The Juicy Leaf featured in Facebook’s Resilient Voices campaign

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The Juicy Leaf, a boutique succulent and retail store in Los Angeles’ Highland Park neighborhood, is featured in Facebook’s campaign Resilient Voices: Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month. The incredible amount of attention for the business included being featured as Facebook’s cover video and in multiple posts.

Felix Navarro, who owns the business and manages it with his life and work partner, Felipe Abrahao, has a story of resilience about following his dreams no matter the obstacles and sacrifices required. “Since I was a little kid, I always had my hands in the dirt. I learned everything I know from my mom. To leave my secure job for my passion was absolutely terrifying. I would second-guess myself a lot. I went from being an executive in corporate America, making really good money, to selling succulents at flea markets.

The Juicy Leaf is famous for its succulent arrangements, designer terrariums, and highly curated home decor, and fine art. Since the pandemic, they’ve added succulent arrangement kit delivery with accompanying Instagram Live workshops for people in Los Angeles and around the country. The kits and workshops have exploded in popularity, The Juicy Leaf is becoming even more famous, and owner Felix Navarro is becoming a bonafide plant celebrity. In addition to the Facebook campaign, The Juicy Leaf was recently featured in the Los Angeles Times and in Boys With Plants magazine.

 

 

ThunderCloud Subs Turkey Trot going virtual

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This year will be the 30th anniversary of the ThunderCloud Subs Turkey Trot, the beloved Austin Thanksgiving Day tradition that typically brings close to 25,000 people together to walk or run with family and friends while also raising money to support ending homelessness. ThunderCloud Subs has raised more than $4 million for Caritas of Austin since the Trot began. This year’s event will be going virtual to keep everyone safe, with plans and details coming soon. Just as it has been for 30 years, the Trot will be all about community and fun, so stay tuned!

 

National LGBT Cancer Network announces leadership changes

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Liz Margolies founded the first and only organization in the country to address the cancer-related issues of LGBTQ+ people in 2006. Under her passionate leadership the National LGBT Cancer Network achieved huge things, including producing internationally acclaimed films, creating an awareness campaign with billboards in Times Square, winning major funding from the Centers for Disease Control, and convening more than 170 organizations to urge action to prevent COVID-19 discrimination. She is stepping down as executive director, but the work of the Network will continue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harvey’s AlphaGraphics franchises pivot to address pandemic

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Jane Harvey’s AlphaGraphics franchises in Austin and San Antonio are getting lots of attention for their new products in response to the coronavirus. The Associated Press covered the story.

Printing and sign company AlphaGraphics of Austin and San Antonio is one of the businesses that has successfully pivoted to meet the intense demands created by COVID-19.

“We see it as part public service and part entrepreneurial business move,” says Jane Harvey, whose holding company A Dog Solutions owns three AlphaGraphics franchises, two in Austin and one in San Antonio. “It wasn’t easy, but there is a lot of satisfaction in making items available to help preserve the health of our communities.”

Harvey’s AlphaGraphics locations are making two kinds of face shields, floor graphics to facilitate social distancing for businesses, and custom acrylic counter guards. With Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s order to re-open the economy May 1, Harvey expects even more demand as additional businesses open with reduced capacity and need to control customer flow and employee safety.

Maudie’s Moonlight Margarita Run goes virtual

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The theme for the Maudie’s Tex-Mex Moonlight Margarita Run benefiting The Trail Foundation is “run now, party later.” The Run will be virtual for the first (and hopefully only) time ever. Watch this fun clip from KXAN’s Studio 512 about how it will work. You’ll wish you had a Maudie’s margarita!

VOX Femina launches Social DistantSing

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VOX Femina, Los Angeles’ premier women’s choir, has had to cancel the majority of the annual season due to COVID-19. It’s more important than ever for the nonprofit organization to raise money, so they’ve cleverly turned their annual Song Cycle event into “Social DistantSing.” In lieu of our usual run-, walk-, bike-a-thon along the Ballona Creek Trail, VOX singers, staff, and board members will set their own home-bound goals from treadmill-a-thons to bake-athons. Check out the creative ways our members are challenging themselves and then support your favorite Voxxies!

170 LGBT groups urge action on COVID-19

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A montage of a large group of individual portraits together to form a pride flag that represents a multi-ethnic, mixed age range group.

More than 170 national, state, and local LGBTQ+ and allied organizations have joined in a second open letter to health and policy leaders highlighting the importance of measures to prohibit discrimination in COVID-19 treatment and prevention, and clear communication of those measures and policies to better serve the health needs of marginalized communities with histories of discriminatory encounters with the medical and public health systems.

The letter also urges medical providers and public health authorities to collect sexual orientation and gender identity data for COVID-19 cases in addition to data on race, ethnicity, age, sex and disability, in order to document and address the pandemic’s impact on minority communities. The signing organizations also emphasize the urgent need for more robust relief for lower-income individuals and families, and for persons who are dependent on lower-paying jobs in hospitality and other industries which are being decimated by the pandemic.

These organizations call on public health authorities, medical providers and government agencies to reinforce safeguards against discrimination; to foster collaborative relationships with LGBTQ+ service providers and advocates; to collect important data on patients, including sexual orientation and gender identity; and to expand the economic relief and legal protections needed by individuals and families particularly hard-hit by the pandemic.

The letter was initiated by a coalition of six organizations: The Whitman-Walker Institute; the National LGBT Cancer Network; GLMA Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality; SAGE; New York Transgender Advocacy Group; and National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance. The full letter text, full signer list, and additional organizational response resources can be found online at this link: https://cancer-network.org/coronavirus-2019-lgbtq-info.

Welcome new client Maudie’s Tex-Mex!

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We’re having so much fun working with new client Maudie’s Tex-Mex, an iconic family-owned business for more than 25 years, famous for their classic AND healthy Tex-Mex options and margaritas! Maudie’s has seven locations in Austin, and has generations of loyal fans.

 

ThunderPets campaign to benefit Emancipet

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NOW ON HOLD (because COVID-19): STAY TUNED FOR NEW DATES! We’re looking forward to the fourth annual ThunderPets campaign benefiting Emancipet in what might be our favorite win-win combination of clients ever. Buy a cool limited edition ThunderPets bandana for only $5 at any of the 30 ThunderCloud Subs Austin-area from March 23-April 5, and the proceeds will benefit Emancipet, the nonprofit on a mission to make spay/neuter and veterinary care affordable and accessible to all pet owners. Upload photos of your pet wearing its #ThunderPets bandana using the hashtag, and you could win free ThunderCloud subs and see your photo all over social media.

Wickedly Trans – Voices from the Rainbow Sept. 21

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Join the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles – TCLA for a special performance of Wickedly Trans—Voices from the Rainbow, on Saturday, Sept. 21, at 2 p.m., 3 p.m., and 4 p.m. at ESMoA, 208 Main St., El Segundo. Enjoy a selection of songs inspired by the music of The Wizard of Oz, The Wiz, and Wicked. The shows are appropriate for all ages.

Admission to the performances are free and donations to TCLA are appreciated.

ABOUT TCLA:
Founded in 2015, Trans Chorus of Los Angeles-TCLA is making an impact in the choral world by using our unique voices to be visible, bold and proud. TCLA is the first all trans-identified chorus in America. We are a Chorus of transgender, gender non-conforming, gender non-binary, gender fluid, and intersex individuals. We celebrate diversity and acceptance in appearance and vocal presentation so that others can see and feel the joy we share. Through our music we bring to everyone, awareness, understanding, power and victory for the trans community.