Long Beach State’s Speech and Language Clinic was the random winner for the Gazette Gives prize given at the virtual Long Beach Gives event on Thursday, Sept. 23.
The Gazette Gives prize, sponsored by the Grunion Gazette and given at the Long Beach Gives event, offers prize winners a $600-dollar ad space to get the word out about the local nonprofit.
Long Beach Gives is a city-wide virtual giving day started in 2019, that gave 203 nonprofits a chance to share their organization’s story and mission to gain community-based donations.
“Marketing is not something that nonprofits traditionally do, but getting their story out and getting their logo out and what the Speech and Language Clinic does and its impact in the community is really important,” Long Beach Gives Campaign Director Nko Galvez said.
The CSULB Speech and Language Clinic, NAMI Long Beach, and Young Horizons Child Development Centers were chosen as three prize winners.
While the Long Beach Gives event revolves around fundraising, the various sponsors who participated also gave nonprofit participants something extra, in the form of 50 different prizes totaling $15,000.
The Gazette Gives prize came as a surprise to the CSULB Speech and Language Clinic, Bryanne Ngo, clinic director, said.
The clinic has participated in Long Beach Gives for the last two years, but it is the first time it has taken home a prize.
Ngo hopes that this award will bring more attention to the work of the Speech and Language Clinic.
The fundraising event raised over $2 million for the various non-profits who participated in the giving event with over 9,500 donations. The CSULB’s Speech and Language Clinic brought in roughly $5,000 in donations from the community.
The donations to CSULB Speech and Language Clinic will be used to hire staff and other aspects necessary to keeping the program up and running.
The Speech and Language Clinic offers free speech and language pathology services to Long Beach residents ranging from children to adults with the goal of helping people with communication disorders at no cost.
Clients can seek services in person or receive virtual telehealth visits, something added to combat the implementation of remote learning. The clinic sees roughly 60% of its clientele in-person and about 30% to 40% remote.
The program is operated by 24 grad students who assess and work with clients and give students the skills they need to excel in their careers.
Ngo feels it is crucial to get the word out to people who may need services and to gain community-based donations that will be used to allow the clinic to continue offering free services.
“We want to make people aware that we are here to provide services,” Ngo said. “But I think we also need the public to know that we are dependent on help from the community to continue providing these services for free.”