Raise the Boot & Santa Sacks Success

This weekend Communities In Schools Houston (CIS) held its Third Annual "Raise the Boot" Drive with the help of the Community Volunteer Fire Department. The fundraiser took place from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008 at the intersection of Bellaire Blvd. & Hwy. 6.

With the help of this fundraiser, CIS was able to raise more than $11,000 to provide gifts for over 750 at-risk youth in the Alief ISD area. CIS could not have done it without the help of our volunteers. There were close to 40 fire fighters and nine CIS staff to help with donations. CIS would also like to acknowledge the following for their support: Nicole Broadhurst and the Domino's Pizza on Bellaire for donating 10 pizzas for the VFD lunch, DiMassi's Mediterranean Buffet on Bellaire and Hwy 6 for donating to the VFD Raise the Boot Drive and to all the people passing by that day that donated.

Also thanks to everyone that made a donation to Santa Sacks, CIS was able to make their goal of providing over 2,000 students with at least one gift this holiday season. A special thanks to American Art Resources, Paul Friedman, M.D. and Nancy Flores, Lowes, The Platform Group Gallery, and Pat Sullivan and his group.

by - Heather Martin, Development Associate

It's that time of year again

It's that time of year again where the end of the year is nearing and so is Christmas. This is the busiest time of year for CIS. We are working on our 2007/2008 Annual Report as well as receiving donations for our annual "Santa Sacks" project. This year marks our 11th year of making sure our CIS students receive at least one gift this holiday season. This year our goal is to have gifts for 2,000 children.

Today I will be working on gathering recent success stories to share in our Annual Report and hopefully going shopping to buy items for our "Santa Sacks" project.

What are you doing today to help your cause?


Heather Martin