Our Annual Christmas Awards breakfast took place Saturday Dec. 5th, 2015 at the Crown Plaza – Mission Valley 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 nine 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 a celebratory breakfast. These children and teenagers come from a variety of programs which include which include 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 Anna Arancibia (Jackie Robinson YMCA), Kristyl JL Smith (Community Activist), Dana Michelle Bryant (Eleanor’s Place) and Joann Fields all of which have directly impacted young people’s lives on a regular basis.
We also honored educational administrators Karla Whitaker (CalSOAP), and Beverly Warren 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 Shane Harris, Sade Burrell as our Guardian Scholar of the Year for overcoming monumental obstacles to graduate from college along with a and E.J Walls as our Collegiate Activist of the Year. We also had 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
