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Tumbleweed Goes to Washington

On June 14th, 2003 Tempe, Arizona was named one of 10 ALL-AMERICAN CITIES. Tumbleweed's Tempe Youth Resource Center was a featured project in Tempe's application. The competition, sponsored by the National Civic League begins with a written application highlighting local projects. Sunset Neighborhood Revitalization efforts and efforts addressing the needs of homeless youth including the Thomas J. Pappas School and the Tempe Youth Resource Center.

Janet, Rob and Mayor Giuliano
in Washington

  


This year, Tempe's application featured the Rio Salado Town Lake, the Riverside/Sunset Neighborhood Revitalization efforts and efforts addressing the needs of homeless youth including the Thomas J. Pappas School and the Tempe Youth Resource Center. Based on the application, 30 finalists from across the country were selected to compete through live presentations at a meeting in Washington, D.C.

A delegation of 40 individuals attended the competition, including myself and Robert Demery, a successful client. After intense preparations and rehearsals, Tempe had a nerve ranking ten minutes in front of a panel of 10 judges to make our case. The presentation went well but was it enough? We would have to wait.

On Saturday evening, all of the finalist gathered in the ballroom to hear the announcement of the

 


winners in random order. As the count went on 1, 2, 3, then 4, 5, 6... some of our spirits began to flag. However, Tumbleweed's youth representative, Rob, remained positive stating "I know we are going to win." It was number 9. The judge began to describe the project. It did not sound like us, did it? Then, the announcement --"the winner is TEMPE, ARIZONA". We were all thrilled and proud to be a part of a winning team. I was especially proud to be part of a team that featured youth who had not had a lot of breaks or many opportunities to be a part of such a delegation. I want to take this opportunity to thank Mayor Guiliano and the City of Tempe for caring about our homeless young people, for featuring our project, and for letting us be a part of the winning team! Rob, of course, always knew we would win!

Janet L. Garcia

3rd Annual Teenagers Are Amazing Fundraising Breakfast Very Successful
I am happy to report our third annual Teenagers Are Amazing breakfast was a great success in May. What do I mean by successful? Let me tell you. We had fantastic support from our amazing Table Captains, who invited 400 guests to hear about us that morning. People were moved by the compelling stories of some very brave clients in our programs. Many of our staff and clients helped that morning with registration and other activities. BlueCross Blue-Shield of Arizona provided sponsorship dollars towards the event. Guest also heard from our emcee Jeanine L'Ecuyer, Donna Beringer


Tumbleweed Board of Director's Secretary and our Executive Director, Janet Garcia. And, last but not least, we raised $45,000 for our programs!

Many of you receiving this newsletter attended the breakfast. We appreciate that you took the time to hear about our programs and the amazing youths we serve, thank you for coming. If you were able to make a donation to us, thank you for your gift. Please read our donor recognition section on pages 6 and 7 for a list. Welcome also to our new Family Tree Society members, listed on page 9.

Clients performing a skit at
the annual breakfast

If you haven't been able to tell us what you thought of the event, the stories your heard, or our programs, please call me. I would love to hear from you. For those of you that haven't attended one of our breakfasts, I invite you to our next one. Our next breakfast is going to be held in November. Call me for more information at 602-271-9904. Thank you!

Nikki Fisher

 
©2003 Tumbleweed
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