SACRAMENTO REGION, CA (MPG) - An Internet company designed specifically for mobile homes and recreational/residential vehicles (RV’s) has moved into the area. Kwikbit Internet is a leading wireless broadband provider who just launched their low cost, fast internet service at Florin Mobile Estates, a mobile home park in Sacramento. This launch is the 29^th Mobile Home Park they are serving and the 12^th in California. Kwikbit is not like most places you would sign up for internet service. The company comes to you.

Kwikbit typically makes plans with a Mobile Home Park, usually on a weekend, where they come and set up a little neighborhood fair type of event, with fun activities like face painting. They sign up whatever residents are interested in receiving their service and they install them right then. It is just a small device that brings you all the magic.

Mobile Home Parks are typically underserved by better known carriers, forcing residents to pay higher prices through cable TV or landline companies. Still, they often have unreliable service. Kwikbit is designed so that residents can expect to be connected to 1 gigabit symmetrical internet for only $50 per month. Kwikbit has 1GB upload and download speed, 1/100^th of the deployment time of fiber, and 1/10^th of the cost of fiber. It is ideal for last mile connection where fiber cannot as easily reach.

In a Press Advisory from Kwikbit, they explain, “Since the pandemic, internet access has become a non-negotiable utility, necessary for online education, employment opportunities, remote healthcare access, and more. Yet the digital divide remains unaddressed in many vulnerable communities, among which are mobile home parks. Kwikbit Internet’s launch in Florin will mark a significant, critical, and urgent step in serving mobile homes across California.”

Kwikbit has companies in Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan and California. For more information about Kwikbit, visit https://www.kwikbitnetworks.com/about-us/. If you are a resident or manager of a mobile home park and would like to know more about signing up this service for your park, contact Pete Buchner, VP of Marketing, petebuchner@kwikbitinternet.com 

 

CARMICHAEL, CA (MPG) - A lobby shop is a stalwart fundraiser for the Carmichael Library. Run by Friends of the Library, store sales bring in around $1000 per month.

Donated books have pumped more than $100,000 into the Sacramento library system in recent years and the Carmichael branch is a leading contributor. “It’s exciting that used books could have such a positive impact,” says Carmichael Friends President Barbara Safford. “Funds they raise bring literacy and pleasure to thousands of children and adults.”

Deemed the busiest library in Sacramento County, the Marconi Avenue facility has more than 30,000 visitors per month. Patrons inevitably encounter and browse the Friends’ bookshelves. Items range from 25c to $3, with some newer donations priced higher. High-value books are sold via Amazon. “We keep our prices low so anyone can have something of their own to take home,” explains retired Sacramento Fire District staffer Safford. “For some children, our inventory is their only way to own books.”

Proceeds aid multiple projects. The all-volunteer Friends give 16,000 books to first grade students per year; they offer summer reading programs and early childhood reading sessions; they provide support for library needs and for advocacy.

“People leave us bags and boxes of books,” says Safford. “In many cases, they donate because they’re down-sizing. Voracious readers acquire new titles weekly – they part with books after one reading. This helps keep our stock in tune with what’s on best-seller lists.”

The lobby store runs on an honesty system. “People deposit payments into a box inside the library,” explains Safford. “Our customers are very honest; many leave more than the listed price. They know it’s going to a good cause.”

The library has an outside drop-off for donations. Carmichael Friends also hold used book sales in the library community room each February; the group will host a market for used children’s books in the Milagro Centre this fall.

Carmichael Library is located at 5605 Marconi Avenue for information on Carmichael Friends, call 916 264 2700.

RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - Oksana Melnychuk is a soft spoken and kind woman with big ambition. Besides holding down several professional positions, she is also one of the founders of Hands of Support – an offshoot ministry of a local church aimed at assisting Ukrainian refugees. Unfortunately, the group’s progress was recently halted when their fireworks stand was robbed over the 4th of July week.

With the Russia-Ukraine conflict continuing, the Sacramento region has become home to thousands of refugees in recent months. Melnychuk, who is herself Ukrainian, is part of a team of volunteers who were looking for a way to help.

“We needed food, all the supplies, everything,” she stated. “We provide kids camp, youth camp, and food ministry.”

The group was also providing another important thing – housing. Using a spare building that was for sale at Revival Christian Center in Rancho Cordova, Hands of Support created a makeshift living space for approximately 400 refugees over the course of four months. Each resident stayed for a maximum of 30 days, and the programming continued until the City of Rancho Cordova shut them down due to code incompliance.

“We did it silently until someone complained,” says Melnychuk, “But the city paid for one month at a hotel for those still living at the church.”

With the temporary housing now shuttered, Hands of Support continued to dream big as they held weekly fellowships and planned to raise money to purchase a house that would allow them to continue to offer shelter. Working one of the area’s TNT fireworks stands seemed like an ideal fundraiser.

As Melnuchuk shared from her own refugee experience, “I came in 2004. I had relatives, but people come here with no one and it’s scary.”

The fireworks fundraiser started off smoothly but took a turn when the storage container holding the group’s fireworks was robbed on the night of Wednesday, June 28. Although sales of the fireworks had barely started, the group discovered the next morning that their complete inventory was gone. In an unrelated incident a few days prior, another ministry of the church called God Will Provide had their trailer stolen.

Despite the extreme setback, Hands of Support received more fireworks from TNT and attempted to recoup the loss. “It was a fundraiser and then we started to fund the fundraiser,” said Melnychuk.

For TNT’s part, representative Jim Castilone stated that the TNT employees collected personal donations for the group, and TNT lowered the margin percentage by half, charging Hands in Support 25% instead of the usual 50% that groups are deducted from the final sales. As of press time, Hands in Motion potentially owed TNT approximately $10,000, pending a meeting with the company to see if anything else could be done to ease the financial burden.

While the fireworks were housed in a secure metal storage container with a square lock, they did not have an overnight watchman on duty as TNT recommends for all groups participating in the week-long fundraiser. When asked about the situation, Melnuchuk expressed concern for the group’s volunteers and level of morale following such a devastating loss.

“For me, the fundraising – I worry about killing the excitement of those who helped. They worked all week and there’s no money.”

As Hands of Support works through their challenges following the fireworks vandalism, Melnychuk has seemed to retain her tough and inspiring spirit in the same manner the world has observed in many Ukrainians who have shown strength and resilience through impossible circumstances in recent years. She speaks with hope about their continued dream to still purchase a home for refugees.

“It’s needed. Right now, they are talking about where and how to find it.”

The group does not currently have a website, but a fellow Christian group, Royal Stage Performing & Visual Arts, has offered to field donations and pass them on. Those wishing to help should make a donation via royalstage.org or Venmo @royal-stage-arts, and making a note in the comment section that the donation is for Hands of Support. All donations are tax-deductible and will go towards helping Ukrainian refugees find friendship, practical life resources, and temporary housing.

 

SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) – California State Parks’ Division of Boating and Waterways (DBW) is now accepting grant applications for the Clean Vessel Act (CVA) Education and Outreach Grant Program. A maximum of $276,937 federal funding per targeted region is available to organizations for educating coastal and San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary recreational boaters about proper vessel sewage disposal and the use of pumpout facilities and monitoring pumpout and dump stations.

In 1992, Congress passed the CVA to help reduce pollution from vessel sewage discharges into U.S. waters. The grant program serves as an important educational opportunity for all boaters on how to help keep California’s waterways clean. Discharging sewage overboard creates environmental and human health problems. To reduce the negative impacts of this harmful action, all recreational boaters are encouraged to use sewage management facilities, including pumpout stations, dump stations, and mobile pumpout services.

The grant program targets California counties including: Alameda, Napa, San Mateo, Sonoma, Contra Costa, Sacramento, Santa Clara, Marin, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Joaquin, Solano.

Proposals that cover a portion of the above regions will be considered if, over time, the agency can expand program(s) to the entire region. 

As part of DBW’s commitment to provide clean, safe, and enjoyable recreational boating in California, the division serves as the state CVA grant coordinator. DBW will fund two grants (one for each targeted California geographic region) to develop and implement a 12-month CVA Education and Outreach Program. Each regional grant must include education and outreach efforts, and a pumpout/dump station monitoring program. Applications will be evaluated and ranked according to how each application proposal demonstrates comprehensive and proven methods for meeting grant program goals. The deadline to submit applications is by 10 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023.

Below are some examples of accomplishments from the CVA Education and Outreach Grant Program grantees San Francisco Estuary Partnership and The Bay Foundation from the last two grant cycles:

Created and aired ten episodes of the podcast Dockside to educate the public on clean and safe boating practices;

Participated in three boating events and conducted nine presentations on clean boating and sewage pollution prevention best management practices, reaching over 700 individual boaters and stakeholders;

Produced a variety of educational videos about sewage management such as “Consider a Marine Composting Toilet” video and the “Marine Sanitation Device & Y-Valve Information for Boaters”;

Distributed more than 250 universal deck fitting adapter kits to boaters and marina managers. The adapter kit is a pollution prevention tool that helps boaters to pump out their boat hands-free;

Continued to provide boaters with a sewage pumpout Nav App (more than 19,800 downloads since March 2018) that helps them locate nearby participating, functioning sewage pumpout stations, dump stations and floating restrooms;

Monitored 152 sewage pumpouts and 15 dump stations in 19 counties eight times during the last two grant cycles. Developed the 2021 and 2022 California Clean Vessel Act Pumpout and Dump Station Performance Reports summarizing the monitoring results and efforts. Monitoring provides effective means to encourage better maintenance of and accountability for the pumpouts’ condition.

For detailed information on the grant program, the current grant application, requirements, and complete guidelines packet, please visit DBW’s website.