I would like to thank all of you for your dedication and support given to our 2015 Thanksgiving Holiday Giving efforts. We were able to provide 210 families from the Alief community with a blessed Thanksgiving meal. A very special thank you goes to Brad Branson, who is also one of our amazing Alief YMCA board members. Thank you for your leadership and thank you to your sponsors: PlazAmericas Mall, Julio’s Mexican Grill, Garay Mexican Grill, La Vaquita Meat Market, Goya, Estrellas Bakery, Nopalina, La Montana Meat Market, Teloloapan Meat Market and Panaderia Bakery for providing 210 dinner boxes with turkeys, sides and fixings to all of the families that we served. This would not have been possible without your support and coordination, and we are truly grateful. Thank you for coordinating with Azteca 51 to provide media coverage and to showcase the beautiful work that we have done for our Alief community.
Ms. Oralia, many thanks to you, the 5 Works Organization and the COMET Program Leaders for identifying and communicating with all of our COMET families. Also thank you Ms. Oralia for picking up the additional dinners for the families who were unable to attend. I know that they were truly grateful for you going above and beyond for them. Thank you to Alief Independent School District for providing transportation to get our families mobilized to receive the support we coordinated for them. Special thanks goes to the Special Population Department for allowing us to deepen our engagement and provide meals for an additional 90 families in the Alief community. I would also like to thank Ms. Marie Lee and the Alief Community Association for allowing us to provide meals to another 20 families in the Alief area.
Thank you to Texans together for providing that powerful bilingual community empowerment presentation to our parents. The parents were very receptive and appreciative for the information that you presented. Alief-vs-Everybody, thank you for providing our wonderful face painter and dinner for the children who attended the event. Thank you to DJ CM Black on the 1s and 2s, and thank you to Team Gini for representing and connecting with our kids who were in attendance. All of you did an amazing job connecting with our youth and providing them with an experience to remember for months to come. Thank you to United Health Care, Apple Dentistry, Coach Bates and the Alief Aces Club Volleyball team and Natasha Butler for supporting our event and making it a pleasant success.
Our financial donors included Laurie Peters, Melba Martin, Roger Durand, Julie Gundy, Oralia Rios-Williams, Councilman Richard Nguyen and State Representative Sylvester Turner. Thank all of you for providing monetary donations to support our cause and to add to the quality of our distribution event. To our phenomenal Alief YMCA Board, thank you to those of you who were with us at the event, and those who were with us in spirit. You were servant leaders throughout the planning phase and execution of the event, and your contributions are greatly appreciated.
Our Alief YMCA staff and fearless leader, Mr. Kevin Kebede, worked tirelessly to pull this event off and your work never goes unnoticed. This event would not have been possible without all of your hard work and dedication to our cause. You are truly appreciated. Thank you to the rest of our Alief staff, volunteers and teens for helping us tie all the loose ends together, ensuring that all the work of this group and many others came together in a fashion that was truly representative of our appreciation and their commitment to those we had the honor to serve. Everyone did their part and provided blessings to the families that we served this holiday season.
We are quickly transitioning to our Angel Tree Holiday Giving program and need you to continue to be advocates for our community’s needs. We are adopting close to 200 angels from the Alief area, and the details are as follows:
Angel Tree Distribution Day
Tuesday, December 22 6:00pm – 8:00pm here at the Alief Family YMCA in the gym
Help holiday wishes come true and adopt an angel today. We are also collecting new blankets and monetary donations for the Blessing Blanket Drive at the Alief Family YMCA. A “Blessing Blanket” is a blanket stuffed with a hand-written message blessing. It will be prayed over and tied with a Christmas bow. Volunteers will personally deliver the blankets to people who could use blessings and warmth during this holiday season. Please contact me for more information on how to adopt, or with any other additional questions that you may have. Again I thank you all for your support and look forward to seeing you all soon. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Best wishes,
Margot McIntosh, MPA, Youth Development Senior Director Alief Family YMCA
7850 Howell-Sugarland Road Houston, TX 77083
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