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ANNOUNCEMENTS:
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January 23rd - March 27th - Parenting classes offered by Sonoma Valley Youth and Family Services. To register
click here.
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January 29th - ServSafe Certification and Service Etiquette training offered from 4-8 pm. Open to teens and adults; dinner provided. Contact Francesca Fifis -
[email protected]g or call 707-939-1452 to register. Classes every last Monday of the month.
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February 4th - Operation Bicycle offers its second Sunday Bike Mechanics/Earn a Bike Workshop.
Contact Adrian Palenchar - [email protected]
- February 15th - 2018 Work Readiness Certification workshops begin.
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A LETTER FROM CRISTIN
With the start of the new year, we are both encouraged and excited at Teen Services. Thanks to the success of our Ready to Work programs, 2018 will bring expanded services and opportunities for our youth and new business partnerships. We look forward to sharing these with you in the coming months.
January is also a time to reflect on the past year. Certainly, 2017 had its challenges for our community and many of those challenges continue. At times, it is easy to feel a bit lost, but if we look beyond troubling politics and natural disasters, we can find a host of success stories and inspiration. This newsletter is dedicated to just that and I hope it brings as much joy to you as it has for us at TSS.
This January newsletter is also our chance to say thank you to everyone who played a part in supporting our efforts. Whether it be attending Cowboy Cab, baking pies, refurbishing bikes, decorating cookies, coaching a Ready-to-Work teen, contributing to our end-of-the-year appeal, offering in-kind services, or volunteering in other ways, each of you is helping us to make a difference in Sonoma Valley. Thank you.
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REFLECTIONS ON 2017
We kicked off the year with a Teen Center remodel!
Ready to Work
celebrated the graduation of three Work Readiness cohorts, an expanded workshop curriculum, the addition of personal job coaches for each graduate, and a highly successful Summer Building Project.
In addition, all three TSS micro-businesses upgraded to a Square point-of-sales system and each had cause for celebration:
-
Operation Bicycle
held its first ever Earn-a-Bike/Bike Mechanics class in December in which teen mechanics learn by doing. This will be a monthly offering starting in February. In addition, OB offered support to those in need through its Bike Give Away program. In 2017, 25 bikes were given to the homeless, 15 to those who lost their bikes in the fire, and one to a hit & run victim thanks to a caring CHP officer.
- Lovin' Oven increased its number of customers and secured a contract with Body Best to provide chocolate chip cookies for their customers. The holiday pie sale was another success, and we added a professional touch to our cookies thanks to the generous talents of Amy Hunsberger.
- The No Name Café reached record sales thanks in part to some new food items, a new paint job by the Kiwanis of Sonoma, the addition of outdoor greenery thanks to Cathy Williamson and Sonoma Mission Gardens, and new equipment and furnishings thanks to Impact100 Sonoma.
Additional activities at
The Teen Center
included yoga and the initiation of a weekly Girls' Club funded by the Soroptimists Club, as well as numerous special field trips including exploring the wildlife at Stuart's Creek, enjoying the energetic song and dance of Transcendence, and an extraordinary visit to Google!!
We were thrilled to be the recipient of two prestigious awards this year. Teen Services was featured in the Valley of the Moon magazine as the recipient of a Spotlight Award from the Women's Collective Giving Grantmakers Network (below left), and TSS also received a North Bay Leadership Award for Empowering the Latino Community (below right). Link to video
Of course, our most treasured highlight is always our teens, and this year more so than ever. Many assisted at food distribution centers in October, and more recently participants in our Girls' Club worked with Marcie Waldron to create and sell beautiful Sonoma Strong heart necklaces as a fundraising project for local firefighters. But not only did they step up their volunteer efforts in response to fire recovery needs, they reached out to the homeless served by
Sonoma Overnight Support
. Once a month, Adrian Palenchar (OB Coordinator) and his teens head over to SOS to offer free bike repair and tune-ups, and once a week, teens from the Lovin' Oven prepare a nutritious meal for SOS clients ... all part of our new
Teen Volunteer Corps.
And we can't forget the fun at
Cowboy Cab
....
And the
4th of July
....
For the full slide show of these memories,
click here.
And so many other highlights, including grants from Impact100 Sonoma, the Community Foundation Capacity Building Cohort, Rose Marie Piper, Speedway Children's Charities, Exchange Bank, Westamerica Bank, Vadasz Family Foundation, Rabobank, and Sonoma Plaza Foundation, plus all of the generous donations from local businesses and caring individuals who recognize and support Sonoma Valley teens.
And we end with a heartfelt thank you to special friends -
Chuck and Cathy Williamson
. Their generous challenge gift resulted in a highly successful end of the year appeal, which means to us an even better and brighter 2018!
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THANK YOU TO ALL END OF YEAR DONORS!
Individuals
Marilyn & Bob Albright
Bill & Shirley Angeloni
Barry Ansell
Lorraine Ashton
Sherman & Louise Beifelt
Amelia Belle & Robert Rudorf
Simon & Kimberly Blattner
Tim Boeve & Nori Spinet
John & Elizabeth Brady
Michael & Susan Brooks
Nancy & Henry Bruce
Eugene & Loranna Campagna
Dave Chambers & Jean Hopeman-Chambers
Ronald & Audrey Chapman
Richard & Isabelle Chesley
Kendall Comfort & Randall Jahn
John & Christy Coulston
Katherine & Tom Culligan
Arleen Curry
Ed & Jan Davis
Harriet Derwingson
John and Sara Donnelly
Rudy Doormann
Sandy & Dick Drew
Reann & Aurelia Dukes
Anastacia and Osias Encarnacion
Jerry & Margo Estruth
Margaret Evans
Whitney & Jeannette Evans
David Faris
Stanley & Noreen Feig
Cristin & Paul Felso
Art & Sandy Fichtenberg
Francesca Fifis
Anina Fullet
Gemma Gallovich & Ted Cutler
Fred & Pam Gilberd
Beth Hadley
Richard & Carol Hanna
Doug Hanford
Penny Hartman
Kay Rose & Roger Heigel
Carin & Tyler Hewitt
Sue Hoey
Ted & Wendy Hoffman
Mary Clark Janis
Debbie Jeanminette
Julianne Jones
James & Jill Kamahele
Eileen & Louis Keister
Bryan Koeberer
Natalie Kuldell
Deb Kweller
Marguerite LaDue & Keith Liimatta
Joseph & Carole LaTorre
Joelynn Lee
Jeanne Leonard
Joseph & Elaine Lieber
Nancy & Tony Lilly
Dave and Dixie Lindberg
Annette Lomont
Monica Luicatero
Kathleen Lukefahr-Jewell
David & Teresa Martinelli
Don & Carole McLain
Carol Marcus
Cameron McKinley
Manuel Merjil
Leo & Milicent Merle
Doug Mo & Marcia Charles-Mo
Deborah Olinger
Jeanne Montague & Chad Overway
Cynthia Morris
Lorrine Musante
Mary and Lee Nash
Gary & Elsa Nelson
Jim & Barbara Nelson
Carole & Bob Nicholas
Byron & Jeni Nichols
Elizabeth Nicolosi
Hope & Jack Nisson
Richard Nowlin
Pamela Olson & Donald Ryndak
Mark & Tia Pierce
Paul Peyrat
Rory & Deborah Pool
Jack & Jennifer Powers
Jon Randall
John & Sydney Randazzo
Jan Roberts
Angela Ryan
Mabeth & Bill Sanderson
Diana Sanson & Ben Compton
Wayne Schake
Ruthmary Schauer
Judy Scotchmoor & Roland Gangloff
Ray and Denise Silver
Scott Singer
Tom Sours
Susanne Spitzer
Elisa Stancil
Vicki & David Stollmeyer
Stephanie Storms
Stephanie & Greg Stubbs
Barbara Talbott & John Riley
Susan Tam & Ron Matteson
Mark Terry
Jennifer Ullman
Les & Judy Vadasz
Gera Vaz & Randy Reimer
Merlise Wan
Zac & Amy Weinberg
Simon Williams
Chuck & Cathy Williamson
Alison & Joseph Winter
Eva Yearsley
Organizations
Angora Ridge Foundation
Boden Plumbing
The Chesley Family Trust
Geraldine C. Emory Ford Foundation
Heck Foundation
Janet Engelbrecht Trust
Kweller Family Trust
Matthew's Schellville Grill
Northbay Association of Realtors
North Counties Drywall
Northern Pacific Corporation
Paul Felso Construction
Rabobank
Rose Marie Piper Foundation
Rotary Club of Glen Ellen-Kenwood
Sanderson Family Foundation
The Simon Blattner Family Foundation
Warren Roofing
The Winter Family Fund
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