The Pleasanton Weekly distributed checks yesterday totaling $72,156 to 10 Tri-Valley nonprofits that were the beneficiaries of this newspaper’s 2016 Holiday Fund.
As a member of the Rotary Club of Pleasanton, I joined Weekly publisher Gina Channell in the awards ceremony and luncheon which Rotary hosted at Hap’s Original Restaurant on Neal Street in downtown Pleasanton. With us were Sean Rico Fisher and Jonathan Kurup of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which partners with the Weekly in handling the Holiday Fund each year.
It was a timely luncheon, as representatives of these charitable organizations told Rotary members that their organizations need increased funds to meet a growing number of those in need. Even though the Tri-Valley is seeing an economic rebound, the good times have not reached the nonprofit caregivers that depend on public contributions to serve our community, they said.
Contributions to the 2016 Pleasanton Weekly Holiday Fund were distributed in equal amounts of $7,215 to:
* Valerie Jonas, chief development officer at Axis Community Health
* Jennifer Oxe, community engagement director at Agape Villages Foster Family Agency
* Natalie Brown, director of development at Hope Hospice
* Kay King, chairwoman of REACH
* Sandra J. Wing, founder/director of Sandra J. Wing Healing Therapies Foundation
* Robert Taylor, executive director of the Senior Support Program of the Tri-Valley
* Janeen Rubino Brumm, a board member at Sunflower Hill
* Kenny Altenburg, branch operations director for the Tri-Valley YMCA
* Melanie Sadek, executive director of Valley Humane Society
* Shak
