Why do we love them? It's right there on the home page: Their mission is to inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold. That's frickin' awesome! Kids need all the help they can get and focusing on the specific needs of girls is also something we support. We are so going to bust into a chorus of Greatest Love of All here any second, just hang on...

We encourage you to check out Girls, Inc. for volunteer opportunities working directly with the girls where you can make a serious, personal impact on their lives through tutoring and mentoring, working in the WOW! afterschool or summer activity program (sporties, there's some good spaces for you there), or as a general volunteer. An opportunity we think someone could really fill is for Latina speakers who can talk to girls about her career and education and answer their questions about how to succeed with their own. We signed up to be pen pals - c'mon even the laziest of you can do that!

Or, you could buy them a van. Just a suggestion.

We've been in touch with Girls, Inc of Alameda County, but they are also in Contra Costa county (in Richmond) and Alameda proper (Island City - we think their Homegrown Gardening Project sounds cool).