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W<\/span>ith a look of purposeful determination, BigMike Straumietis strides down a street in Downtown Los Angeles\u2019 notorious neighborhood Skid Row. Tents line the sidewalk and rubbish fills the gutter. The CEO and founder of Advanced Nutrients<\/a> \u2014 the No. 1 hydroponics nutrients company in the world \u2014 holds a backpack in each hand, both of which are stuffed full of personal hygiene products, nonperishable snacks and other items that he had personally packed himself just hours earlier.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, we need some dog food down here, guys,\u201d he tells one of the volunteers, before bending down to knock politely on a zipped-up tent.<\/p>\n \u201cGood evening, anyone in here? We\u2019ve got a package for you.\u201d<\/p>\n A blonde woman sticks her head out.<\/p>\n \u201cYes we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n Lana emerges bleary-eyed from her makeshift home. She has been living rough on Skid Row for four years. BigMike smiles as he holds out the backpack. \u201cMerry Christmas,\u201d he says. \u201cHave a good holiday.\u201d Lana\u2019s face breaks out into a huge smile. \u201cGod bless you, thank you so much!\u201d she shouts out because her benefactor\u2019s towering form is already pounding off down the street to hand over another package to a person in need.<\/p>\n Just hours earlier \u2014 on a day when most people in LA are doing the last of their Christmas shopping \u2014 BigMike<\/a> had been watching over a team of 70 volunteers as they stood in a makeshift assembly line set up on the driveway of his multimillion-dollar mansion high in the Hollywood Hills. These volunteers fill the backpacks with essential personal hygiene items and festive seasonal gifts including, soap, toothpaste, a blanket, notepad, tarp, coloring pencils, deodorant, shaving cream, female sanitary items, wet wipes, socks, underwear, hand sanitizer and manicure sets. Twice a year he opens his home for his Holiday Heroes<\/a> charity \u2014 an outreach program that assembles and gives out packages to organizations in need in Los Angeles and Bulgaria.<\/p>\n As he grabbed a bottle of lotion and helped to stuff toiletries, festive gifts and paint sets into a backpack at this year\u2019s Christmas charity event, BigMike said, \u201cIt\u2019s beyond words. I cannot describe to you how it makes you feel. It\u2019s all about the heart and contributing, giving something back to society.\u201d<\/p>\n He knows better than most what it\u2019s like to be down on your luck. Despite being a successful businessman and philanthropist now, at one point all his worldly possessions were stuffed into five black trash bags. Recalling the time in his life when he struggled to make ends meet, his eyes fill with tears.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been on food stamps,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve had my entire life in five black garbage bags with absolutely no furniture, stuck living in a cockroach-infested studio hellhole.\u201d<\/p>\n BigMike\u2019s personal experience, and want to serve those in need, is what led to the formation of the Holiday Heroes charity.<\/p>\n \u201cI have been on the opposite side to all this and it is a reason why [Holiday Heroes] is so dear to my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, the charity organization is BigMike\u2019s passion project and his way of putting corporate philanthropy into practice by giving back to his community.<\/p>\n \u201cI first started in Bulgaria five years ago, where I helped with handouts to the needy in a country that had no fair or solid structure to assist those who have nothing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n That Christmas in 2012, when Holiday Heroes launched, BigMike\u2019s charitable contributions and motivation to support the homeless saw to it that 1,000 families were taken care of. The nonprofit organization continued to grow and expand every year. In 2015 alone BigMike bolstered more than 10,000 people with aid in Bulgaria. That success led him to start up the organization in Los Angeles in 2016. Now, it also runs Easter and Christmas campaigns in a bid to help alleviate poverty.<\/p>\n And since its commencement, Holiday Heroes has been responsible for feeding over 30,000 people both in LA and the Eastern European nation, and continues to grow.<\/p>\n BigMike was inspired to support the homeless after being confronted by the problems they face.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw down at Skid Row they were having a lot of challenges, and I believe a corporation should give directly back to the community it gets its money from,\u201d he said. \u201c[Corporations] should give back to a community in general and to people in general.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The need is more than obvious down on Skid Row, the area that now encompasses 54 city blocks.<\/p>\n It is a tent city of humanity all striving to just get by day to day, and there are now an estimated 11,000 homeless people living in the area of just 0.4 square miles.<\/p>\n Even BigMike<\/a> was shocked by the numbers and by the people\u2019s reaction to the Holiday Heroes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe brought 1,350 backpacks down there tonight, we could have brought 5,000 and not had enough. It\u2019s heartbreaking, but also great to be able to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n The two trucks stuffed full of backpacks were met with a frenzy of desperation as the caravan made its way slowly down the road, desperate people grabbing out for the packages. But there were also plenty of shout outs of thanks and smiles of joy.<\/p>\n \u201cI can use this stuff for weeks,\u201d LaMarcus, who has been on the streets for two-and-a-half years, said. \u201cYou have no idea what a difference it makes to us and how they can improve our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Latoya, who had run after the Holiday Heroes truck for a block, called her husband and wept tears of joy.<\/p>\n \u201cHoney, I got us two backpacks \u2014 two<\/em>,\u201d she said. \u201cThis has made my Christmas!\u201d<\/p>\n Byron Takeuchi works with Down But Not Out<\/a>, an organization that comes every Thursday to feed, clothe, and hand out personal hygiene products to Skid Row\u2019s residents. \u201cThe need just can\u2019t be met, it\u2019s kind of ridiculous,\u201d he said. \u201cThe drugs, the sexual abuse [suffered by] the women \u2014 it\u2019s tough to be a woman on Skid Row.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s mental illness, the drug abuse is tough \u2014 people don\u2019t understand. But there are a lot of good people down here.\u201d<\/p>\n The Down But Not Out crew joined forces with Holiday Heroes to hand out the backpacks on Skid Row.<\/p>\n \u201cThese packs are great,\u201d Takeuchi said. \u201cYou could live off them for a couple of days with the snacks, and the hygiene products are a great idea. There is a huge need [for this].\u201d<\/p>\n As Holiday Heroes has grown, BigMike has managed to convince a number of high-profile global companies to hop on board. \u201cIn Bulgaria we have Sony, Unilever, Nestl\u00e9, Coke, Pepsi,\u201d he said, \u201cand other major brands, which support and donate items to the packages. It\u2019s the same thing for the USA.\u201d<\/p>\n Holiday Heroes\u2019 2017 outreach program also saw BigMike and a small team of volunteers head out into Greater Los Angeles, armed with 300 tote bags and 250 backpacks filled with goodies and essential personal products. Their destination? Union Rescue Mission<\/a> Hope Gardens, located in Sylmar, California, and the Union Rescue Mission in Downtown LA.<\/p>\n Founded in 1891, Union Rescue Mission services men, women and children, providing emergency and long-term services including food, shelter, clothing, and medical and dental care.<\/p>\n As BigMike rolled into Hope Gardens, streams of excited children ran out to greet the trucks, and couldn\u2019t wait to unload the boxes and packages along with the volunteers.<\/p>\n Holiday Heroes gifted Hope Gardens residents boxes filled with diapers and blankets, and bags containing manicure sets, grip socks, ChapSticks, and assorted teas and honey.<\/p>\n Theresa Thomas, who has been living at Hope Gardens for a year-and-a-half, was delighted with the gifts. And even more so than usual this year \u2014 in early December the shelter had been in danger of going up in flames, surrounded by an inferno as the LA wildfires raged around them. Miraculously, the shelter and all its inhabitants survived.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were evacuated at 4 a.m. and there was fire all around us,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to get these packages They have a big impact for all of us. Each family and the kids will get a bag. Everything [Holiday Heroes] give us will help us a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, at the Downtown LA Union Rescue Mission location, volunteers formed a human chain to get the 250 backpacks, each valued at $94, into the shelter.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can use these backpacks for the children,\u201d Rebecca Moeljono, who works with Union Mission, said. \u201cThere are also everyday necessities, too. I think they will be really happy. It\u2019s wonderful we will be ready for when the schools start again, and [be able to] use all different kind of things for the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n Holiday Heroes also paid a visit to the LA LGBT Youth Center<\/a> on Highland in Hollywood, where BigMike and his volunteers handed out 150 totes.<\/p>\n Founded in 1969, the LGBT Youth Center has up to 100 beds and 35 units, and is open 24 hours a day. Each month it receives 42,000 visits from vulnerable people within the community, which stretches the shelter to its limits.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Hollywood alone 40 percent of those young people you see on the streets are LGBT,\u201d Gil Diaz, marketing communications manager at the center said. \u201cThat is very staggering for a lot of people to understand. What a lot of people don\u2019t realize is these young people were forced out of their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n For the LGBT Center, Holiday Heroes dropped off backpacks filled with art supplies, including sketchbooks, pens and paints, which had been specially requested for residents by the center\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is just the Los Angeles chapter, because I live here in this area,\u201d BigMike said. \u201c[But] the intention is to spread [Holiday Heroes] not just through the United States, but globally as well. My company Advanced Nutrients picks up all of the administration and marketing costs involved. I think every company out there should get involved when they can financially afford it. The benefits are so many. It goes beyond just giving and seeing those happy faces. It\u2019s great for team building \u2014 there are so many positive outcomes. It just makes me so happy and so proud to be a part of this.\u201d<\/p>\n By Zoe Nauman<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> is charitable giving part of your holiday tradition?<\/p>\n The post BigMike & Holiday Heroes Head to Skid Row for Christmas<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Advanced Nutrients helps the homeless over the Christmas holiday. With a look of purposeful determination, BigMike Straumietis strides down a street in Downtown Los Angeles\u2019 notorious neighborhood Skid Row. Tents line the sidewalk and rubbish fills the gutter. The CEO and founder of Advanced Nutrients \u2014 the No. 1 hydroponicsContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":22329,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2228,2229,50,2890,69],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22330,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22328\/revisions\/22330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/bigmike.jpg\")
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<\/p>\nGiving Back is a Corporate Responsibility<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: BigMike & Holiday Heroes Head to Skid Row for Christmas<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"