Our latest contribution to St. Anthony’s Scarving Artists is  one from Sally C, Bloomfield, NY. And we’ve had pledges come in from Texas, Virginia, Ohio, and Arizona.  The folks in New Orleans have pitched in because they understand the value of a warm scarf during difficult times.  We have scarves from Pennsylvania, Illinois, and of course many from California. Nine states are represented.  Can we get scarves from all 50 states? Invite all your friends to join our event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=142704175750360

We had a wonderful group of volunteers from Murray Hills Christian Church in Beaverton, Oregon, come visit the Free Clothing Program. They not only helped us give clothes to our guests, when they were done they went shopping and came back with bags and bags of socks and underwear to give to our guests. Thanks!!!!

Summer should be a time for family vacations, summer camp, and relaxation. But for low-income families with children, summer is a time when child care, lunches, vaccinations, and back-to-school clothes add a strain to the budgets of barely surviving families. Those families turn to St. Anthony’s for help.

This summer, St. Anthony’s will provide services to over 1500 children in need. You can sponsor a “back to school” scholarship for a child. Make a donation to St. Anthony’s for a child to get vaccinations, school clothes, and more. We need to insure by July 25th that we can provide the necessary services for all the children who come to us throughout the summer. You can help low income children step into the new school year on the right foot.

Our Free Medical Clinic has the only free Pediatric care in the Tenderloin. We will see a 35% increase in children needing vaccinations and check-ups so they can attend school in the fall. Our Free Clothing Program will see a 38% increase in children needing back-to-school clothes. And our Free Dining Room has already seen a 33% increase in families with children who would otherwise receive their much needed meals at school.

Your donation of $20 can provide 2 weeks of lunches in the Dining Room during the summer months when a student is unable to rely on a school cafeteria.

Your donation of $50 can cover a medical check-up, back to school clothes, and a meal in the Dining Room.

Your donation of $100 can cover one child’s back-to-school support including vaccinations and a medical check-up; a trip to the clothing program; and a meal in the Dining Room.

Your donation of $1000 can provide a full day of back-to-school check-ups in the clinic, a full children’s service in the clothing program, and a day’s worth of children’s meals in the Dining Room.

We found a stack of beautiful hand-drawn cards for our guests in a recent clothing donation at St. Anthony’s Free Clothing Program. A post-it note said they were done by second graders, but didn’t name the school.

Thanks for showing your love to our guests, with warm clothes for their outsides and warm thoughts and prayers for their insides.

A big thanks to the kind folks at the Bryant Street Sports Basement! They’ve generously donated $500 in gift cards to St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic to promote healthy, active living among patient families. Their gift will provide low-income parents and their children with access to shoes and equipment as part of our Clinic’s ongoing effort to prevent obesity and diabetes.

For over 10 years, Sports Basement has actively reached out to the San Francisco community by sponsoring local nonprofits, fundraising for health and wellness causes, and holding in-house clinics and events that support healthy living for all in the Bay Area. Their dedication to the community is present in all that they do – Sports Basement routinely opens its doors to host local events, club gatherings, and community based organizations. We are so grateful for the generosity and partnership of this San Francisco based business. Thank you, Sports Basement!

The Mooses are really doing it. Ed and Mary Etta Moose are selling their collection of sports and San Francisco memorabilia on EBay. All of the proceeds go to St. Anthony’s. All.

Some pieces are from Ed and Mary Etta’s personal collection. Some have graced the walls of their legendary establishments, the Washington Square Bar and Grill and Moose’s. Both restaurants were the favorite choices for some of San Francisco’s more lively, charming and legendary figures.

People like Herb Caen, Barnaby Conrad, Ron Fimrite, Tom Wolfe and Tom Brokaw, sports legends Willie McCovey, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, artists like LeRoy Neiman, Sam Provenzano and T.D Kelsey, jazz great Dizzy Gillespie, cartoonist Phil Frank, and dozens others all gathered to unwind and share anecdotes that often found their way into Herb Caen’s daily column in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Many of them left something behind that will now benefit guests in St. Anthony Dining Room.

The Mooses are like a lot of St. Anthony’s supporters: In their abundance they remember those in need.

Go to ebay and make a bid. It all comes back to the guests at St. Anthony’s.

Charles Schwab Corporation calls a company-wide volunteer week every year. This year, one Schwab group called us. They trotted and sweated in the Dining Room, serving trays, sorted clothing at the Clothing Program, coached job seekers in the Tenderloin Tech Lab, and brought extra meal delivery help to our neighbors around the corner. They made it easier for one guest to wait in line; talking to people in Charles Schwab tee shirts distracted him from his fears.

Everyone knows that Charles Schwab Corporation helps people save, invest and manage their money and helps companies with retirement and stock plans. Individual employees also donate their time and talents throughout the year, in addition to volunteer week. Their focus is nonprofits that lift people out of poverty and improve the financial well-being of low-income people. Their specialty is financial literacy.

St. Anthony Foundation’s clothing supply is still moving straight through from donation to distribution. Charles Schwab employees organize company-wide food and clothing drives. Faces in the group lit up when we talked about the need for clothing. Our faces lit up, too, when we realized we’d struck a chord.

Then over the weekend I got this from a participant. “Hi, Alina. Thanks again for letting us join your community last week. It was an awesome experience. I’ll check into the idea of a clothing drive.” Imagine: financial wizards who focus on people in poverty and specialize in clothing drives.

Students from Mercy High School, an all-girls college-preparatory school in San Francisco, just brought a van full of donations from their most recent clothing drive.

The clothing they collected will go to help poor and homeless families and individuals at St. Anthony’s Free Clothing Program.

Thanks, ladies! You are awesome!