Volunteers from SaddleBrooke Unit 21 wrapped and delivered Holiday Adopt gifts to the Head Start facility using the Kids’ Closet van.
Nancy McCluskey-Moore
SaddleBrooke residents generously supported the Holiday Adopt program, contributing $72,880 in donations. The funds were used to purchase holiday gifts for 207 children and 131 adults living in Mammoth and San Manuel. A total of 288 large bags filled with many gifts were delivered to San Manuel for distribution to the families. This year, the Golden Goose truck had to make two trips to San Manuel due to the number of gift bags! The funds raised were also used to purchase gifts for 210 children on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation.
Last year, SaddleBrooke TWO launched a Pajama Drive on Nov. 24. Residents were asked to bring pajamas of any size (infant to adult), in the original packaging, to the lobbies of the MountainView and Preserve clubhouses. Donors were given the opportunity to enter a drawing for two free tickets to a future DesertView Theatre performance. In total, 69 pairs of pajamas were collected, and SaddleBrooke Community Outreach delivered them to the San Carlos Reservation.
Kim Seales, chair of the Holiday Adopt program in SaddleBrooke, and Maggie de Block, who manages the support for the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, deeply appreciate the tremendous response of SaddleBrooke residents who donated funds, as well as those who volunteered to be unit coordinators, gift shoppers, and wrappers and to the delivery team of Dan Nordhill, Scott Miller, John Aberle, Jim and Mary Floerke, and other volunteers who delivered gifts to their final destination.
More SaddleBrooke units are participating in these holiday programs than in prior years. Participation of a unit largely depends upon volunteers being willing to collect donated funds and then purchase and wrap gifts. Kim Seales and Maggie de Block deeply appreciate the tremendous response of SaddleBrooke residents who donated funds, as well as those who volunteered to shop and wrap.
As part of the Holiday Adopt program, SaddleBrooke Ranch residents “adopted” students from Mountain Vista school in Oracle and the Hayden-Winkelman School District. According to Kim Schweitzer and Myriam Barthole, Holiday Adopt co-chairs for SaddleBrooke Ranch, residents purchased gifts for 72 people from 28 families in Oracle and 159 people from 57 families in Hayden Winkelman. A caravan of four cars filled with gifts drove to Oracle, while a packed Kids’ Closet van, followed by another four cars, drove up to Hayden-Winkelman. In total, the SaddleBrooke Ranch crew delivered 695 packages to bring holiday cheer to 231 people in 85 families! Kim and Myriam extend their thanks to all the wonderful Ranch volunteers who loaned their garages, packed, checked, schlepped, created signs, decorated the beautiful Angel Tree, and did whatever was needed.
It takes a very generous and committed village to brighten a child’s holiday, and both SaddleBrooke and SaddleBrooke Ranch are special places where people really want to help others. Thank you, and may your new year be filled with wonderful moments spent with friends and family.