Chloe, the famous Long Beach rescue pup, set off a roomful of “oohs,” “ahhs” and “oh, how cutes” when she made a special guest appearance at the Rossmoor Woman’s Club meeting on February 12.
Chloe attended with human friend Diana Kliche of Fix Long Beach, a nonprofit organization that provides free spay and neuter services for dogs and cats, small dog rescues and outreach to provide necessities for the pets of homeless individuals.
The maltese-poodle-terrier mix generated international attention shortly after Thanksgiving in 2017 when she was found beaten, soaked in human urine and stuffed into a plastic bag in a trash bin in Long Beach. Fix Long Beach stepped in to get Chloe medical care (to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, paid mostly by donations, Kliche said) and to find her a loving forever home. (Chloe’s abuser has not been found, although there is still an outstanding $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.)
Fix Long Beach was founded in 2013 and serves the Long Beach area and southern Los Angeles Counties with mobile spay and neuter clinics held in local parks and run by licensed veterinarians. The goal was to keep unwanted animals out of shelters, and since the organization’s inception, the number of pets euthanized in Long Beach has dropped 94 percent, Kliche said. Find more information online at www.fixlongbeachpets.com
Rossmoor Woman’s Club President Maggie Paul presented Kliche with a donation of $2,000 from the club, which raises money to support local non-profit organizations through various fundraisers, including the annual Holiday Home Tour every December and Spring Garden Tour each May.
At the meeting, the club also heard from a representative of another of its sponsored charities, African Sisterhood. This organization was founded by Jessica Ridgeway in 2016 when she was a student at Los Alamitos High School. After visiting Kenya with her family, Ridgeway had been appalled to learn that many girls had to drop out of school when they began menstruating because of a lack of sanitary supplies. She formed African Sisterhood to make reusable sanitary napkins, which are packaged in kits with underwear, soap, washcloths and other necessary items.
Rossmoor Woman’s Club members were among volunteers who helped make the napkins last year, and Jessica’s mother Tricia Ridgeway spoke at the meeting to update the group on African Sisterhood’s work.
Last year, African Sisterhood distributed just over 300 kits to two orphanages, two schools and a rescue center. This year it plans to donate another 300 kits and to purchase a sewing machine for the Tasaru rescue center in the Narok district of Kenya.
Girls who have received the kits have been able to avoid early marriages and continue their educations, and “when you provide girls with educations, you give back to the entire community,” Tricia Ridgeway said, wiping tears from her eyes.
Ridgeway also invited the group to attend the premiere of a documentary film about African Sisterhood, “Stitched at the Heart,” produced by David N. Young, editor of the Los Alamitos Event News-Enterprise.
The premiere is scheduled for 10 a.m. March 21 at the Art Theater of Long Beach, 2025 East Fourth St., Long Beach. Tickets are $20 and are available online at africansisterhood.org or by emailing africansisterhood@aol.com.
Courtesy photo
