Santa’s helper Becky Wentz contributed her gift-wrapping skills to the Adopt-A-Family program.
Nancy McCluskey-Moore
Although the number of families requesting assistance from the annual Adopt-a-Family and Adopt-a-Child programs increased by 14 to 18 percent in 2023, SaddleBrooke residents stepped up, and the Adopt-A-Family program was able to help 83 families, consisting of 230 children and 133 adults, living in Mammoth and San Manuel. The Adopt-A-Child program provided gifts for 230 children on the San Carlos Apache reservation.
A big thank you is owed to the many SaddleBrooke residents who donated money to these holiday programs, as well as those who took on the task of shopping for gifts, wrapping them (how do you wrap a basketball?), bagging and tagging them, and, finally, delivering them to their final destinations. The delivery to San Manuel alone involved 285 huge gift bags!
It’s also notable that more SaddleBrooke units participated in these holiday programs than in prior years. Both Kim Seales, the Adopt-A-Family chair, and Maggie de Blanc, the Adopt-A-Child chair, greatly appreciate the tremendous response of SaddleBrooke residents who donated to these programs, as well as those who volunteered to shop and wrap. It takes a village to brighten a child’s holiday, and we live in a special place where people want to help others.
As part of the Adopt-A-Family program, SaddleBrooke Ranch residents “adopted” students from Mountain Vista School in Oracle. According to Kim Schweitzer and Myriam Barthole, Adopt-A-Family co-chairs for SaddleBrooke Ranch, when they initially received gift requests for 161 students, they were concerned about raising enough funds to cover them all. However, the generous Ranchers met that need and more. In the end, they provided gifts for 178 kids.
It takes a village to brighten a child’s holiday, and both SaddleBrooke and SaddleBrooke Ranch are special places where people really want to help others.