With the scenic backdrop of the Pacific Ocean, St. Germaine Children’s Charity members came together on June 6 at the iconic La Valencia Hotel for their Annual Grant Awards and Membership Luncheon. With over 100 attendees, this years luncheon chair Coco Bancroft and her volunteer team orchestrated a beautiful event featuring stunning table florals from Bridget’s Blooms, a delectable lunch menu and an atmosphere of celebration.
The event started-off with a warm welcome from departing President Katie Christensen, followed by a beautifully delivered invocation from Past President Wendy Neri.
“One of the most powerful thing for me about St. Germaine is that our focus on preventing and ending child abuse means it is not only about the children we are serving today, in present time, but about their children; the children of the future!”
Andrea Anderson, VP of Philantropy, gave a heartfelt speech as she introduced Elizabeth W. Fitzsimons from Episcopal Community Services, the Barbara Christensen Award Recipient.
Barbara Christensen Heart of San Diego Award Recipient
Keynote speaker Elizabeth W. Fitzsimons, told a compelling story of the work Episcopal Community services does, citing an example of a single dad struggling to provide for his children while he was on the verge of losing it, and how her organization helped him learn to cope and response to stressors that prevented cycles of neglect and abuse.
The highlight of the luncheon was the grant ceremony. Grant Co-Chair Sue Kalish and VP of Philantropy Andrea Anderson took the stage and awarded $135,000 in grants to 12 agencies that support our organization’s mission to stop child abuse. The agencies honored with grants are listed in Grant Recipients 2023.
Janice Farnow, incoming Board President shared with the attendees that Charity Navigator, the largest evaluator of charities in the U.S., awarded St. Germaine Children’s Charity its highest rating: four out of four stars! They classified SGCC under Crime Prevention. Janice drove home the reason why the members are so passionate about working with SGCC – to help prevent crimes against children.
Kathryn Stephens, 2023 Silver Tea Chair, ended today’s event with a nice lead into the 2023 Silver Tea and what she planned to achieve at this years fundraising.
And the raffle drawings — the party wouldn’t be complete without them! The reactions of the winners (or winning table is more like it) were priceless.
We are grateful to our Grant Recipients working on the front lines. These agencies provide care to vulnerable newborns and children with disabilities who cannot defend or speak for themselves as well as other children who can speak but don’t. These agencies work to give these children a fighting chance to survive this world . . . the abuse and bruises may disappear, but the pain can last a lifetime.
St. Germaine Children’s Charity recognizes the difficulties of their work and is proud to provide financial support to San Diego agencies that work to achieve our organization’s mission. To learn more about what each of these agencies do, click HERE.
Thank you to all the St. Germaine Children’s Charity volunteers who helped make today special.