Record Number of North County Families to Receive Shopping Carts Filled with Donated Food, Clothing, Blankets, Toys, and More

Community Resource Center’s 26th Annual Holiday Baskets Program is the largest comprehensive holiday distribution program of its kind in the county. Hundreds of volunteers will be transforming the Grandstands at the Del Mar Fairgrounds into a 20,000 square-foot shopping warehouse so that a record 1,200 low-income families can experience “free” holiday shopping this season on December 19, 20, and 21. Eligible North County families will fill their shopping carts or “baskets” with donated turkeys, staple foods, blankets, clothing, toys, and much more.

Economic challenges have slowed donations, but Community Resource Center (CRC) remains optimistic as calls come in from the community offering to help. “We have many of our veteran drive organizers on board, and we’ve had a number of new groups organizing new drives in November and December,” says Laurin Pause, CRC Executive Director. “We are particularly concerned about donations of food, jackets, and toys. The number of families in need of CRC social services has increased by 200% this year, and we are doing our best to keep up for programs like Holiday Baskets.” Holiday Baskets distributed 42 tons of donated food, more than 4,000 jackets, and 2,500 toys last December and organizers are counting on its big drives, along with several smaller ones, to help reach that goal again. “At the very least, we want to make sure the families most in need have food and warmth this holiday season,” says Pause. “Any help would be greatly appreciated.”

Over 200 groups are now collecting items for the program and include schools, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Rotary Clubs, the Encinitas Sheriff’s Department, local businesses and government, Ecke Ranch, Lusardi Construction, churches, foundations, and much more. Community Resource Center supervises the deliveries, drop-offs, and distribution of items and the registration of families for the program.

More than 1,600 volunteers and staff will work around the clock to begin sorting over food, toys, outer wear and much more at the Del Mar Fairgrounds site starting on November 24 and continuing through December 21.

Those interested in donating, collecting, delivering, or distributing items for Holiday Baskets should contact Community Resource Center at 760-230-6305.

To learn more about CRC and Holiday Baskets, please go to www.crcncc.org

The program relies on the donation of items collected by over 200 groups in the community.

High Needs items for the Holiday Baskets program currently include the following:
- Non-perishable Food (canned or boxed)
- Jackets & Coats, all sizes (New or gently used)
- New Toys & Teen Gifts (unwrapped)

Drop-Off Centers for Holiday Baskets
- CRC Thrift Store, 111 “C” Street, in Encinitas (9-5 daily)
- Coldwell Banker Encinitas, 740 Garden View Court #100, in Encinitas (during business hours)

Preferred Donation Deadline: December 12th, but items will be accepted through December 19th. Those interested in donating or collecting items for Holiday Baskets should contact Community Resource Center at 760-230-6305. For online donations, volunteer opportunities, and other information, please go to www.crcncc.org

Two SDSVP Ladies Are 2009 “Women Of Distinction”

The Salvation Army awards 15 fabulous ladies each year who make a difference in San Diego. We are very proud to announce that two of our Partners have been honored this prestigious “Women of Distinction” award for 2009. Congraluations to Louarn Sorkin and Jan Tuttleman!

We already knew we were lucky to have these incredible women as part of our group, now the entire community will be able to toast their extraordinary accomplishments. Help us celebrate and honor them on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 for the awards ceremony.

The woman of SDSVP would love to put together tables of ten ladies each to cheer Louarn and Jan. If you would like to be part of this event, please contact Peggy Kidd at peggy@sdsvp.org. The tickets are $85. Let’s get a real cheering squad for these two ladies!

Besides her multiple roles with SDSVP, including being known as the woman who keeps the “Social” in Social Venture Partners, Louarn has chaired the Mardi Gras fundraiser for the La Jolla Opera Guild, and is active with the American Cancer Society, the Boys and Girls Clubs, and the San Diego Grant Makers. She is a founder of Just In Time, a group that aids youth leaving foster care.

Jan was the founder and first chair of the Jewish Women’s Foundation, and has worked with many foundations, and with Voices For Children. Jan is a recipient of the Anne Ratner Award for Community Leadership.

Mary Beth Kellee and Hugh Dunklee

Hard-charging dynamo Mary Beth Kellee has been a shining star in the San Diego social scene for over 12 years. Born and raised in Ohio, she began a ballet school where she taught both ballet and gymnastics. This was followed by a retail sales and management career in New York with J. Riggings, Proving Ground and Shiseido Cosmetics. Having successfully conquered upstate New York, Shiseido promoted and sent her to Boston in the capacity of Northeast Training Director, where she remained for seven years until being recruited by Laura Ashley to become its North American Training Director, a position that included 15 direct reports.

The lure of the west coast became irresistible, as did a certain Hugh Dunklee from San Diego (who later became her husband), so Mary Beth sold everything and left Massachusetts to run a 5-star ski resort with Hugh in Vail, Colorado. Following a very long and cold winter, Mary Beth and Hugh left for California and pursued real estate careers in San Diego for almost eight years.

She then found her passion in volunteering and coordinating events as founder of 2 and 2 Consulting, which capitalizes on her ability to effectively connect people, businesses and non-profits. Numerous worthwhile local charities have found a true champion in Mary Beth, and she sits on the boards of various non-profit organizations including United Cerebral Palsy, Jenna Druck Foundation, Beach and Country Guild and the Santaluz Community Council. In addition, Mary Beth serves in an advisory capacity to the Santaluz Advisory Committee, Burn Institute, San Diego Center for Children, City Ballet of San Diego and the Sudanese Community Center.

‘Fundraiser-to-the-stars’, she has successfully chaired and presided over countless events. Some of her many successes include organizing the most productive fundraising team in the country for UCP’s “Ride without Limits” and coordinating its 50th anniversary VIP event, “The Sky’s the Limit.” She is chairing the VIP experience for “Your Best Year Ever” in January of 2009 at the Sports Arena benefiting the Jenna Druck Foundation. As past president and press chair for Beach and Country Guild’s “Dia Del Sol” event in both 2006 and 2007, she was instrumental in raising an unprecedented $500K in contributions. She created and continues to oversee the Santaluz Community Council Speaker Series “Words, Wine and Wisdom”, which features a wide range of engaging programs and included a recent appearance by one of the Lost Boys.

Mary Beth’s latest venture is a new line of healthy and organic products being launched in partnership with renowned naturopathic chef Tina Martini. In recognition of her tireless efforts, Mary Beth was named San Diego Magazine’s “Volunteer of the Year” in 2006.

By joining SDSVP, Mary Beth hopes to expand her social and philanthropic network. She is known as a "connector" of people and plans to introduce many of her social network people to SDSVP.

Mary Beth loves health and fitness and was just voted one of San Diego's Top 10 Best Dressed Gals! Hugh and Mary Beth have two dogs, Hunter & Skyler.

Philanthropy and The Economy - Part I

SDSVP has compiled several articles and resources showing how philanthropy can lead the way in helping nonprofits during these hard economic times. Click on the links below for the articles, then share your thoughts by commenting on this post.

Philanthrocapitalism on Trial
Will the collapse of the global financial system also bring down philanthrocapitalism?

In Hard Times Philanthropy Can Lead the Way
Philanthropy can help the public work through the most critical challenges facing the nation right now: making choices and setting priorities.

Managing in Tough Times: 7 Steps
Even for nonprofit leaders who are accustomed to 'making much of little,' the repercussions of the unfolding economic downturn are likely to pose unprecedented challenges.

Giving USA Spotlight - The Economy
This issue of Giving USA Spotlight looks at recessions and economic slowdowns and their impact on charitable giving in order to help nonprofit organizations anticipate what might occur in 2008–2009 and plan accordingly.

Resilient Philanthropy
While it is clear that a strong stock market provides donors with a greater ease and sense of confidence in making gifts to nonprofit organizations, the opposite is not true. Down markets do not always foretell decreased philanthropy.

Communications Working Group Update - November 2008

The Communications Working Group (CWG) is

• Providing assistance with Partner Bootcamp by leveraging resources to produce promo video and other announcement material
• Revising Investee Story/Case Study Project templates and interview questions based on the work of Dallas SVP’s storytelling initiative
• Creating Investee stories/case studies using interns and volunteers
• Writing new Partner profiles for the SDSVP newsletter
• Continuing work on the master communication plan