Summer backpack season
SaddleBrooke Community Outreach’s Kids’ Closet doesn’t go on hiatus, even when the school year ends. Annually the program purchases backpacks and fills them with grade-appropriate school supplies for the coming school year. Backpacks have already been purchased and loaded with much needed supplies, such as ruled paper, folders, scissors, pencils, glue, eraser and crayons. May through July the backpacks will be delivered to eight elementary schools in the Copper Corridor, including those in Mammoth, San Manuel, Oracle, Winkelman, Superior, Kearney and Miami. When the school year begins in August, the backpacks will be distributed to delighted students in grades one through six.
Put your aluminum cans to work
For more than a decade, SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) has been recycling donated aluminum cans to raise funds for clothing, food and educational programs that benefit children in nearby communities. Using the recycling services of Tucson Iron & Metal, SBCO has to date raised $48,099.
To recycle bags or boxes full of aluminum cans, simply turn off Ridgeview at the driveway for 40007 S. Ridgeview Drive (a green sign marks this as the entrance to pickleball parking). The recycling container is located on the left side of the drive, before you reach the Lago Del Oro and SaddleBrooke Utilities offices. Simply drive up to the recycling bin and deposit the cans. Please be sure take your bag, box or other container home with you since items other than aluminum cans in the bin result in an extra handling fee. Every three or four months, the container is replaced and SBCO reaps the rewards of your recycling efforts.
Bring home those little bottles of shampoo
Going on vacation? Bring home from your hotel stay those unopened bottles of shampoo, conditioner or lotion and Kids’ Closet will put them to good use. Annually, in the spring and fall, Kids’ Closet provides school wardrobes to approximately 3300 needy children in our tri-county area. In addition to shoes, clothing and books, they are given soap, toothpaste and a toothbrush. Children in grades four and above particularly appreciate receiving a small bag of hotel toiletries instead of the soap.
Donations of hotel toiletries are collected all year long and can be delivered to the SaddleBrooke Community Outreach office, located at Suite L in the SaddleBrooke market complex, during regular weekday office hours. The office phone number is 825-3302. SaddleBrooke Ranch residents can bring their donations to the front desk at the clubhouse. Jan Olsson, who picks up those donations, can be contacted at 825-7283. Toiletry donations also can be brought to the Kids’ Closet in Mammoth when volunteering. Stalwart volunteer Willie Reich bags the collected items, which then are distributed to students when they shop at Kids’ Closet in the fall and spring.