SaddleBrooke Community Outreach Happenings – April 2015

Part of the donations

Part of the donations

Thank you friends and neighbors

Nan Nasser

The annual SaddleBrooke Community Food Drive held on Saturday, March 14 was very successful! Approximately 19,000 pounds of food were delivered that day to the Tri Community Food Bank in Mammoth and checks are still being tallied with over $12,000 received to date!

Thank you to Thomas Brothers Construction Company for supplying SBCO with a truck and some willing helpers. Thank you, Oracle Ford, for offering a pickup truck for the overflow. Thank you, SaddleBrooke Ranchers for a five car line up of food and monetary donations. Thank you, residents here in SaddleBrooke, for participating with donations of food and money. Thank you, unit captains, for dispersing information and picking up donations. Thank you, sorters and go-fers and to the many volunteers from the TCFB, Rotary and even the young men at Sycamore Canyon Ranch in Oracle for helping to unload. And thank you Rich, and Joan Roberts, for organizing and overseeing this amazing support for needy people just north of us.

TCFB provides food to approximately 900 people each month (including 295 seniors), in the areas of Oracle, Mammoth, San Manuel and a few communities to the north. Each recipient is entitled to a food box based on Federal Government regulations that will provide food for three days. The size of the box is determined by the number of people in the family. The items from the food drive will supplement those boxes. TCFB is 100% volunteer, like SBCO. Many of the volunteers in Mammoth are also clients.

SBCO provides clothing, food support and education opportunities to the children in that service area. In the Mammoth STEM school there are 115 students, 97% eligible for free/reduced lunch programs. In San Manuel the elementary school has 430 children with 83% eligible for the food programs. In Oracle, Mountain Vista School has 420 students with 63% receiving free/reduced lunches. Your support of food drives like this one do make a difference!

Part of the donations

Part of the donations

Help us help our kids

Nan Nasser

For many years SaddleBrooke Community Outreach has been recycling aluminum cans to help support our programs for needy children in neighboring communities. We have worked well with Tucson Iron and Metal, and recently received a note saying that our current receipt for $840 should have been for $1440, but there was so much trash in the roll off bin that it had to be discounted from the total weight.

Help us help our kids! Please place only aluminum cans in the dumpster. If you bring them to the bin in a plastic bag please take the bag home. Despite all the signs around the dumpster, as well as the poster on the step, people tend to use this as a place to discard all types of garbage.

We encourage you to check with your current garbage contractor to see what types of aluminum products are appropriate for at-home disposal. The loss of revenue can affect the kids in a reduced number of clothing items, hygiene items and even books.

The recycle bin is located in the Pickleball parking lot off of Ridgeview Avenue below the RV storage area. SBCO provides clothing to youngsters in a 100 mile corridor beginning in Catalina and extending to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. Our education program includes tutoring, scholarships and support of enrichment programs. We support the Tri Community Food Bank with our annual community food drive and additional financial donations during the year.