Easter with Shut Up and Ride MC

On March 23, 2008, the children at the Family Shelter saw the Easter Bunny arrive on the back of a motorcycle. The local group, Shut Up and Ride MC, delivered Easter Baskets to the excited men, women, and children of our Family Shelter and Women’s Refuge. This year the riders provided approximately 1,000 candy filled eggs for a large Easter Egg Hunt. The bikers and parents hid the eggs in the grassy area in the back of the Family Shelter. On the count of 3, the children ran with a look of joy and awe at the large amount of eggs covering the grass. Each child over-filled their baskets with eggs. Together the parents and bikers were laughing and enjoying watching the children participate in this Easter tradition.

Since 2004, Scott Ivey has organized the Run 4 Teens with SAEHC as the beneficiary. This year they raised more than ever, over 900 dollars! This was a wonderful holiday for our families and single women. Thank you to Scott Ivey and Shut Up and Ride MC for their ongoing support to Sacramento’s homeless!

Shut Up and Ride MC

Scott Ivey, Carolyn Brodt, and Marvin "BamBam" Boyer

Stein Mart

Since last July, SAEHC has been partnering with Stein Mart to provide new clothes for our program participants through Dignity U Wear, a Jacksonville, Florida-based national nonprofit that provides brand new clothing to men, women and children in need. This Christmas, the Rocklin Stein Mart had a beautifully decorated tree with ornaments for our children who have left the shelter program but whose families still require assistance. The ornaments were available to customers and employees and the store collected gifts for over 75 children. Additionally, the employees were so enthusiastic that they raised money to buy more gifts by having soup on Fridays, which was made and donated and sold to fellow employees. A heartfelt “Thank You” from our families and children to the employees of Stein Mart.

Holidays Made Brighter by Prison Staff For the last three years, the children of SAEHC have been “adopted” every Christmas by the employees of California State Prison, Folsom. Trees are placed in the administrative offices and are decorated with ornaments that include information about the children in our programs and their wishes. Employees select ornaments and then begin to work at creating the kinds of Christmas memories that their own children and families get to experience. For little Anna, age 5, who loves the color orange and everything Dora the Explorer; a Dora backpack and doll, and a pretty orange sweater. For Anthony, age 5, a basketball, a big boy tool set, and a tool belt. The presents are wrapped and labeled. Some say “To: James, From: The Carson Family”, but many of the donors don’t even want to be acknowledged. They simply write “Love Mom and Dad” on the present. This year another Correctional Department, Out of State Transfers, joined with the Prison employees to adopt even more children, over 100! SAEHC is so grateful for this ongoing support. We would be unable to provide the holiday experience without their generous help. Aerojet Gives Big A special thanks to the employees of Aerojet for another generous donation this holiday season. They collected $605 and two full truckloads of toys and clothes for the men, women, and children in SAEHC programs. We can’t thank them enough for their continued support and overwhelming generosity! Dress for Success! On December 7, 2007 staff volunteers from Deloitte Consulting presented “Dress for Success”, a workshop for the ladies at SAEHC’s Women’s Refuge and Family Shelter. This workshop was designed for women to learn the basics of looking good for interviews and for everyday life. Through clothing donations from Deloitte Consulting employees, the volunteers assisted the women in creating professional wardrobes. Every participant was able to put together a minimum of 3 new outfits including shoes. In addition to the professional attire, sweaters and casual clothing were available for the ladies. Two professional make-up artists volunteered to give mini make-up application and personal consultation for each participant. A consultant from Mary Kay provided all the ladies with make-up bags and samples. The energy of the “Dress for Success” workshop had a positive impact on the ladies’ self esteem and motivation. We would like to thank the generous volunteers and donors from Deloitte Consulting for this inspiring workshop. November 2007 Deloitte Brings Thanksgiving During a season of thanks and gratitude the families of SAEHC housing programs have once again benefited from the generosity of others. In what has turned out to be a holiday tradition, the employees of Deloitte Consulting have come through with Thanksgiving meals for all. Deloitte employees gathered and delivered truck loads of thanksgiving donations. These donations provided complete Thanksgiving meals for all of the families staying in the Family Shelter, Women’s Refuge, 5th Avenue Group Home, and Parkside Apartments. Deloitte employees also put together individual meals for the families of the Omega Program, which were delivered by the case managers. On top of all the great food, Deloitte employees also donated $1,000 in gift cards for Safeway and Lowe’s stores. These gift cards will be very useful in providing families in permanent housing with hardware and housing goods for minor home repairs and household needs. It is because of great community partners like Deloitte that we at SAEHC are able to work diligently in the fight against homelessness. Thank You Deloitte! October 2007 Halloween with Healthcare Diagnostics For the past two years Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics (formerly Dade Behring) of West Sacramento has put together an entertaining Halloween event with all donations benefitting SAEHC. Their event involves a potluck, costume contest, costume parade, prizes to the top three costumes, and a raffle. To draw donations, each employee that donates is awarded raffle tickets. This year, through the dedicated work of their Community Involvement Team they were able to raise over $2,500 worth of in-kind donations for SAEHC. These donations were used for many of the families in our transitional housing programs and as Christmas presents for our program children. We would like to thank the members of the Community Involvement Team and the donors listed below. We look forward to working with you in the future! Patricia Antonoplos Tim Antonoplos Harjot Bains Bill Bleakly Joyce Bray Theresa Chavez Charlene Griner Lisa Hamel Bruce Harshman Kurt Holmsen Judith Johnston Jeff Klein May Morishima Janet Owens Christophe Royer Sharon Shinn Jeff Wilson Barbara Zimmer First Annual MCC Fashion Show As the daylight dwindled, the Mather Community Campus dining hall lit up with the glow of the runway lights. Prior to the fashion show start, excitement and anticipation peaked, much like in Los Angeles and New York during Fashion Week. Approximately one hundred and eighty students, families, and guests came out to support the 1st Annual Mather Community Campus Fashion Show. The chatter and banter of the gathering crowd rose and fell. Whispers of what the models were going to wear, who was going to strut their stuff, and of course if there was going to be snacks served were all heard. The models were comprised of adults, teens, and children from Mather Community Campus and the apparel ranged from business casual to eveningwear. As the house lights dimmed, Master of Ceremonies, John Amato from DHHS started the event off. With smooth jazzy sounds playing in the background he announcing the models as they started hitting the catwalk with grace and precision. The show garments were provided by Stein Mart, who also generously gifted the prom dresses to the teen models who were going to their high school proms the next night. As the last model of the evening exited backstage and the house lights came back up, it was apparent from all the applause that the 1st Annual Mather Community Campus Fashion Show was not going to be the last. A huge round of thanks and congratulations for all the event student volunteers, support staff, models, and garment contributors who donated their time and talents. And yes, cake and punch were served. Wash Away Homelessness Early in August we received a call from an eager and bubbly young lady, Michelle Mariano, from College Greens Wash & Dry. She and her business partner, Eric Riddell, were interested in doing a Wash Away Homelessness fundraising event to benefit SAEHC! That event took place on Saturday, October 20th at College Greens Wash & Dry on 3309-B Julliard Drive, near Sacramento State University. It was wonderful to see all of the promotion that Michelle and Eric put into this event! Their customers rallied to wash away homelessness by bringing in all of their laundry from which Michelle and Eric donated all of their profits for the day! They also held raffles with prizes donated by local merchants, created press and radio releases, distributed flyers, and enthusiastically talked the event up to friends, relatives and associates. This all resulted in the raising of over $300 in cash for our homeless at SAEHC, a generous donation of about 1,500 snacks by Campbell’s Soup, and many other generous contributions. Michelle and Eric recently left careers at Hewlett Packard to found this business true to their pioneer spirit. We are further delighted that Michelle has agreed to join our Fairytale Town After Hours committee to assist with next years’ fundraiser scheduled for September 12th, 2008. Michelle, Eric, and all of your loyal customers, our sincerest appreciation! Visit http://www.laundrydone4u.com/dayofgiving102007.html for more information.