Palo Alto Kiwanis Club honors Fresh Lifelines for Youth founder Christa Gannon with the 2013 Kiwanis Angel Award.
The Kiwanis Club of Palo Alto has announced that Christa Gannon will receive the club’s second annual Kiwanis Angel Award at a public reception on Thursday, October 24, 2013 from 5:30-7:30 PM, at the Sheraton Palo Alto. The Kiwanis Angel Award was instituted as a community service award to an individual in the Palo Alto area who has had a significant, positive impact on children and youth in our community and beyond. The first recipient of the award was Robert Freeman, founder and executive director of One Dollar for Life.
Christa Gannon, a graduate of Stanford Law School, is being honored for her work as founder and executive director of Fresh Lifelines for Youth. Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY) is dedicated to breaking the cycle of violence, crime, and incarceration of teens in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. http://www.flyprogram.org
FLY’s programs include legal education, so teens understand the law and consequences of crime; leadership training, to help them make positive changes in their lives; and one-on-one mentoring, to provide support and positive role models for youth on probation. Hailed by professionals in the Juvenile Justice system for keeping teens out of the system or reducing return to the system, FLY serves 2000 youth annually for a fraction of the cost of incarceration.
Funds raised from the 2013 Kiwanis Angel Award event will go to Kiwanis International’s Eliminate Project http://www.theeliminateproject.org, a partnership with UNICEF to eliminate the tetanus that, while unknown in developed countries, kills mothers and 60,000 newborns every year in the poorest regions of the world. The Kiwanis Club of Palo Alto has committed to raising $300,000 for the Eliminate Project.
Kiwanis International is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to serving the children of the world, one child and one community at a time. Locally, among other projects, the Kiwanis Club of Palo Alto has built or repaired many childcare and community playgrounds, has adopted the Palo Alto Duck Pond as a quarterly service project, donates a book library to classrooms in the Ravenswood School District, sponsors Camp Everytown at Palo Alto and Gunn High Schools, sponsors a Rebuilding Together project every year, and participates in the regional Special Games for developmentally disabled children. Internationally, the club supports the Tapulao School in the Philippines; a school and orphanage in Oaxaca, Mexico; and One Dollar for Life. For more information about Palo Alto Kiwanis, please go to http://www.palo-alto.kiwanisone.org .
Details about the Awards Evening on Thursday, October 24, 2013
The Second Annual Kiwanis Angel Award will be presented Thursday, October 24, 2013. The award will be presented at an evening fundraising event featuring cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and a short presentation ceremony.
The event will be held at the Sheraton Hotel, Palo Alto from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. The Master of Ceremonies for the evening will be State Senator Joe Simitian.
Ticket Prices
Cost of admission is $55 per person. Register before midnight on Thursday, October 17 and save $5 per ticket (only $50 per ticket)!
Diamond-in-a-Glass Opportunity
In kind sponsors of the event include the Sheraton Hotel, The Palo Alto Weekly, and Gleim the Jeweler, who will be providing a ¾ carat diamond (retail value $3,000+) to be offered in a “diamond in a drink” opportunity. One lucky winner will find the diamond in a glass of champagne – the rest will be a cubic zirconium. There will also be a cash bar if you are not interested in participating in Diamond-in-a-Drink.