![\"Bunnells\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Bunnells.jpg\")
Anyone who\u2019s spent time with her can attest to the fact that Masy Bunnell is high energy. With a demanding career as an executive for a Long Beach-based IT firm and as the mother of three young children\u2014seven year old Sophia, two-and-a-half year old Parker and 20 month old Scarlett\u2014she would have to be.<\/p>\n
Yet work and family aren\u2019t the only matters that draw Bunnell\u2019s keen interest. As Vice President of the Board of Children Today, a non-profit that provides free child care, preschool and family support services to infants and children up to six years of age facing homelessness in Long Beach, Bunnell is also heavily invested in helping her community.<\/p>\n
Recruited to the board in 2008 by Children Today Co-Founder Theresa Bixby, Masy knew she had found the right avenue to give back.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy kids are the most important thing in the world to my husband and me, and we work hard to make sure they have a stable home that provides them with everything they need to grow up healthy and happy,\u201d said Bunnell. \u201cIt broke my heart to realize that there were kids in my own backyard who were homeless and had to go without the basics. In fact, I never thought of infants and children as being homeless. When I learned about Children Today and saw firsthand what a tremendous difference they were making in the lives of these children and their families, I knew I had to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bunnell threw herself into her role as board member wholeheartedly. Soon after arriving, she was chairing the Marketing Committee, helping to raise the agency\u2019s profile, and before long she was voted into the Vice Presidency.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was a perfect fit right from the start,\u201d said Children Today Executive Director Dora Jacildo. \u201cHer talent for strategy, her connections with other prominent stakeholders, and her willingness to roll up her sleeves and work has made her a tremendous asset to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her latest undertaking is chairing the committee for Children Today\u2019s marquee fundraiser, Holiday Cheer, a wine tasting and gallery style auction event that transforms into a fabulous after party. This year\u2019s Holiday Cheer will be held on Friday, November 30, at 230 Pine Avenue (formerly home to Z Gallerie).<\/p>\n
\u201cHoliday Cheer is really a board-and-volunteer-driven event,\u201d said Jacildo. \u201cWe have such a small administrative staff that it would be impossible for us to plan and execute such a high-profile, large-scale fundraiser.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not just about throwing a big party. Holiday Cheer brings in a substantial portion of the agency\u2019s operating income. \u201cMasy makes it work,\u201d continued Jacildo. \u201cShe comes up with the concept, and plans out every detail. Most importantly, she gets people involved. She gets them to say \u2018Yes\u2019 to her when they might have said \u2018No\u2019 to someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not unique,\u201d said Bunnell. \u201cEvery member of the board is just as busy and just as committed to the mission of Children Today as I am. It\u2019s about making a decision about what matters to you and making the commitment to do what it takes to give these children the start in life that all children deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Bunnells\"](\"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Bunnells.jpg\")
Anyone who\u2019s spent time with her can attest to the fact that Masy Bunnell is high energy. With a demanding career as an executive for a Long Beach-based IT firm and as the mother of three young children\u2014seven year old Sophia, two-and-a-half year old Parker and 20 month old Scarlett\u2014she would have to be.<\/p>\n