make a donation
The California Writers Club is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation. There are 22 Branches within the CWC, with nearly 2,000 members in the state of California. The club was founded in 1909. It is the oldest and largest professional writers’ club west of the Mississippi. The High Desert Branch was formed in 1990. The HDCWC meets monthly in a friendly atmosphere of educational encouragement and networking.
Our High Desert Branch continues to be involved in supporting and promoting literary and cultural events in the area. We have, in the last few years, presented six major writers’ conferences as well as sponsored other exciting and educational events open to the public. These have featured award-winning artists in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, film, and television.
In 2013, we committed 20% of our profits from the “Howl at the Moon” Writers’ Conference #3 to the Newton T. Bass Apple Valley Branch Library remodel and actually exceeded that commitment by donating $500 to their facility improvement. With the Cooperation of the CWC-South, we have also supported the San Bernardino County Literacy Program with donations to the Hesperia Library.
Three times we made in-kind donations of over $15,000 in verifiable volunteer hours to the Dorothy C. Blakely Memoir Project. The first two were done at the Academy for Academic Excellence teaching memoir writing to students at that local high school, and then compiling and publishing anthologies containing their stories of High Desert senior citizens. In addition, both years we awarded $650 in scholarships to those judged to have written the 4 best stories within toset books. All costs associated with the publication of the anthology, Let it Be Recorded… A Collection of Memoirs in 2014, and “All Our Yesterdays” in 2015 were funded by the HDCWC with generous support of the CWC Central Board.
In 2018, we did the same Dorothy . Blakely Memoir Project with the University Preparatory High School in Victorville, California, producing and publishing “Footprints From Around the World” in May of 2018. Scholarships in the same amounts will be given in June 2018. These DCB Memoir Projects involve about one hundred people working in unison towards a common goal of preserving and printing tales that otherwise may have been lost forever. Great appreciation is expressed to our participating members and to 2015 and 2018 Project Director Dr. Mary Langer Thompson and to our tireless editor, Jenny Margotta.
We have also compiled and published four anthologies featuring the work of our membership, “Howling at the Moon” in 2010; “Desert Gold” in 2012; “For The Love of Writing” in 2015, and “Tales Between the Sand and Stars” in 2017.
Our members have been guest speakers at local elementary, high school and college classes as well as many other community organizations and venues.
Between November of 2012 and March of 2014, our member volunteers conducted over 24 writing workshops t the Federal Correctional Complex for the inmates incarcerated there, and bore the cost of bringing special guest speakers to enhance their education in that under-served community of prisoners.
In 2017 and 2018, the HDCWC was selected to judge stories, poems, and essays submitted by students to the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards contest.
In 2017, we supported the High Desert Arts and Literary Festival with donations and author/members to participate in this major event.
In conjunction with grants from Poets & Writers, we sponsored workshops for these inmates done by such notable speakers as Al Watt (“The 90-Day Novel) and Nina Amir (“How To Blog A Book.”) Nine inmates of the FCC submitted to, and were published in “Desert Gold”.
If you would like to make a tax-deductible financial contribution to assist us in these projects, please use the PayPal button below. We appreciate your support. Our tax ID number (EIN) is 33-0431972.
You may also send a check made payable to the High Desert Branch of the California Writers Club to:
HDCWC
17645 Fisher St.
Victorville, CA 92395
Our High Desert Branch continues to be involved in supporting and promoting literary and cultural events in the area. We have, in the last few years, presented six major writers’ conferences as well as sponsored other exciting and educational events open to the public. These have featured award-winning artists in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, film, and television.
In 2013, we committed 20% of our profits from the “Howl at the Moon” Writers’ Conference #3 to the Newton T. Bass Apple Valley Branch Library remodel and actually exceeded that commitment by donating $500 to their facility improvement. With the Cooperation of the CWC-South, we have also supported the San Bernardino County Literacy Program with donations to the Hesperia Library.
Three times we made in-kind donations of over $15,000 in verifiable volunteer hours to the Dorothy C. Blakely Memoir Project. The first two were done at the Academy for Academic Excellence teaching memoir writing to students at that local high school, and then compiling and publishing anthologies containing their stories of High Desert senior citizens. In addition, both years we awarded $650 in scholarships to those judged to have written the 4 best stories within toset books. All costs associated with the publication of the anthology, Let it Be Recorded… A Collection of Memoirs in 2014, and “All Our Yesterdays” in 2015 were funded by the HDCWC with generous support of the CWC Central Board.
In 2018, we did the same Dorothy . Blakely Memoir Project with the University Preparatory High School in Victorville, California, producing and publishing “Footprints From Around the World” in May of 2018. Scholarships in the same amounts will be given in June 2018. These DCB Memoir Projects involve about one hundred people working in unison towards a common goal of preserving and printing tales that otherwise may have been lost forever. Great appreciation is expressed to our participating members and to 2015 and 2018 Project Director Dr. Mary Langer Thompson and to our tireless editor, Jenny Margotta.
We have also compiled and published four anthologies featuring the work of our membership, “Howling at the Moon” in 2010; “Desert Gold” in 2012; “For The Love of Writing” in 2015, and “Tales Between the Sand and Stars” in 2017.
Our members have been guest speakers at local elementary, high school and college classes as well as many other community organizations and venues.
Between November of 2012 and March of 2014, our member volunteers conducted over 24 writing workshops t the Federal Correctional Complex for the inmates incarcerated there, and bore the cost of bringing special guest speakers to enhance their education in that under-served community of prisoners.
In 2017 and 2018, the HDCWC was selected to judge stories, poems, and essays submitted by students to the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards contest.
In 2017, we supported the High Desert Arts and Literary Festival with donations and author/members to participate in this major event.
In conjunction with grants from Poets & Writers, we sponsored workshops for these inmates done by such notable speakers as Al Watt (“The 90-Day Novel) and Nina Amir (“How To Blog A Book.”) Nine inmates of the FCC submitted to, and were published in “Desert Gold”.
If you would like to make a tax-deductible financial contribution to assist us in these projects, please use the PayPal button below. We appreciate your support. Our tax ID number (EIN) is 33-0431972.
You may also send a check made payable to the High Desert Branch of the California Writers Club to:
HDCWC
17645 Fisher St.
Victorville, CA 92395