07/05/2021
It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of our fearless co-founder Jeff Woods. I got a phone call yesterday notifying me that Jeff passed away. Jeff & I both shared a love of volunteering and in 2011, we teamed up and started our own social volunteer organization, GiV La - volunteer. Our goal was to find volunteer opportunities all around Southern California and to wrangle people from our various walks of life together to do some good. Then we'd always go do something fun afterwards – so beach cleanups followed by beach volleyball, shifts at the LA Food Banked paired with mimosa brunches, etc.
We helped a lot of people, brought together new friends & and had TONS of fun in the process. Jeff and I, often in our matching GivLA t-shirts, cooked meals in the kitchens of women's shelters, shucked corn at the food bank, held parties & happy hours to recruit new members & celebrate with our current ones (I remember we went to the 99 Cent store and bought the most ridiculous door prizes for people like plungers and rubber chickens), went to a Best Buddies race and made homemade signs to cheer on children with developmental disabilities, the list went on and on with what we did.
Over the years, it became harder to recruit people to always do these volunteer things. People's lives got busy. But Jeff and I realized even just the 2 of us doing something good could make a difference. The last time I saw him, we got together and ran our own classroom and read storybooks to kids from an underserved community. I remember we had a little boy in class who was so not into the book and Jeff & I were determined to win him over. Following the reading, we were supposed to have the kids draw a picture of the mouse featured in the book but this little kid ended up making paper airplanes instead with the drawing paper in order to be rebellious. Jeff right away said "Change of plans everyone! Paper airplane contest." The little boy's face lit up and he got so into it. We played Hangman with the kiddos and threw paper airplanes for a long time. And when the kids' parents came to pick them up after class, that rowdy little boy came up to me and Jeff and gave us paper airplanes that he said he had made for us. We both were so touched and it was such a special moment.
Jeff might be gone but I'm determined to keep GivLA going in his honor. I will continue to post about volunteer opps and as the world begins to open up, will be inviting people to partake in volunteer activities that I put together, along with anyone else that wants to help and/or bring light to some organization or event we can partake in. Please join our page GiV La - volunteer to keep up with us.
Jeff, you were such an amazing guy with the biggest heart. We were even born on the same day and that always meant we were supposed to be friends. I will continue to think of you whenever something wacky happens during a volunteering session and every time April 25th comes around when we'd always send each other fun birthday buddy messages. I'm proud that I was able to know you. Rest in peace buddy. oxoxo - Nicole Pajer
