Project Angel Wings Holiday Wrap-Up!
This past Holiday Season was amazing!
Our first Project Angel Wings Holiday Program was held on Saturday December 6th at Camp Hess Kramer, hosted by California Supply, Marla and Jeffrey Michaels and Kiwanis Club of Malibu! We had children from LA's BEST and some of our Vita Network families attend- and it was a truly marvelous success. We also had WONDERFUL donors through our Crowdrise #GivingTower Holiday Challenge this past month-with friends like Burt & Joan Ross, Kristina Sanborn, Sol & Dave Wein, John Whelpley, and so many, many other great friends & supporters.
First- JAKKs Pacific donated over 1,015 toys, and Mattel donated amazing and great boys and girls toys, as well! The Malibu Schools, Action-Agape, Malibu Partners Trust Realty, HULU, Truxton's Santa Monica all held wonderful toy drives for us (and Action-Agape volunteers even wrapped all of their toys! The week of Christmas, we visited Homeboy Industries' Holiday Party, and donated over 500 toys and L'Oreal make-up! Sean our Program Director also delivered toys to several local area-shelters, and on Christmas Day, we went down to Midnight Mission (where Sean had delivered another 700+ toys) and walked children through their Santa's Village, where they were allowed to pick their own toys out! OSEA Skincare also donated 40 amazing bags of toiletries for our moms and teen girls!
Each family in our Vita Network received a $500 stipend, thanks to our amazing friends at the Oder Family Foundation, and our teens will be receiving their winter scholarships, along with gift cards for the holidays! Special thanks to Mark Kramer (above- with CLF Founder Maria D'Angelo) for being our great Santa, and to Patrick Sullivan, Burt & Joan Ross, Dea & Dayna Shandera & Brent, Ali, William & Olivia Thonson, Nancy King, Erin Wall-Sanchez, Cheryl Burns, Lisa Schwartz, and so many local families who purchased toys and gifts for this program.
Read about it HERE in the Malibu Times,along with Burt Ross' truly wonderful Op-Ed piece there. Oh, and the amazing Dea Shandera told of her years of volunteering with CLF here... In Better Homes & Garden magazine!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! It's going to be a great 2015...