Cartography for Nonprofits (CaN) is a mapping nonprofit whose passion is to provide robust and updated local information to help people make good daily choices. Since February 2010 CaN has been serving the mapping needs for local homeless charities like Sacramento Loaves and Fishes and Davis' Grace-In-Action. These maps show social service locations for the homeless guests and are downloadable for printing at cartographyfornonprofits.org/24101.html . Please visit our website at: cartographyfornonprofits.org/ We offer Map Memberships at many levels to tailor your needs and look forward to serving you.  We proudly announce and  welcome two new and local Map Members, Practical Cycle, and

Do you remember the feeling of riding a bike for the very first time? I do. I can recall the feeling of freedom, of gliding through the air under my own power, of the wind rushing past my hair and face. That was a magical feeling that can only happen once – the first time I learned to do something. But more than that, it is one my best childhood discoveries and memories. My entire body was uplifted and carried magically through space and time, and I felt that the whole world was mine and mine alone, until I crashed because I didn't know how to stop the bike. Do you remember the first hard crash on your bike, leaving your knees bloody and your palms numbed and bruised from hitting the pav

Every time I eat rice now, I've become 13 again on a tiny fishing boat, bounding on the choppy green swells of the South China Sea. I was terribly nauseated, light-headed and felt quite limp sitting on the uneven surface of fishing nets. They felt damp, ropey, and stringy on my boney buns. My stomach felt mossy green, my throat overloaded with anxiety, big fat tears poised behind my weary eyeballs and anytime now everything could all scream out to match the roar of the wind, the tempestuous ocean. But neither tears nor screams came because survival was paramount. My mother hydrated the rice in a heavy-gauge plastic bag with hot water, and within minutes we had rice in bowls that we passe

(Continues from Part I) I must confess that I've never considered myself being homeless during my family's first four months in America as refugees from Vietnam in 1975. We were grateful to be alive and together in one gigantic tent with another family. We lived in “Tent City” at Camp Pendleton, San Diego, until we found sponsors for ourselves in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. April marks 35 years for me being in America, and a dear friend who also made her first home at Camp Pendleton posted links to the photo exhibit of the refugee camp in San Diego this week. http://bit.ly/aBZZQA http://bit.ly/bBAZrD I could instantly smell the scents of what was then the exotic Ivory soap and wet dewy Apri

“Donate Now.” This was the click that changed my career path in January when the earthquake struck Haiti. I expected to feel that philanthropic glow at the American Red Cross website, but instead I felt ineffective and dissatisfied with my effort in contributing to humanity. Sacramento Loaves and Fishes immediately came to mind, and I went directly to the website to write an inquiry e-mail to the Volunteer Director.  The following Thursday morning at 10am I showed up at the volunteer's orientation at Loaves and Fishes. Two men in ponchos and fluorescent green vests smiled broadly as my car crawled into the dead-end street. I rolled down my window and said, “I’m here for the volunteer or