official Executive Director of The Young People's Symphony Orchestra, a post she has held since 2005. She has served on the Board of Directors for YPSO during the 2004-2005 season. Previously she was Program Manager for the Piedmont Choirs, Outreach Coordinator for the Oakland East Bay Symphony, and Concert Coordinator for the Mills College Music Department. Ms. Howe holds an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from San Francisco State University, and a B.A. in music from University of California, Berkeley. She is a professional cellist and private cello instructor.

Our mission is to guide young musicians to achieve excellence within an orchestral setting. We provide an educational environment that fosters accomplishment, serves as a cultural resource for the community, and builds future audience by instilling a passion for music. We encourage young people to become exemplary musicians, and young musicians to become exemplary people.

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Oakland East Bay Gay Mens Chorus-Board of Director Member
Oakland-East Bay Gay Men's Chorus (OEBGMC) is the 40 to 50 voice gay men's chorus that holds the same name as its 501(c)(3) organization. OEBGMC performs a wide variety of music, from Classical to Broadway, in four seasonal and numerous church, community and outreach performances every year. OEBGMC is the most active and well known Gay Arts organization in the Oakland and East Bay region of California. Centrally located in Oakland, it serves many communities, with members from San Jose to Napa.

Mission Statement
"Inspired by fellowship discovered in the celebration of choral music, the members of the Oakland-East Bay Gay Men's Chorus engage and entertain the community."

Artistic Director & Conductor
Michael Robert Patch

San Franciso AIDS Foundation: AIDS/Lifecycle Training Ride Leader (TRL)
Help Me Continue The Fight Againist AIDS
About Me
As a cyclist for nearly for 10 years, I did my first AIDS ride on California AIDS Ride-No.9. I have been a AIDS/ Lifecycle Training Ride Leader for9 years and have volunteer my time in the HIV/AIDS community for over 20 years. I have raised over $185,000.000 since 1994 for various AIDS/HIV projects.

I also volunteer with several cycling groups as a ride leader and Webmaster and Web designer for the Fremont Freewheelers Bike Club.

Why I Participate in AIDS/LifeCycle
I stated riding because I had both my hips replaced in 2001 due to a bone disease and my doctor felt that riding a bike would help strengthen my hips, legs and get me back in shape. I also felt I needed a goal to acheive after living for 7 years with this health problem. It gave me a way to help raise money again for HIV prevention and education. I also wanted to help new riders and share my experience by supporting and giving them motivation. Something I did not receive from my ride leaders when I started riding. I always felt left out and rode alone on the rides I went on. I never wanted anyone else to feel like I did on their training rides.

Finally, In a world of so much uncertainty about the future, once again I feel challenged in my attempt to make a difference. I continue to be concerned about the fact that many people are still being affected with HIV, especially people of color, women and children. And let's not forget about the children in Africa, who have lost parents, and those who are still alive have limited or no access to proper treatments.

With all the cuts in social programs for HIV education and prevention, the money raised through the Lifecycle bike ride will truly make a difference. The goal of riding with the many courageous people, who believe in the same goal of stopping the spread of AIDS and finding a cure like me is still very powerful in my life.

My 3 Bikes are a New RED Cannondale CAAD8, Blue Cannondale CAAD7/Si2000, and a TREK Project One-OCLV Carbon 120-Flames.

Come and join me and my fellow TRL's on our new upcoming rides for ALC-7. CAR-9 ALC- 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 ALC-5 Roadie, Massage Team Member ALC-6 Roadie, Gear & Tent Team

Healing Waters
As a volunteer with HW, I help to Empower, inspire and enrich the lives of people with HIV/AIDS through wilderness adventures. As a volunteer trip Host, and cook as needed.

We offer outdoor trips specifically for people with HIV and AIDS. In 2009, we are conducting a number of participant rafting trips on the South Fork of the American River as well as our Teens Liquid Camp for HIV positive teenagers.

Working with qualified volunteers, we work to provide an emotionally and physically safe environment in the outdoors for individuals to take a moment to celebrate living, community and challenge their own beliefs about their strengths and abilities.

For more information on these trips or to sign up for one, please click here

Benefit Trips
Our program is funded through grants, individual donations and program revenue. We celebrate our donors and invite them and their friends and family to join us on fundraising trips and donor recognition trips in the outdoors to allow them a sense of our participant adventures

Positive Being
Positive Being is a non-profit service organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for those living with HIV through healing touch.
The organization seeks to heal and nurture by helping those with HIV reclaim their bodies as a site of well-being, a source of healing strength, and a temple of the divine. The organization fosters the integration of the physical, healing, and spiritual nature of our bodies to effect positive change in the health and well-being of men with HIV.

These aims serve as a complement (rather than an alternative) to drug therapies. Whereas pharmaceuticals function by negating the virus, the programs of Positive Being function by affirming the positive aspects and healing potential within our own bodies. The organization emphasizes the importance of loving touch as a healing tool for a population beleaguered by impersonal clinical therapies and the damaging side effects of toxic drugs.

Positive Being encompasses a "hands-on" approach to battling HIV disease--and the attendant alienation, isolation, and depression that comes with it--by promoting awareness and increasing understanding of how touch can transform lives for the better.
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Shanti "LIFE"
I have been volunteer with Shanti for over 6 years in the LIFE program and also as a office volunteer and peer advocate for the HIV services department.

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Vital Life Services
Volunteer for over 3 years, massage therapist. Organization closes duie to budget cuts in 2009.

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Certified Massage Therapist, CMT
Besides volunteering for AIDS/Lifecycle, and other organizations in the Bay Area. I volunteer as a massage therapist (CMT), as well as have my own massage business. I provide free massage for low income individuals and PWA under Positive Being, Vital Life Services.

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