Our Annual Christmas Awards breakfast took place Saturday Dec. 6th, 2014 at the Mission Valley Sheraton with the goal to celebrate this holiday season by honoring those that serve our community and bringing educational awareness to San Diego’s foster and underprivileged youth during a festive Christmas celebration.
For the past eight years it has been our opportunity to give and receive the gift of service. We invite youth and families of San Diego to partake in a morning of joy, gift giving and celebration. This year we have grown larger than ever inviting nearly 100 children and providing them with gift certificates and age appropriate gifts during this celebratory breakfast. These children and teenagers come from a variety of programs which include San Diego Adoptions, VIP Mentors, “Just in Time for Foster Youth” along with children from local foster and area group homes
This year’s Keynote Speaker was Devin Hughes.(The Chief Inspiration Officer) with Community Activist of the Year Awards going to Tinesia Conwright (DETOUR Empowers), Adam Rajah Gainey (Promises 2 Kids), Dion Sayles McKinney (Community Activist) and Leonard Thompson MANDATE records) all of which have directly impacted young people’s lives on a regular basis.
We also honored educational administrators Dr. Aaron Bruce and Marne Foster both of which have greatly impacted our student’s lives at both grade school and collegiate levels. Finally, sticking with our theme of education we will honored our shining star Andreia Dooley (Garrett) and Natasha Dunham as our inspirational collegiate for overcoming monumental obstacles to graduate from college along with awards for children from both the Heartbeat Music Academy and the H.E.A.R.T (Higher Education And Rising Together) mentoring program.
This was a wonderful Christmas event benefiting San Diego’s Foster and underserved youth and encouraging them to attend and complete college