Christmas Curbside Donation Drive Starts Next Weekend:

Saturday, December 17th – Saturday, December 24th!

St. Anthony’s 24^th Annual Christmas Curbside Donation Drive begins on Saturday, December 17^th. St. Anthony Foundation staff and volunteers, wearing easily identifiable red jackets, will take delivery of food, clothing, and monetary donations at curbside, so donors won’t even have to leave their cars! Donated items are distributed free of charge to San Francisco’s most needy residents.

Your donation of NEW SOCKS, clean and ready-to-wear clothing, canned and dried foods are all much needed and appreciated! And if you’ve been working on hand knit scarves as holiday gifts to our guests, bring them in!

WHEN: December 17th-24th, 2011 – Weekends from 9-3 & Weekdays from 8-6

WHERE: St. Anthony Foundation - 105 Golden Gate @ Jones

NEEDED ITEMS:

Clothing
We need all kinds of clothing for men, women, and children – our most critical needs are for the following items:

Socks, Shoes
Underwear
Winter coats
Jackets
Hats

Monetary Donations

St. Anthony’s is happy to accept cash or checks for donation during Curbside and is prepared to issue receipts onsite for tax purposes.

ITEMS WE CANNOT ACCEPT:

Empty clothes hangers
Knick knacks
Used toys
Children’s car seats
Furniture
Medical equipment
Dirty, stained or torn items
Books and magazines
Exercise/sports equipment
Housewares
Computers, electronics

If you have any questions about donations, please call us at (415) 241-2600.

And in case you’d like to volunteer and join us for the holidays, call the St. Anthony Holiday Line at 415-592-2829. We look forward to seeing you!

St. Anthony’s 24th Curbside Holiday Donation Drive kicks off on Saturday, November 19th. St. Anthony Foundation staff and volunteers, wearing easily identifiable red jackets, will take delivery of food, clothing, and monetary donations at curbside, so donors won’t even have to leave their cars! Donated items are distributed free of charge to San Francisco’s most needy residents.

Your donation of turkeys, clean and gently worn clothing, canned and dried foods are all much needed and appreciated!

WHEN:
November 19th-24th AND December 17th-24th

• Weekdays from 8-6
• Weekends from 9-3

WHERE:
St. Anthony Foundation
105 Golden Gate @ Jones

NEEDED ITEMS:

Clothing
We need all kinds of clothing for men, women, and children – our most critical needs are for the following items:

Socks, Shoes
Underwear
Winter coats
Jackets
Hats

Monetary Donations
St. Anthony’s is happy to accept cash or checks for donation during Curbside and is prepared to issue receipts onsite for tax purposes.

Other
We also need these items:

Shopping bags – with handles
Blankets, comforters, sleeping bags
Luggage, bags, backpacks
Toiletries – new only, please
Towels, washcloths
Stuffed animals – good condition only
Children’s toys – new only, please
Strollers – in good condition
Canes – not crutches, walkers, wheelchairs

Items We Cannot Accept
Empty clothes hangers
Knick knacks
Used toys
Children’s car seats
Furniture
Medical equipment
Dirty, stained or torn items
Books and magazines
Exercise/sports equipment
Housewares
Computers, electronics

If you have any questions about donations, please call us at (415) 241-2600.

And in case you’d like to volunteer and join us for the holidays, call the St. Anthony Holiday Line at 415-592-2829. We look forward to seeing you this holiday season!

Christmas is a challenging time for many families. Today St. Anthony’s Free Medical Clinic and McKesson Corporate Citizens Department will give out hundreds of toys, beautifully wrapped and age appropriate, to families in need.

St. Anthony’s Free Medical Clinic is one of the many free, life-sustaining programs and services of St. Anthony Foundation that helps to heal individuals and families. The Clinic, which is the only free pediatric clinic in the Tenderloin, provides over 12,000 patient visits annually, of which approximately 25% are pediatric visits. St. Anthony Foundation is not funded by federal, state, or local government money, and is entirely supported by private donations.

WHEN: TODAY, DECEMBER 22, 2010
1:00PM to 4:30 PM
WHERE: St. Anthony’s Free Medical Clinic
150 Golden Gate Avenue
WHAT: TOY GIVEAWAY
(for patients of the St, Anthony Free Medical Clinic)

CONTACT: Francis Aviani, 510-301-4634

Compassion and goodwill abound here at St. Anthony’s this week as thousands of hand crafted scarves  have been received.  And  now Pricewaterhousecoopers and Macy’s have been busy volunteer elves helping us wrap, write handmade cards, and organize all our scarves for giving out on Christmas Day.  Wow!  We are inspired by the generosity of our community!

On the 13th of December, neighborhood children of various ages descended upon the St. Anthony Dining Room for the annual Kid’s Party. Children came from the Kroc Center, the Boys and Girls Club, Hamilton Family Housing, De Marillac Academy, and other organizations to join in playing copious amount of games, eating delectable food items, and meeting Santa.

This event was made possible by the hard efforts of different work units within St. Anthony’s, including the Dining Room, Clinic, Tech Lab, Client Safety Service, and Fr. Alfred Center, St. Anthony’s drug and alcohol recovery program . It may have been a Kid’s Party, but plenty of fun was to be had by parents, staff, and our benevolent friends and volunteers from Skyline College.

When St. Anthony’s staffers coined the phrase “knitting is the new smoking”, they had no idea the impact of their brace themselves for the new year, St. Anthony’s is preparing as well by stocking up on donations of food and clothing that will be in even greater demand in the new year. St Anthony’s 23rd Curbside Holiday Donation re-opens on Saturday, December 18th, 2010 until December 24th. St. Anthony Foundation staff and volunteers, wearing easily identifiable red jackets, will take delivery of food, clothing, and monetary donations at curbside, so donors won’t even have to leave their cars. Donated items are distributed free of charge to San Francisco’s most needy residents.

Among the most cherished items that will be collected are hand-knit scarves which will be given out to Dining Room guests on Christmas Day. To date, over 5,000 scarves have been received from 20 states. The curbside donation drive opens on Saturday, December 18th at 9am, where clean, cared-for warm clothing, canned or dried bulk foods, and monetary donations can be dropped off to St. Anthony’s “donation valets”. As more and more people turn to the 60-year old non-profit for basic necessities as a result of the current economic crisis, the support from everyday citizens is needed, welcomed, and appreciated.

For 60 years, St. Anthony’s has offered a gateway out of poverty through a network of life-sustaining services. By addressing immediate needs such as hunger and clothing, as well as long term needs such as employment, drug and alcohol addiction, and physical and mental health, St. Anthony’s supports people in need as they pursue training, work, sobriety, and purpose. St. Anthony’s does not accept any federal, state, or local government support. We are entirely funded by private donations. (more…)

St. Anthony’s has been sharing the Holiday Spirit now for 60 years! Talk about keeping “the home fires burning”! Not with logs, but with the generosity of warm human hearts in one of the toughest times of the year to feel hopeful if you’re on the other side of prosperity. This past Monday evening, those home fires were brightly lit for our annual Children’s Holiday Party. What: Children in the Tenderloin? Oh yes–@ 3500 of them. Many families in the Tenderloin are clients of St. Anthony’s, and many of their children attended, supported by enthusiastic volunteers—many of them college students, and a wonderful Mom, whose high school daughter was studying for finals…so, she sent her Mom to help the kids decorate ginger cookies!

Games, goodies, and more gave good cheer and then some! The sound level alone registered off the joy meter: human hearts aglow. Healing Holidays and a hope filled New Year to one and all!

We are very close to reaching our goal of 2,500 hand made scarves to give away this Christmas.  If you have sent yours in thank you from the bottom of our hearts and if yours is still on your kitchen table please send it in!

Gymboree is in the business of children’s clothing, playtime, and music, but for the last two years they’ve been packing presents for adults, here at St. Anthony Foundation.

Gymboree employees are a lot of the reason we could give a gift bag to every person who came to St. Anthony Dining Room on Christmas Day. They donated the bags, colored hats, and chocolate bars, in addition to labels they had printed with “Happy Holidays.” They collected hundreds of travel size shampoos, bath gels, and lotions. Then they came in person to label and fill the bags with the ingredients they had brought, plus socks St. Anthony’s had been collecting for weeks.

The Gymboree values statement promotes making a difference, being creative, passionate, and authentic, and acting like a family.  “We care about one another,” they say. “We have a sincere respect for one another and we foster trust and camaraderie.  We like to have a good time and celebrate success.”

Twenty-two-hundred bags. Twenty-two-hundred very low-income people whose day was brightened by a special meal at St. Anthony’s and a present. Yes it was a useful present; practical. It was also colorful, warm, and unexpected. Like the sticker that said “Happy Holidays” and the chocolate bar in among the socks and bath gels.  It was a success to celebrate.

We tell groups who help us with Christmas projects that Christmas is the hardest day of the year for our guests. On other days, you’ll see a cheerfulness and sense of community you might not expect. But on Christmas, you just hope that whatever we can do sinks in by the day after and cheers people up.

This Christmas, it seemed to me our guests on the whole were in better spirits than I’d seen since I started here. More people wished me a merry Christmas or responded to my own “Merry Christmas” with a big smile; more people thanked me for one thing or another than I remember from previous years. Gymboree reminded us that that one day of kindness and thoughtfulness can make a difference; one gift on one day of the year. And don’t forget the chocolate.