Fort Yuma Rotary's Back to School Event

On Saturday, August 2nd, 2014, Fort Yuma Rotary held our Annual Back to School Event, where we had the most awesome opportunity to take 32 kids shopping for back to school clothes.  The event was organized and planned by a committee of Rotarians. This event has been taking place annually for over a decade.  This year’s event was chaired by Yara Nash with committee members Damaris Arrizon, Renee Dinwiddie, Nora Bonillas, and Sara Gray.  32 children were pre-selected for participation from Crossroads Mission’s family shelter, Safehouse, Child and Family Services, Arizona Children’s Association, Amberly’s Place and Yuma County Housing Dept.

 

Each child is accompanied by a Rotarian volunteer who helps them shop before the stores open, first at Payless Shoes who has generously helped with additional discounts and then JC Penney’s.  We also had many individual sponsors to help us provide each child with a backpack filled with age appropriate school supplies and a haircut to ensure they were ready for school.

 

Through a combination of fundraisers held during the past 12 months, such as our recent Centennial Block Party, PUTS night time golf event and Penitentiary Pint Fest, Fort Yuma Rotary club allocates funds to cover the majority of the cost of taking the children in need on a back to school shopping event.  Additional funds were raised through sponsorships from businesses and individuals.  We are extremely grateful to JC Penney’s, Payless Shoes, The Law office of Candy Camarena who donated funds to cover the cost of shoes for each child at Payless Shoes this year and to Aiello Eye Institute for donating all of the backpacks and Maggie from Allure Salon for the Hair Cut certificates for all the children!  Other sponsors included Tom Rush with Yuma Investment Group, Brian Geren with Mohave State Bank, Steve Meinhardt with Yuma Insurance, the Law office of Bruce Jensen, and individual Rotarians: Julie Barrows, Robin Hardee, Bobbi Jo Evans, Kortnee Garcia, and Brad Sackrider.

 

All in all, we feel the Children went home with clothes they could be proud to wear and a great big smile ready for what their new school year brings them.