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Giving Tuesday, November 28th
Assistance League of Inland North County is grateful for your generosity and ongoing support as we enter our 39th Year of Transforming Lives and Strengthening Communities.
Because you gave, in fiscal year ending May 31, 2023, we were able to give $164,000 to provide shoes and clothing for more than 2500 under-served children under Operation School Bell® enabling them to attend school with dignity and confidence, thereby performing better and increasing their chances of success. Our recipients have remarkable stories to tell, some going back generations. Several years ago, we put solar panels on our roof to reduce our electric bill. One of the people who worked on our project spent quite a few days in our building and came to realize it was the same place where he was the recipient of school clothes and shoes more than twenty years before, when we were buying massive amounts of jeans and other clothing and hosting the families in our building.
Because you gave, we also awarded $135,000 in Scholarships to high school graduates, and to Nursing, EME and Trades students, many who were first in family to attend college or came to this country to escape war or persecution. Our scholarship recipients include mothers who have gone back to school to make a better life for their children as well as young people who were helped when trauma entered their lives and want to pursue an EME program to help others as they were helped. This program also has its share of legacies: a recent high school graduate and scholarship winner wrote a heartfelt thank you for his award and noted that he too was a grateful recipient of school clothes and shoes when he was in third grade. It gave him the boost he needed to do a better job in his educational journey and be accepted into a top university.
Because you gave, in our last fiscal year, we provided $20,000 in basic necessities, enabling homeless and foster high school graduates who are thrust out on their own, to set up their first independent living arrangements in higher education or the workforce. In the Foster Care system, young people are on their own upon graduating from high school, often without any support system to help them figure out what to do next. We work with the school district personnel who help these young people find their way and advise us on what we can provide to fulfill their needs today.
Because you gave, we provided hundreds of Hug-A-Bears to children and families in crisis, caps and blankets for newborns, as well as gifts and visits for home-bound seniors.
And while we are grateful that we were able to help many people, the numbers do not meet what we have done in the past and the needs have grown immeasurably. For two years, due to reduced budgets and no “extra” funds, we have not been able to address our Outreach Program which is intended to provide emergency funding for critical needs. Now we ask you to help us again by donating on Giving Tuesday, November 28th, to put shoes on children’s feet, to give comfort to a fearful victim, to help a foster or homeless high school graduate start a life on their own and often, to just put food on the table.
We find ourselves facing inflation like so many of you: children’s shoes, basic food, even the Hug-A-Bears, have increased in cost well beyond expectations. We have served the Inland North County community for more than 38 years and can only continue Transforming Lives and Strengthening Communities with your unwavering support. Please help us if you can by making your donation to Assistance League of Inland North County online or by mail.
To donate: https://www.assistanceleague.org/inland-north-county/donate/
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