UTW Day 2016

June 11, 2016 was the 4th Annual UTW Day …

… and many of the previous years’ organizers as well as new participants took part by organizing events in their hometowns.

In 2015, we had 10 events on 5 continents, in Asia, Oceania, Europe, and South and North America, including our flagship event at the UTW Headquarters in Los Angeles.

UTW HEADQUARTERS LOS ANGELES

Los Angeles is the home of Unfuck The World Day’s headquarters, it was here where in 2006 UTW Day creator Maike started selling Unfuck The World t-shirts, first out of the trunk of her car, later from her web store, to raise money for local charities and for UTW actions.

UTW DAY 2016 in L.A.

On Saturday, June 11, 2016, we celebrated the 4th Annual UTW Day with events around the globe, introducing positive projects + people making change! It was a day full of fun, networking, music and making friends.

Our event here at the UTW L.A. headquarters once again took place in the heart of Hollywood, right where we are doing our outreach work in support of the youth and young adults who live in shelters, friends’ couches, sidewalks or next to the 101 freeway.

Donation Drive & Flea Market

Our vision was to bring the community of Hollywood together, and we thought, what better to do that than to have a flea market. We plastered the area with flyers and signs to invite the neighbors to join us and many followed our call, curious to see what the flea market, music and UTW was all about…

We had also asked all our friends to stop by and drop off in-kind donations, new or gently used back packs, sleeping bags, tents and new socks were highly appreciated, many followed our call and their generous donations will go directly to someone in need.

In addition, we accepted household goods, decorative items, appliances, small furniture, in good, resalable condition, so we could include them in our flea market sale to help raise money for our non-profit, A Million Drops.

‘Unsheltered’ – Art by homeless, at-risk youth and young adults

Unsheltered, our art show featuring works by local homeless and at-risk youth and young adults, was well received.

All pieces were for sale, many of them went home with a happy, new owner, all proceeds went directly to the young artists.

We even had a live artist! Dondrell Lee created exciting new art on old canvases and sold two of his beautiful pieces.

Music

While people strolled around, they enjoyed music by local DJ Bijoux and DJ Sparatik, and well as two live performances by Drew Imagination & Cannon who had come all the way from Oakland to perform at our event!

As part of the Give A Beat booth, DJ Sparatik also offered a spin workshop to anyone interested.

Food & Beverages

Fresh food made with love was proudly provided by Rachel and Scott of Tacos & Tamales, and everybody went wild over the yummy organic lemonades made by Ruandy and Karla of Misfit Lighting.

Networking

Like-minded people met and found out about the positive things that are happening in our city. Groups and individuals who do good in our local communities had booths to represent themselves, including Give A Beat, Hand 2 Hand and Occupy Venice Beach.

Yoga & Massage

UTW supporter Beverly offered a yoga workshop, while Bridget provided free chair massages to anyone in need of a little TLC. And there were many ….

Raffle

For only a dollar, people had the chance to win amazing prizes, and some lucky visitors took home an iPad, a GoPro, gift certificates to restaurants and stores, and our biggest prize, a 500 dollar pair of VIP box seats for a Dodgers’ game!

A special thank you to all our sponsors. We could not have done this without your generous donations!

Live Video Calls

UTW Day founder and producer Maike chatted live with participating organizers in Australia, Rotterdam, Brazil and Omaha to find out about their events and the causes they supported.

Money Raised

Including monetary donations made in support of UTW Day 2016, raffle ticket and flea market sales, we were able to raise over six thousand dollars, money that will help us continue the services we provide to homeless, at-risk youth and young adults through our non-profit A Million Drops.

Omaha, NE

For the second year in a row, long-time UTW team member Matt Stewart in Omaha organized a day of live music, food, drinks & drink specials, a raffle, an online auction, and more at Jerry’s – The Omaha Home of UTW Day!

They raised over $3500 and donated all the profits to the Benson Neighborhood Association to renovate a nearby park badly in need of updating. The amount helped to reach the goal of 10k in the account for the park, so the city will match the money they raised, so they should have about 24k if not more for new playground equipment, murals, benches, landscaping, etc.

Melbourne, Australia

WINTER IS COMING in Melbourne, Australia, and it is the worst time to be homeless. In celebration of UTW Day, our long time supporter Melissa Pollard called people to come together to make things just a little brighter for those in need.

In the past 3 years, she had parties at her house to raise money for particular charities and organizations, but this year, the focus was on ACTIONS that bring happiness to those in need and in doing so, make this world a better place.

Melissa teamed up with her friend Michelle and together, they went into Downtown Melbourne to hand out backpacks, socks and meal certificates to homeless men and women

Melissa’s motto:  “The more the merrier! Together we can Unfuck The World.”

Rotterdam, Netherlands

Our awesome 2014 UTW Day Rotterdam event organizer Valentijn Vogel came back on board for another one. This year, he raised over 200 Euro for a local charity called Dutch Artists in Action, a group of creative people, dreamers, and doers who work together in helping refugees from Syria by building shelters in the refugee camps.

Here are a few impressions from the event!

Mococa, Brazil

This year, for the first time, we were joined for UTW Day by peeps in South America, to be precise, in Mococa, Brazil, located in the state of São Paulo!

UTW supporter Guilherme Ferracoli found us on Facebook and immediately loved what UTW is about: connecting people. He told his friend Felipe Chagas about us who became his ally, and only two weeks before June 11th, they announced that they wanted to organize an official event for UTW Day 2016 in their hometown.

Since there was not enough time to use the regular postal service, we sent them our Organizers’ Gift Package – containing two t-shirts, a flag and a bunch of stickers – via Fedex, and after calling Fedex and the Brazilian customs office every day, Guilherme was able to get it released just in time on Friday, the day before the event!

Guilherme’s and Felipe’s excitement was infectious; many of their friends, neighbors and classmates followed their call. Even the local press got wind of it, and Guilherme was interviewed on public television! On June 11th, a group of almost 30 people got together to start the day with a hike on the ‘trilha do cipó’, a path leading through a forest on the outskirts of Mococa.

After the hike, they planted trees – mogno-brasileiro, pau-jangada, embaúba, pau-cigarra, and many others – to help restore the eco system. Mococa’s UTW Day celebrations ended with a picnic on a meadow underneath a mango tree where Guilherme and his friends shared food and ideas.

Also, Guilherme had asked everyone to bring extra food, like packaged milk, rice, beans, etc., to support Casa Abrigo, an organization that feeds children of poor families. Many bags were donated and taken to Casa Abrigo the next day.

To find out more about the event in Mococa, Brazil, please visit their official FB Page.

Las Vegas, Nevada

The 2016 Las Vegas Event organized by Joyce Sportsman, who also was the driving force behind the UTW Day 2014 event in Las Vegas, featured three parts, a 70 minute spirit based YOGA class, a 60 minute love and kindness MEDITATION guided by Buddhist Monk Nawala Lakkana from the Lohan Spiritual and Cultural Center and 60 minutes of open mic PASSION PITCH time – anyone who liked to share, recruit, or pitch a passion to unfuck the world in their way, got 3 minute on the mic to inspire others.

Donations were accepted at the door. All proceeds benefit seed fund for T.R.Y. Trauma Recovery Yoga, a start up bringing healing yoga and meditation to those who have suffered trauma or are in crisis (Vets with PTSD, homeless shelters, detention centers, title one school students, victims of violent crimes, TBI patients, grieving parents groups and more).

Here the awesome video the Las Vegas UTW Day team created for their event

Olangapo, Philippines

Gershom and Melissa Pertacorta in Olongapo, Philippines, have been on board with Unfuck The World since the first UTW Day in 2013, and their yearly events have always been amazing!

This year, their activities started on June 4th, a week before the official UTW Day. Master Joemar Tashi Obejas, who did the ClimateWalk in Europe and recently, the Manila-Baguio Walk with a group of environmental advocates; Dunlee Stewart, an MMA fighter from Olongapo City and Whakin Angeles from Castillejos, Zambales, joined Gershom, and together they went to visit the Aeta people in Limuran Village.

To get there, they hiked up a mountain for over three hours, climbing rocks, and marching through heavy rain that came down for a while as they ascended.

They brought food, sugar, rice, cooking oil, as well as clothes for the Aeta kids, and spend the weekend, sharing meals and conversations, and the message to keep the forest clean and protect the environment.

The main event on UTW Day, June 11th, was once again a great success! The goal was to promote change and awareness, and more than 100 people followed Gershom’s call.

The day-long program included Environmental Talks, Visual Arts Installations, Inner Dance Meditation by Joemar Tashi Obejas, Theatre Art Performances by SAWAKAS, vegetarian food, live music featuring Herb Culture, Slowdough, Epi and Mary Wanders, and much more.For more information or to get in touch with the organizers, please visit their Facebook Event Page.

A special thank you to The Cliff Royale Beach Resort for providing the space, to Subic Bay Clark Fuentebella Peralta and to Manuel Calupe Jr., who helped with paying for sound and lighting! And another thank you also to Sonny Balanga and Ananda Spiraltwig for the vegetables they brought from baguio!

Johannesburg, South Africa

UTW supporter Gabbi Rego came on board  for UTW Day 2016 just a few days before June 11 and still a good number of people followed her call and stopped by to drop off blankets to be given to homeless people who live on the streets of Johannesburg where it can get chilly at night in June, July and August, when it’s winter time in South Africa.

Gabbi’s idea was well received, people were excited to help her spread the love, and Gabbi is already talking about UTW Day 2017.

Cleveland, Ohio

In celebration of UTW Day 2016, Shel Greenberg of Wild FreedOm Punk Yoga offered a donation-based all levels, all ages, all together vinyasa flow session with proceeds benefitting The Friends Of The Cleveland Kennel and Waterloo Alley Cat Project.

Shel accepted monetary donations as well as items for animals in need, and she was pleased to announce that on the 4th Annual Unfuck The World Day the Wild FreedOm Punk Warriors donated $230.00 (plus cat food) to be split between Waterloo Alley Cat Project and Friends of the Cleveland Kennel (with an extra $15 check for the kitties from one warrior). And not just that, there will be more money to come as a few folks announced they were going to bring their donations to Shel’s next punk yoga session.

Debbie of Waterloo Alley Cat Project was one of the happy recipients of the donated funds. Shel was able to present her with a check for $142.50!