SaddleBrooke residents generously supported the Holiday Adopt program, providing support for 66 families, consisting of 184 children and 106 adults, living in Mammoth and San Manuel. The number of families requesting assistance from the annual Holiday Adopt program decreased this year because the school district focused mainly on the elementary school-aged children and some large families had moved from the area. However, this allowed us to contribute over $12,000 to the purchase of gifts for 250 children on the San Carlos Apache Indian 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, bagging and tagging and finally delivering them to their final destination.
It’s also notable that more SaddleBrooke units participated in these holiday programs than in prior years. Kim Seales, Chair of the Holiday Adopt program and Maggie de Block, who manages the support for the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, deeply appreciates the tremendous response of SaddleBrooke residents who donated funds as well as those who volunteered to shop and wrap.
As part of the Holiday Adopt program, SaddleBrooke Ranch residents “adopted” students from Mountain Vista school in Oracle and the Hayden-Winkelman School District. According to Kim Schweitzer and Myriam Barthole, Holiday Adopt co-chairs for SaddleBrooke Ranch, residents purchased gifts for 98 people from 27 families in the Oracle School District and 98 people and 37 families in the Hayden-Winkelman School District. With an average of three gift boxes per child, they estimate that 538 gifts were packed into bags and delivered to two different schools.
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. Thank you!