Ho! Ho! Ho! Womenade has been helping out Santa these last 2 weeks!
Newsletter 12/19/21
South SLO County Womenade joined with Santa these last two weeks!
IT'S FEEL GOOD TIME AT SOUTH SLO COUNTY WOMENADE
So much has happened in the last two weeks – Here’s a preview
toys, toys, toys
handmade caramel popcorn
new children’s book drive
a massive food distribution
a sparkling December potluck
Christmas food baskets
TOYS! TOYS! TOYS!
A fabulous donor gave us $2,500 to buy toys for children in need in South SLO County. Our elf advocate, Sara Zepeda, went for the ride of her life. She connected with all our advocates in South SLO County, and gathered up lists from them and went shopping. Whiz Kids in SLO and their fabulous staff helped curate the lists, and we were able to meet all the needs on the advocates’ lists. The toys were delivered to the advocates who became Santa Elves and delivered the toys to their clients! Thank you to this amazing donor!
HANDMADE CARAMEL POPCORN
A Womenader, Vanessa Fujimoto has been providing beautiful cookie trays every year from her annual cookie swap. This year, due to timing, she pivoted and made 25 beautiful tins of homemade caramel popcorn for families in the community, and she stuffed a $25 Target gift card into each tin! Mamas were so happy to receive this generous gift. In addition Vanessa has made beautiful reversible aprons. She sold them for $25 apiece, a real bargain for these handmade treasures, and gave the sale proceeds to Womenade. We sold another 7 aprons at our December potluck. Thank you Vanessa!
A LAST MINUTE NEW BOOK DRIVE
Another Womenader, Sharon McDaniel and her girlfriends decided that they wanted to hold a new book drive for children in our community from December 12th through the 17th. They had three drop off locations in south county and in that one week’s time they collected over 250 new books which were delivered to the agencies in Arroyo Grande and Nipomo to deliver in time for Christmas! Thank you to Sharon McDaniel and her friends!
A MASSIVE FOOD DRIVE
We were so fortunate that our last “big” rain storm came and left us with over 2 inches of rain and blessedly stopped raining at 3PM on Tuesday December 14th, just in time for us to start unloading, packing and giving out food. With the Lucia Mar School District giving out holiday food to any family that needed it, we weren’t sure how many families would show up. Also, often when it rains, many families don’t want to venture out after picking up the kids. It was one of those – “neither snow nor rain, nor sleet nor wind will keep us from our food” days. It was a dark, damp and very cold evening but our stalwart team of volunteers made the magic happen. Our clients showed up in great numbers. The SLO Foodbank, (supplemented by food donated through Womenade) has been amazing all year with giving us food to distribute to the food insecure in Nipomo and surrounding communities. The Foodbank tells us that we gave food to 307 families and nearly 1,000 individuals on Tuesday! Thank you to the Foodbank and our amazing volunteers!
A SPARKLING DECEMBER POTLUCK
On December 15th about 40 women gathered for our December Fundraising potluck at Candace and Phil Guldeman’s amazingly decorated home. Since we are still in the pandemic we asked everyone to present their vaccination card, mask up indoors, use hand sanitizer before handling utensils and eat outdoors if they were able to. We raised over $2,000 the night of the potluck, and another $1,000 plus from checks mailed in. Thank you to Candace and Phil for opening their amazing home to us.
Advocates from almost all our partner agencies represented, and “walked their talk” with their storyboards to share what’s happening with their clients. Very informative. Thank you to these amazing advocates for “working” at our potluck, and sharing their stories!
CHRISTMAS FOOD BASKETS
During the Great Thanksgiving Food Basket giveaway last month we discovered 2 early head start programs in Nipomo that we did not know existed. We did not have any food for them. We connected with them, and decided that we would do a similar Food basket for the 2 programs for Christmas. We have prepared 2 full bags of holiday food plus a turkey for each of the 32 family. In addition Mary Anne Morgan and Ann McDowell picked up turkeys from the SLO Foodbank for 20 families at the 3 middle schools and for 10 families in need in the Nipomo neighborhoods.
On behalf of the board of South SLO County Womenade (Ann, Caity, Jill, Sue and Rosemary), we wish you a very happy holiday season and the best for the coming year!
WHILE YOU’RE SHOPPING THIS HOLIDAY SEASON
If you’re shopping on Amazon this holiday season, please consider using smile.amazon.com and sponsor us: San Luis Obispo County Womenade. Thank you
HOW TO DONATE
To make a donation write a check to South SLO County Womenade and mail to: South SLO County Womenade, 1793 Farroll Rd., Grover Beach, CA 93433
or go to our website sslocw.org
or use paypal.me/sslocwomenade
As you consider your year-end donations, please remember that if your company has a matching grants program to please include us. Also if you donate through the United Way at work, you can allocate your donation to San Luis Obispo County Womenade Our EIN# is: 27-0809744
Our email is: sslocwomenade@gmail.com
Our website is: sslocw.org
Phone number: (805) 270-5751
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