Linda Shannon-Hills and Wanda Bailey
Earlier this year, the SBR Neighbors Helping Neighbors created a Task Force to deliver the SBR COVID-19 vaccine to the SaddleBrooke Ranch Community in partnership with Desert Life Pharmacy and Brianna Spaeth, pharmacist. We vaccinated more than 1,700 residents from the Ranch by mid-March, far ahead of most other seniors in the country.
We requested a few donations to help us purchase needed items for the vaccination drive, like safety vests for the volunteers, clipboards, paper, printer ink, snacks and water for volunteers, signs, safety cones for traffic control, pens, hi-liters, and more. We asked for donations, thinking we would only get a few hundred dollars, but through the amazing generosity of our community, we received so much more!
As a result, over the last couple of months, we have donated to Mountain Vista School in Oracle by providing clipboards and a few vests for school staff, along with smaller face masks for the younger students. The group donated $100 to Western National Park Association for their loan of canopy tents used during the six drives. After setting aside donation funds to use for the Fall Flu Drive, we still have $1,000. The Task Force wanted to donate to worthy causes, pay it forward, and give to others in need. There are many charities our community donates to each year, like the SaddleBrooke Community Outreach, Tri-Community Food Bank, and SBR Employee Recognition. We thought it would be wonderful to choose charities that might not benefit otherwise.
A special non-profit caught our eye, Mending Souls, in the Tucson area. This army of 1,000+ sewing sisters and brothers meets and donates their handcrafted items to charitable causes year after year. As their bond and circle grew, they decided to inspire other groups to do the same so there are chapters around the country.
During the pandemic, they made 140,000 face masks for hospitals, veterans’ groups, shelters, homeless, long-term facilities, and more. They also made items to help people in the hospital with COVID-19, and to make memorial items for families to remember the loved ones they lost to the pandemic. Mending Souls, based in Tucson, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supporting. Visit their website at www.lovemendingsouls.org.
The Mountain Vista School in Oracle has received support from the state of Arizona during the pandemic, but they continue to need assistance. The school session is about to start this month with many families needing supplies for their students to purchase for school. Families have been impacted by the pandemic and are in need of monetary assistance to provide for their children. We are proud to help parents, some are employees at the Ranch, with children in this school.
The SBR COVID-19 Task Force selected these two entities to receive remaining funds.
The community’s generosity allowed our Task Force to help save lives. Thank you, Ranchers!