Holidays For Our Youth

The 2009 holiday season was a wonderful time of giving for AFE! With a total of 5 Holiday events in the month of December, providing over 1600 new toys and meals to children and their families throughout San Diego County. Participants were invited through several organizations such as the San Ysidro school district, San Diego City Schools and Chula Vista School District.

Here are a couple of brief summaries of our Holiday events:

• Alana Etheridge’s “Holiday for Our Youth” at Kings Fishhouse in Carlsbad
  
  
• San Diego Chargers Steve Gregory Holiday Party at the AMC Theatres in Mission Valley
  
  
• San Diego Chargers Steve Gregory Holiday Party at the Kerny Mesa Bowling Alley
  
  
• San Diego Chargers Defensive Linemen hosted a Turkey Giveaway at Wal*Mart
  
  
• C S Keys Holiday for Youth took place at the Tilted Kilt in downtown San Diego
  
  
• Ysabel's Pink Angels Holiday Party at Joyner Elementary
  
  
• INACO and AFE Host 3 Kings Day Holiday Events in Tijuana, Mexico

All of AFE’s programs are made possible by the continued generous support from our gracious sponsors such as Walt & Elizabeth Smoyer, The Eisenberg Group, A.C., Scott Leggett, Executive Director for Surgery One Centers and Spine & Sport Physical Therapy offices, Tom Groff, and Prudential Real Estate. We thank this year’s Holiday event sponsors: Bill & Debbie Pollakov’s “Bikes for Kids” organization (for all the wonderful Bikes), Jeff Drucker, President of Drucker Subway Inc. & Vitamin Water.

A blessed thank you for our Santa's, who each year, & have for the past 12 years provided AFE with the great gifts we provide for so many lives we touch during the Holiday seasons. Tom Groff, one of AFE's “angels,” who hosts annual Holiday parties with the price of admission is an unwrapped gift/new toy that Tom donates to AFE for our many Holiday events throughout the year… Thanks Scott for your continued support of AFE’s Holiday event through your donations of financial support & toy drives over the month of December.

The other key ingredient to the success of this year's events was the participation of our volunteers. Thank you to all AFE's volunteers who gave of their time during this holiday season to bring joy to kids…

Of course, the greatest reward of these programs is the smiles we bring to so many children's faces during a time of year that can be very difficult for families with economic struggles. We count among our blessings the opportunity to give and to touch young lives during the holiday season. Plans are already underway for our 2009 holiday celebrations; please contact us if you are interested in making a donation, hosting a toy drive and/or volunteering.

Click on a photo below to open a larger version