Sharks Alumni Foundation,
Thank you all so much for your kindness and generosity! We were honored to be recipients of your amazing fundraising efforts. This has been a trying time in our community at large and your support was uplifting to say the least.
While our program continued with our annual mission to deliver toys to children who are less fortune during the holiday season, we had the added weight of the devastating fires in our area. We lost a large section of our City the night of October 8th and in the days that followed. We began to prepare our toy drive immediately in anticipation of an increased need. Our average number of children that we reach out to is near 5000. This year we are still in the process of counting, but the numbers are high! Reaching out to the victims of the fires was a challenge, but the ultimate reward was surprising them with unexpected generosity. The Sharks Alumni Foundation and the Guns and Hoses Hockey Club made it possible for us to directly adopt and deliver a bountiful Christmas to more than 12 families, and countless additional children, that lost everything in the fires. These families were in the City of Santa Rosa and the greater Sonoma County area. We had the ability to replace clothing, sports equipment, bikes and a lot of toys! We had multiple shoppers out picking out specific requests and many more items that were needed to make the holidays a little extra bright. These gifts were delivered with little fanfare, to protect those who were concerned with their privacy. The appreciation has been heartwarming.
Some of the requests that your donation helped us fulfill were extremely humble. One young man, 13 years old, requested dress shoes, a warm coat and ‘maybe’ a basketball. We not only were able to get him the items on his wish list, but a bike and school supplies. Another was a single mother only making requests for her two young children. We ensured that she and the children received new clothing, shoes and hygiene products, then had fun picking out toys of all types for the kids along with beauty products and small kitchen appliances for the mother.We are still receiving the thank you cards daily. Thank you for being apart of our community in our time of recovery. We will continue on and wish you all the best with your mission to help others!
On behalf of Fabian, Julian, my wife Maria and myself, we thank the organization for their tremendous support. We are not the only families you all have helped but are the most grateful. This is a very big help for us since we as parents give up a lot to give our kids the best possible opportunity to help them thrive. Unfortunately club soccer is very expensive and the club can only provide a certain amount of financial support. They want to go to a division 1 college but I know they can’t because we can’t afford it. A college scholarship hopefully is attainable due to soccer. Where there is a will there is a way, this is something that should fuel them to work harder for their dreams. I feel very energized and hungry to help out others even more so because of your actions. Once again, we Thank You All from the bottom of our hearts!
