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AT&T Pioneers Donate $5,000 to Bakersfield Foster Care Center
By: Jan Bans
Topics: business, philanthropy, Volunteering, bakersfield, Grant Donation, Foster Care
Posted by JANLBANS Mon Feb 11, 2008 09:28:16 PST
Viewed 1231 times
0 responses 0 comments Location: Bakersfield, CA
AT&T Pioneers Donate $5,000 to Bakersfield Foster Care Center
Grant to Help Pay for School Needs, Education and Foster Parent Training
On Monday, February 4, AT&T’s volunteer organization, the AT&T Pioneers, awarded a $5,000 grant to the Bakersfield non-profit foster care center, Kern Bridges Youth Home (KBYH). Kern Bridges will use the grant for the children’s school needs, such as fees for school supplies or field trips, the annual camping trip and for training foster parents and assistants who support the Group Home.
“AT&T’s generous support in time and money is giving Kern County children a chance at a brighter future,” said Jim VanderZwan, L.C.S.W., adoption director of Kern Bridges. “It means so much to the children, knowing that people they haven’t even met care enough to want to help them succeed.”
The grant money is available as a result of AT&T CARES, an AT&T Foundation program that matches employee hours volunteered with the dollar amount and allows these volunteers to donate this money to organizations in their communities.
The AT&T CARES program is coordinated by the AT&T Pioneers. The AT&T Pioneers is a dynamic group of active and retired employees who, along with their Pioneer Partners and friends, volunteer their time to enhance the communities where they work and live.
For the past 14 years, the Bakersfield AT&T Pioneers have volunteered with Kern Bridges. Just in 2007, 70 AT&T Pioneers volunteered 725 hours with this organization. The Pioneers primarily work on three Kern Bridges projects: The KBYH’s annual camping trip, the Annual Halloween Carnival and the Annual Holiday Party.
“Kern Bridges Youth Home has been a rewarding experience and will continue to be one into the future,” said Vicki McCabe, AT&T Pioneers representative. “When you see the faces of the children after the camping trip and how much fun they had, or getting a gift from Santa, you can’t wait for the next project to start.”
KBYH is committed to providing quality care to Kern County’s foster children. In addition to its usual services, KBYH desires to provide children with activities and experiences that they sometimes miss out on while being a foster child. One of the most valuable experiences for foster children is to share in an experience with peers going through the same life situation. These experiences are greatly enhanced when caring adults who appreciate their plight surrounds them.
The AT&T Pioneers are the nation's largest company-sponsored volunteer organization with more than 350,000 AT&T employees and retirees, who volunteer their time to enhance the communities where they work and live. The Pioneers mainly focus on education, social needs and the environment. These community minded individuals participate in activities that include disaster assistance, literacy, beach cleanups, food distribution to the needy and special athletic competitions for the physically challenged.
In 2005, AT&T Pioneers donated more than 11.3 million hours of their time to community outreach activities — nearly $204 million worth of volunteer time. For More Information: http://www.att.com/gen/corp...
AT&T Foundation offers employees a way to amplify their contributions to their communities. Through the AT&T CARES grants program, employees may apply for grants to benefit the organizations where they volunteer. All grants are presented to eligible organizations, based on the recommendations of employees. Employees who give at least 50 hours of service over a 12-month period to a nonprofit organization may request a $250 AT&T CARES grant to support a specific project sponsored by the organization. Moreover, when four or more AT&T people volunteer at the same agency, they may pool their requests to obtain funding of up to $2,500.
The AT&T CARES program is coordinated by the AT&T Pioneers.
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