Five Great Non-Profits Making a Difference in Altadena

Every week with Patch Picks we highlight useful information across the community.  This week we're stretching beyond just restaurants and activities to tell you something more important: who is making a difference in Altadena?

There are many non-profits working to make the town great, so obviously we can't feature them all, but here are five who are doing good work.

1) - This program, also known as the Bright Future Scholars, is designed to promote academic achievement for lower-income youth.  The program runs across Pasadena Unified School District and is centered at Eliot Middle School.  The young scholars must maintain a B average or higher.  The students also work on skills like public speaking and attend regular functions with guest speakers.  The group attended this week's Altadena Town Council meeting and honored the council's chair, Gino Sund with an award for helping out the group.

2) - In addition to being instrumental in a hillside ordinance passed last summer that would preserve mountain views for Altadenans, the group helps put on various community events, including one last month on in Altadena. 

3) Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy - This group started out as the Altadena Foothills Conservancy but merged with other groups to form a bigger group with regional open space preservation goals.  The group has worked tirelessly to preserve Altadena open space and has been successful recently in securing land in th Rubio Canyon area that will on the Altadena Crest Trail.

4) Mentoring Partnership and Youth Development - We've mentioned this group a lot on Altadena Patch as columnist Greg Middleton is a part of it and has written about it regularly.  The group hosts weekly guest speakers at John Muir High School and works with young men one-on-one to prepare them for real life.  The group was at the school this week to help kids deal with their feelings over the , who was a member.

5) Altadena Mountain Rescue - If you've read this site regularly , since it seems like every few days they are plucking somebody out of a precarious cliff above Eaton Canyon or somewhere else in the hills.  Though the volunteers in the organizations are trained as reserve deputies in the Sheriff's Department and receives insurance in case of an injury through them, all their search and rescue time is volunteered and the organization is non-profit.  It takes a lot of hours of training and a lot of commitment to be on call every time someone ventures into the hills unprepared and gets into trouble