RB Sunrise Assists Valley Elementary School PTA Holiday Project

Posted by Demerie Hill

on Dec 06, 2010

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Happy children at wrapping station.

On Saturday December 4^th, over 15 members of the Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotary Club partnered with 9 members from their sister club, the Tijuana Milenio Minarete Rotary Club, to help out at Valley Elementary School’s annual “Celebration of Giving Project”. This event, organized by the Parent-Teacher Association at Poway Unified’s Valley Elementary School, was a huge success. This event had over 400 attendees, including over 200 children and students at Valley.

This longstanding event that has taken place for over 10 years, is an opportunity for children to get gifts, free of charge, for loved ones in advance of the upcoming holidays. In addition to having a craft station for hand-made gifts, each child was also allowed to select one gift from the shopping mall to take home. Families were also given the opportunity to eat breakfast and take photos in the instant photo booth, creating great memories of the event.

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L to R: Tijuana Rotary Club member Abrahan , RB Sunrise past president Nasrin Barbee, Tijuana Club member Claudio, RB Sunrise past president Rex Teets at the gift "mall"

The Rancho Bernardo Sunrise Rotary Club provided breakfast for the families, consisting of cereal, milk, OJ, muffins, and fruit. In addition, the RB Sunrise Rotary sponsored the gifts available for the children to select in the shopping mall. The Rotarians had a great time working with the children on everything from craft making to gift-wrapping. Project Coordinator Mark Berdan was in charge of organizing the large team of Rotary members who participated in this event. He noted, “Our club is especially fond of these types of projects, because we get to see where our money goes, and it gives us the opportunity to do something hands on.”

Many local groups came together to make this event a success, including the Del Norte Key Club, Poway Key Club, RB High THRIVE Club and Poway AVID, as well as students from Poway, Del Norte, and Rancho Bernardo High Schools. Says Tammie Statler, president of the Valley Elementary Parent-Teacher Association, “We had over 200 children attend this event and I loved to see the joy on their faces when they made their gifts. I am so grateful for the community support to make this event a success!”