Home Tour is around the corner
Nancy McCluskey-Moore
The annual SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) home tour will be held from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 11. This fundraising event helps SBCO support an ever-expanding group of programs benefiting youngsters in nearby communities. This year’s tour will focus on remodeled homes in SaddleBrooke. It’s a great opportunity to view the extensive as well as budget-friendly transformations other residents have made. You’ll see good interior design, obtain information about local service providers and perhaps pick up an idea you’d like to implement in your own home.
Tickets for the home tour go on sale Monday, February 5 at the SBCO office at Suite L in the mini-mart plaza. Tickets cost $15 per person or $25 for two people and are only sold to SaddleBrooke and SaddleBrooke Ranch residents. You can purchase tickets every Monday through Friday between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. at the SBCO office. Call your friends and plan now to attend this delightful fundraising event.
If you would like to serve as a docent in one of the 2018 tour homes, or offer your home for the 2019 tour, please send an email to [email protected].
SBCO enriches lives in many ways
Nancy McCluskey-Moore
Since its founding in 1996, SaddleBrooke Community Outreach’s mission has been to provide opportunities for kids to succeed. Its mission is unchanged, but the variety of programs supported, as well as the number of children served, has expanded dramatically over the past 21 years. Today SBCO’s support serves a 100-mile corridor stretching from Catalina to Miami and San Carlos. More than three counties, eight school districts, 17 schools, three Head Start programs and 4,000 youngsters receive annual assistance from SBCO.
SBCO programs and grants focus on three things important to the success of needy children: Food – Clothing – Education
Food
SBCO donates $30,000 annually to the Tri Community Food Bank (TCFB). Volunteers assemble and deliver Thanksgiving meals for approximately 50 families each year and the annual spring food drive collects food and monetary donations specifically for TCFB. In 2017 the food drive netted more than 24,000 pounds of food and $35,903 in cash donations.
Clothing
Kids’ Closet provides children from preschool through eighth grade who are on the free and reduced lunch program with a fall and spring wardrobe. The wardrobe includes pants (jeans or shorts, depending upon the season), shirts, shoes, socks, underwear, hygiene items and two books, all chosen by the child, with the help of a volunteer dresser. During the fall season a jacket, sweatshirt, knit cap and pair of gloves also are provided. In fiscal year 2016-17, Kids’ Closet served 2,118 children.
Backpacks filled with grade-appropriate school supplies are provided for youngsters in grades 1 through 6 in schools participating in the Kids’ Closet program.
Teen Closet provides up to 45 students between the ages of 14 and 18 with the money and volunteer assistance to purchase school clothing and supplies for fall and spring at Ross Dress for Less and Target.
Adopt a Family brightens the holiday season for needy elementary school students in the tri-community area. Donations are used to purchase a gift or toy from a child’s wish list and the remainder is used to buy durable play clothes.
Adopt a Child provides holiday gifts to needy children living on the San Carlos Indian reservation.
Education
Tutoring in math and reading is provided by an army of volunteers to students in Catalina, Oracle, Mammoth and San Manuel.
Educational Enrichment programs receive grants from SBCO. During the past fiscal year, these programs helped more than 900 children. They included: Central Arizona College Foundation College for Kids Program; Mammoth/San Manuel Talented and Gifted Program; Ray High School trip to Washington D.C.; Coronado High School trip to the Grand Canyon; San Manuel Girls Softball Team; Teens Sew Cool Program; San Manuel-Mammoth Swimming Program; Summer Reading Program.
SBCO also donated 85 pumpkins to Mammoth Head Start for a holiday project.
College Scholarships are vital to many deserving high school graduates being able to attend college. During the past spring, 41 students submitted applications and SBCO provided scholarships to 26 of them.
None of SBCO’s programs would be possible without the work of its members. During the past fiscal year, members reported 18,227 hours and 60,634 miles of volunteer service.
SBCO donors make a difference
Nancy McCluskey-Moore
SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) is able to assist local youngsters with food, clothing and educational opportunities due to the generosity of local businesses and SaddleBrooke and SaddleBrooke Ranch residents. Marvin Rose, President of the Carioca Company which operates the SaddleBrooke Minit Market, makes a generous monthly donation to SBCO. His company’s contribution has helped SBCO to expand the number of college scholarships and educational enrichment programs it supports.
But SBCO’s success takes a village full of supporters, including the companies that sponsor our fundraisers and individual contributors. Those who donate goods to the Golden Goose Thrift Store as well as the store’s patrons also make a significant financial contribution to SBCO. So if you have participated in a Walkathon, attended a home tour, donated to a food drive, written a check for Adopt-a-Family or Adopt-a-Child, used your Bashas’ Community Card to buy groceries or made a general monetary donation, we thank you. Your financial contribution – along with many hours of volunteer labor – makes it possible for SBCO to make a big impact upon the lives of children and families who really need our assistance.