Auen Foundation sponsors two guide dog puppies in training

Jun 28, 2017

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Auen Foun­da­tion recently met two pup­pies they are spon­sor­ing for guide dog train­ing at Guide Dogs of the Desert. Sher­rie Auen, Pro­gram Direc­tor, and Catharine Reed, Senior Pro­gram Offi­cer, named the stan­dard poo­dles Katie and Sandy after fam­ily members.

“It was great to meet these pup­pies, which will be trained to make an impor­tant impact in two people’s lives,” said Reed. “These lov­able pup­pies have no idea how impor­tant that are.”

The pup­pies will first be raised by a fos­ter fam­ily until they are 18–20 months old, and then they will live and train at the facil­ity in White­wa­ter where they will par­tic­i­pate in a rig­or­ous 4–6 month train­ing. If the dogs com­plete the pro­gram and reach grad­u­a­tion, each will be placed with a per­son who is visu­ally impaired. Together this new team will train fur­ther at the organization’s live-in facil­ity for 28 days in order for the dog to help pro­vide its new owner safe mobil­ity, com­pan­ion­ship and independence.

Since 1972, Guide Dogs of the Desert has grad­u­ated more than 1,375 teams from its pro­gram, all accred­ited by the Inter­na­tional Guide Dog Fed­er­a­tion. The orga­ni­za­tion breeds and has rela­tion­ships with breed­ers of Labrador Retriev­ers, Golden Retriev­ers, Stan­dard Poo­dles, and some Ger­man Shepherds.

“By care­fully main­tain­ing a spe­cific pedi­gree, we increase our suc­cess of grad­u­at­ing highly qual­i­fied dogs that can truly enhance a person’s life,” said Sarah Clapp, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Guide Dogs of the Desert.

“It was won­der­ful to see how these pup­pies are cared for and trained in a very spe­cific way that has a high suc­cess rate,” said Auen. “We are look­ing for­ward to com­ing back to watch our Katie and Sandy grad­u­ate with their own­ers and see them off to a life of ser­vice that only these specially-trained dogs can pro­vide. It’s all very heart­warm­ing, and we are happy to be a part of this process.”

Guide Dogs of the Desert is located at 60735 Dil­lon Road, White­wa­ter. For more infor­ma­tion visit guidedogsofthedesert.org or call (760) 329‑6257.

Coachella Valley Horse Rescue receives relief for summer camp

Jun 9, 2017

Coachella Val­ley Horse Res­cue was thrilled when two air con­di­tion­ing units were donated to the non­profit orga­ni­za­tion by Tar­kett, based in Solon, Ohio. The AC units were installed in the ranch’s club­house, where the non­profit teaches kids 7–18 years-old equine edu­ca­tion dur­ing sum­mer camp. How­ever, after the AC units were installed, orga­ni­za­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tives – which spend all year res­cu­ing, reha­bil­i­tat­ing and find­ing lov­ing homes for neglected and abused horses – were faced with the real­ity that they needed to upgrade the facil­ity in order to effi­ciently cool the club­house, even with the new AC units. The orga­ni­za­tion appealed to its sup­port­ers, who con­tacted the Auen Foundation.

“We never want to be a res­cue facil­ity that needs to be res­cued,” said David DiMeno, Pres­i­dent of Coachella Val­ley Horse Res­cue and Coachella Val­ley Mounted Rangers. “The Auen Foun­da­tion helped make this pos­si­ble. Now we can start sum­mer camp with a cool club­house and then use it all year long as we con­tinue to edu­cate the community.”

The Auen Foun­da­tion pro­vided a grant to insu­late a por­tion of the club­house, add an inte­rior wall, install a slid­ing glass door, drop a por­tion of the ceil­ing and redo light­ing within the lower ceil­ing. All of the upgrades – to increase the facility’s max­i­mum cool­ing poten­tial – were man­aged by Supe­rior Heat­ing and Air Conditioning.

“Often, projects are best accom­plished through a part­ner­ship,” said Catharine Reed, Senior Pro­gram Offi­cer for the Auen Foun­da­tion. “Coachella Val­ley Horse Res­cue found that an air con­di­tioner dona­tion was not enough. They dis­cov­ered they also needed addi­tional upgrades in order for the AC units to run most effi­ciently. We are happy we could help this orga­ni­za­tion that helps many ani­mals and peo­ple in a num­ber of ways.”

The pri­mary mis­sion of Coachella Val­ley Horse Res­cue is to res­cue and care for abused and neglected horses and find them safe homes. In addi­tion, the orga­ni­za­tion part­ners with other non­profit orga­ni­za­tions through­out the Coachella Val­ley to edu­cate chil­dren and adults about ani­mal cru­elty and equine education.

Begin­ning June 12, Coachella Val­ley Horse Res­cue is offer­ing three 3-day sum­mer camp ses­sions. Campers learn to ride and care for horses daily from 7 a.m.-5 p.m. at the organization’s 8-acre facil­ity in Indio. And, now, class­room time will be espe­cially cool – thanks to the grant from the Auen Foundation.

For more infor­ma­tion about Coachella Val­ley Horse Res­cue or the sum­mer camp call 760–808-6279 or go to cvhorserescue.org, or email the sum­mer camp direc­tor at rescuedirector@cvhorserescue.org.

Foundation continues support of AAP food voucher program

May 1, 2017

AAP - Food Samar­i­tans (AAP) announced today that the Auen Foun­da­tion recently awarded a $25,000 grant to the orga­ni­za­tion to sup­port its food voucher pro­gram for low-income Coachella Val­ley res­i­dents who suf­fer from HIV/AIDS and other chronic ill­nesses. This is the 18th con­sec­u­tive year that the Auen Foun­da­tion has sup­ported this pro­gram.

“We are impressed by the AAP – Food Samar­i­tans recent expan­sion of its mis­sion,” said Catharine Reed, Senior Pro­gram Offi­cer for the Auen Foun­da­tion. “For more than 26 years, this orga­ni­za­tion has offered nutri­tional sup­port to Coachella Val­ley res­i­dents that need it the most. Orig­i­nally, AAP was focused on serv­ing peo­ple liv­ing with HIV/AIDS, but they recently expanded their mis­sion to include peo­ple liv­ing with other chronic ill­nesses. We applaud this expan­sion and out­reach to some of our community’s most vul­ner­a­ble res­i­dents.”

AAP – Food Samar­i­tans was founded in 1991 to help the most at-risk mem­bers of the Greater Palm Springs com­mu­nity – peo­ple who are low-income and com­pro­mised by HIV/AIDS. It recently expanded its ser­vices to include peo­ple suf­fer­ing from can­cer, MS, heart or liver dis­ease, and other chronic ill­nesses. Its ongo­ing mis­sion is to ensure that all AAP clients can con­tinue to live their lives with dig­nity and self-respect.

“I’m pleased that AAP – Food Samar­i­tans has had such a ben­e­fi­cial and long-standing rela­tion­ship with the Auen Foun­da­tion,” said Mark Anton, CEO and Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of AAP. “Their ongo­ing sup­port of AAP has played a vital role in ensur­ing that we con­tinue to ful­fill our mis­sion of pro­vid­ing monthly nutri­tional sup­port to low income Coachella Val­ley res­i­dents who live with chronic ill­ness. AAP does not receive fed­eral or state finan­cial assis­tance, so gen­er­ous pri­vate dona­tions like this allow us to con­tinue to sup­port the peo­ple who need it most.”

Auen Foundation grant assists CSUSB Palm Desert Campus students

Apr 27, 2017

The Auen Foun­da­tion awarded Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­sity, San Bernardino Palm Desert Cam­pus with emer­gency and gap fund­ing for stu­dents who qual­ify. The $50,000 grant was pre­sented to CSUSB Palm Desert Cam­pus to cre­ate a needs-based, finan­cial sup­port sys­tem for cur­rent stu­dents enrolled in the region’s only four-year pub­lic uni­ver­sity. “These funds will help stu­dents who are prob­a­bly already mak­ing sac­ri­fices and fac­ing chal­lenges to attend uni­ver­sity,” said Dr. Sharon Brown-Welty, Dean of CSUSB Palm Desert Cam­pus. “An incred­i­ble 60 per­cent of our stu­dents qual­ify for max­i­mum fed­eral and state finan­cial aid, and 36 per­cent of our stu­dents live at or below the poverty line. For those stu­dents scrap­ing to assure they are in col­lege, the expenses of books and even food and trans­porta­tion can be addi­tional bar­ri­ers we are work­ing to over­come by estab­lish­ing this pro­gram through the gen­er­ous sup­port of the Auen Foun­da­tion.” Through an appli­ca­tion and inter­view process, stu­dents are pro­vided with grants of up to $1,500 per cal­en­dar year to sup­port imme­di­ate and short-term chal­lenges that hin­der indi­vid­ual suc­cess. Fund­ing will be allo­cated on a case-by-case basis, but pos­si­ble uses may include book and class mate­r­ial expenses, short-term trans­porta­tion needs, sup­port for house­hold basics in extra­or­di­nary cir­cum­stances, or tem­po­rary child­care resources. As stu­dents apply for these emer­gency grants, CSUSB Palm Desert Cam­pus admin­is­tra­tors plan to col­lect addi­tional data to deter­mine con­sis­tent obsta­cles that impede on col­lege stu­dents’ suc­cesses. It is already known that the col­lege attain­ment rate in the Coachella Val­ley is less than 30 per­cent for all adults, and only 12 per­cent for His­panic adults, which make up 40 per­cent of the com­mu­nity. Under­stand­ing how to attract and sup­port addi­tional stu­dents in sec­ondary edu­ca­tion is a com­po­nent of how the Auen Foun­da­tion gift will fur­ther assist CSUSB Palm Desert Cam­pus. “The Auen Foun­da­tion believes in the impor­tance of higher edu­ca­tion in our com­mu­nity, and we have been sup­port­ing Cal State San Bernardino’s Palm Desert Cam­pus and its stu­dents since we moved here,” said Catharine Reed, Senior Pro­gram Offi­cer of the Auen Foun­da­tion. “Sec­ondary edu­ca­tion is becom­ing increas­ingly crit­i­cal for job secu­rity, and we want to sup­port those stu­dents in our area who are mak­ing a com­mit­ment to achieve that goal.” CSUSB Palm Desert Cam­pus is located at 37500 Cook Street, Palm Desert. For more infor­ma­tion visit www.pdc.csusb.edu or call (760) 341‑2883.

Construction begins on the Kenneth P. Miles Hangar

Feb 20, 2017

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Auen Foun­da­tion joined many other Palm Springs Air Museum donors as con­struc­tion on the organization’s fourth hanger began. Three years in the mak­ing, the Ken­neth P. Miles Korean and Viet­nam War Hangar will house vin­tage air­craft and arti­facts from the Viet­nam, Korean and Cold War eras as well as a POW/MIA display.

As a vin­tage T-28 amazed the crowd of about 100 with a fly over, Karen Miles, widow of the late Major Gen­eral Ken Miles, a loyal sup­porter of the museum, led the beam-signing event. Other donors and beam sign­ers in atten­dance included Lew and Dorothy Webb, Robert Webb, Fritz Frauchiger, Monte Marts, and Rhonda Smith. Palm Springs Air Museum Board mem­bers attend­ing included Fred Bell, Robert Borns, Bill Bramer, Dan Gilbert­son, Jim Hous­ton, Bill Hughes, and Dr. Dave Thomp­son as well as museum staff, vol­un­teers, and var­i­ous com­mu­nity sup­port­ers. Com­ments were made by Bell, Gilbert­son, Miles, Toni Aguil­lar for Con­gress­man Dr. Raul Ruiz’s office and Rita Massie for Super­vi­sor John Benoit’s office. All guests attended a catered lunch by Carousel in the Pacific Hanger after the sign­ing ceremony.

Gen­eral vis­i­tors to the museum were also offered an oppor­tu­nity to sign the hanger beam through­out the day. The fol­low­ing day, the beam was raised into posi­tion. The $2.25 mil­lion, 20,000 square foot hangar is 2–3 months away from com­ple­tion thanks to gen­er­ous sup­port of many addi­tional com­mu­nity donors includ­ing the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foun­da­tion, the Auen Foun­da­tion, Toy­ota Motor Sales of North Amer­ica, Mona and Ed Sher, Harold Matzner, Jolinda Parker, Phil Hixon and many others.

The Palm Springs Air Museum is located at 745 N. Gene Autry Trail, Palm Springs. The museum is open to the pub­lic daily from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. The non­profit organization’s next fundrais­ing event is the Palm Springs Air Museum’s 20^th Anniver­sary Gala on Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 17. For more infor­ma­tion, visit palmspringsairmuseum.org or call 760–778-6262.

Grant supports expanded neurological services

Jan 27, 2017

The Neuro Vital­ity Cen­ter is expand­ing its facil­i­ties and its ser­vices, thanks, in part, to a grant from the Auen Foun­da­tion. The fam­ily foun­da­tion, which pri­mar­ily sup­ports char­i­ta­ble pro­grams and ser­vices aimed at meet­ing the social needs of mature adults and their fam­i­lies, pre­sented the non­profit orga­ni­zaiton with a $30,000 grant to help open the Luhr & Clarise Jensen Exer­cise Ther­apy Facil­ity. This addi­tional build­ing will increase the Neuro Vital­ity Center’s space by 3,000 square feet, and allow the Cen­ter to offer more com­pre­hen­sive ser­vices to peo­ple with stroke, trau­matic brain injury (TBI) and other neu­ro­log­i­cal diagnoses.

“Sup­port from the Auen Foun­da­tion and oth­ers are pro­vid­ing us with an oppor­tu­nity to expand and offer more neu­ro­log­i­cal ser­vices in a sin­gle set­ting,” said Bev­erly Greer, Neuro Vital­ity Cen­ter CEO. “Thanks to the gen­eros­ity of indi­vid­ual dona­tions and grant con­tri­bu­tions, we are able to con­tinue pro­vid­ing patients with exer­cise and ther­apy pro­grams even after their insur­ance is exhausted. Avoid­ing gaps in ser­vice reduces many patient’s recov­ery times and improves their qual­ity of life.”

For more than 35 years, the Neuro Vital­ity Cen­ter, for­merly the Stroke Recov­ery Cen­ter, has offered recre­ation, speech and exer­cise ther­apy to help stroke and TBI vic­tims regain inde­pen­dence and improve their qual­ity of life. In recent years, the Cen­ter has also offered ser­vices to patients with Mul­ti­ple Scle­ro­sis and Parkinson’s Dis­ease. Ther­a­peu­tic reha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­grams address the phys­i­cal, psy­cho­log­i­cal, emo­tional and re-socialization needs of peo­ple with many forms of neu­ro­log­i­cal issues. Ser­vices at the cen­ter also extend to these patients’ fam­i­lies, who often seek coun­sel­ing, care­giv­ing skills and other resources.

“The Neuro Vital­ity Cen­ter helps sur­vivors of dibil­i­tat­ing injuries and dis­eases regain and main­tain skills. These valu­able ser­vices impact people’s lives by not only increas­ing their abil­i­ties but also build­ing con­fi­dence lev­els, which is a ben­e­fit that can­not be mea­sured,” said Catharine Reed, Senior Pro­gram Offi­cer of the Auen Foundation.

The Neuro Vital­ity Cen­ter, is still located at 2800 East Alejo Road, Palm Springs. For more infor­ma­tion about the cen­ter, call 760–323-7676 or visit www.NeuroVitalityCenter.org.

Foundation gift will add large print books to library shelves

Nov 10, 2016

A $25,000 grant from the Auen Foun­da­tion will add more large print books to the Ran­cho Mirage Pub­lic Library’s per­ma­nent col­lec­tion. The gift was recently pre­sented to the Ran­cho Mirage Pub­lic Library Foun­da­tion, a non­profit orga­ni­za­tion that sup­ports the award-winning, inde­pen­dent City-managed library and its programs.

“We are delighted that the Auen Foun­da­tion chose to sup­port the Ran­cho Mirage Pub­lic Library Foun­da­tion,” said Diane Sagan, the organization’s chair­per­son. “This gen­er­ous gift will help the Ran­cho Mirage Pub­lic Library main­tain excel­lence in col­lec­tions, ser­vices and programs.”

“Large print books keep our community’s seniors read­ing, even when they expe­ri­ence changes in their vision,” said Sher­rie Auen, Pro­gram Direc­tor for the Auen Foun­da­tion. “No one should be denied the oppor­tu­nity to read. It’s a part of life­long learn­ing that so many peo­ple enjoy.”

Now cel­e­brat­ing the library’s 20th anniver­sary, the Ran­cho Mirage Pub­lic Library has been rec­og­nized as one of the busiest and most admired libraries of its size in Cal­i­for­nia. The library offers print pub­li­ca­tions for all ages, mul­ti­me­dia selec­tions, access to tech­nol­ogy. Plus, enter­tain­ment and cul­tural enrich­ment pro­grams are part of the library’s reg­u­lar schedule.

“The Ran­cho Mirage Pub­lic Library was built on com­mu­nity part­ner­ships, and we are happy to be a part of what makes this a fine com­mu­nity asset,” said Catharine Reed, senior pro­gram offi­cer for the Auen Foundation.

The library has started pur­chas­ing and pro­cess­ing a col­lec­tion that will include at least 1,500 new large print books with the Auen Foun­da­tion fund­ing. In recent years, pub­lish­ers have been actively pro­duc­ing more large print books in paper­back. This lighter, easy-to-read for­mat, improves the read­ing expe­ri­ence for those need­ing this type of assis­tance to main­tain the plea­sure of reading.

“This is a tremen­dous gift that will have long term impact on the avail­abil­ity of large print books for our patrons who keep read­ing because of their com­fort with this for­mat,” said David Bryant, library direc­tor. “Each book we add will have a book­plate, not­ing that the vol­ume is avail­able because of the gen­eros­ity of the Auen Foundation.”

All of the new large print books will be avail­able for check­out with a Ran­cho Mirage Pub­lic Library card. Cal­i­for­nia res­i­dents with a valid ID can receive a card through an easy reg­is­tra­tion process. Sea­sonal res­i­dents, show­ing proof of a Ran­cho Mirage address, will also be issued a free card. Out-of-state vis­i­tors are charged a mod­est card fee. The library is eager to serve the entire Coachella Val­ley and beyond.

The Ran­cho Mirage Pub­lic Library is located at 71–100 High­way 111, Ran­cho Mirage. For more infor­ma­tion, go to www.ranchomiragelibrary.org or call 760–341-7323.

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Auen Foundation closes the gap on CVRM summer challenge

Aug 22, 2016

The Coachella Val­ley Res­cue Mis­sion met its first sum­mer fundrais­ing goal, thanks, in part, to a grant from the Auen Foun­da­tion. At the begin­ning of the sum­mer, the CVRM began an e-blast cam­paign titled “Open Your Heart 97 Day Chal­lenge.” The intent was to raise aware­ness of the scorch­ing sum­mer months that threaten most of the Valley’s home­less and many impov­er­ished families.

After the mis­sion dis­trib­uted the first email about this com­mu­nity chal­lenge, an anony­mous donor came for­ward with its own chal­lenge: if the CVRM raised $25,000, they would match it, which would quickly raise $50,000 for the shel­ter. Addi­tional donors met the chal­lenge up to $10,000, and then the e-mail mes­sage caught the atten­tion of Catharine Reed, Senior Pro­gram Offi­cer for the Auen Foun­da­tion. The pri­vate, fam­ily foun­da­tion agreed to con­tribute the remain­ing $15,000 that com­pleted the match­ing chal­lenge and helped the CVRM pre­pare for the hot sum­mer months ahead.

“Each sum­mer, the mis­sion faces chal­lenges that come with extreme heat,” said Darla Bur­kett, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the CVRM. “A con­ver­sa­tion with Catharine about the e-blast and the match­ing grant brought com­pas­sion and a strong offer of help. CVRM and the com­mu­nity we serve are sin­cerely grate­ful for the gen­eros­ity of the Auen Foun­da­tion and the other donors that con­tributed to this suc­cess­ful fundrais­ing campaign.”

Dur­ing the first two months of sum­mer, funds raised by the $50,000 chal­lenge pro­vided more than 46,000 meals, 15,250 bed nights of shel­ter, and kept 26 home­less chil­dren off the streets.

“We love an oppor­tu­nity to part­ner with other donors and make a sig­nif­i­cant impact quickly,” said Reed.

As Sum­mer 2016 hit record tem­per­a­tures and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the CVRM went out in the com­mu­nity look­ing for men, women and chil­dren still on the streets, they con­tin­ued the “Open Your Heart 97 Day Chal­lenge” through August.

“Unfor­tu­nately, there is always a need to serve our community’s home­less, said Bur­kett. “We may help one fam­ily off the streets just as another is faced with unfore­seen cir­cum­stances. In the sum­mer, com­mu­nity needs and costs are greatly increased, yet dona­tions gen­er­ally decrease, so we have to make an extra effort this time of year to ensure that our orga­ni­za­tion con­tin­ues to ful­fill its mis­sion of serv­ing those in need.”

Founded in 1971, and located at 47470 Van Buren St. in Indio, the CVRM feeds, shel­ters, and cares for more than 250 clients each night. A 24-hour hot and cold weather shel­ter, pro­vides refuge from extreme weather con­di­tions. To find out more about the Coachella Val­ley Res­cue Mis­sion, call 760–347-3512 or visit www.cvrm.org.

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Grant Supports Dental Health for People Living with HIV/AIDS

Jul 26, 2016

Desert AIDS Project (D.A.P.) received a $25,000 grant from the Auen Foun­da­tion to pro­vide den­tal care to low-income seniors liv­ing with HIV/AIDS. The Auen Foun­da­tion grant was awarded to D.A.P.’s Den­tal Clinic. Founded in 2008, the clinic has had an ongo­ing wait­ing list, and serves patients liv­ing at or below 400 per­cent of the fed­eral poverty level.

“Most patients come to us after years and years with­out den­tal care and require inten­sive treat­ment plans requir­ing many vis­its to achieve sta­ble oral health,” said David Brinkman, CEO of D.A.P. “Although we recently added staff to bet­ter accom­mo­date our long wait­ing list, we were still in need of sup­plies. The grant from the Auen Foun­da­tion will sup­port this, and help us com­plete com­plex den­tal plans for our local res­i­dents in need in a timely manner.”

Last fall, D.A.P.’s Den­tal Clinic added a sec­ond full-time den­tist. With 1.2 FTE hygien­ists and sup­port staff, the clinic has already served 736 indi­vid­u­als this year putting the clinic on track to pro­vide den­tal care to a record num­ber of patients in 2016.

“D.A.P. is pro­vid­ing a crit­i­cal ser­vice that is not eas­ily found,” said Catharine Reed, Pro­gram Direc­tor for the Auen Foun­da­tion, which is ded­i­cated to enhanc­ing the over­all qual­ity of life of the aging pop­u­la­tion. “Many sur­vivors of HIV are now in their senior years, on a lim­ited income, and many do not have den­tal insur­ance. D.A.P.’s Den­tal Clinic will help these sur­vivors main­tain good oral health, which is nec­es­sary for their long-term health.”

About 60 per­cent of the clients seen at D.A.P.’s Den­tal Clinic are at least 50-years-old, and most of them are long-time sur­vivors who have bat­tled HIV/AIDS for more than 20 years. The extended life expectancy for HIV/AIDS has brought about a chal­lenge for those aging with the con­di­tion. Older peo­ple and those diag­nosed in late stages need a much higher degree of care.

D.A.P. serves our com­mu­nity with pri­mary and HIV-specialty ser­vices, includ­ing med­ical care, case man­age­ment, and social ser­vices, includ­ing food, hous­ing, and coun­sel­ing. D.A.P. also pro­vides HIV pre­ven­tion edu­ca­tion and free and con­fi­den­tial HIV test­ing at dozens of com­mu­nity test sites and events through its Get Tested Coachella Val­ley cam­paign. The non­profit also offers The DOCK, a sex­ual health clinic, whose ser­vices include STD test­ing and treat­ment; PEP & PrEP edu­ca­tion and refer­ral to treat­ment; free and con­fi­den­tial HIV test­ing; and well woman exams. With new advances in treat­ment, improved access to care through health reform and new pre­ven­tion tech­nol­ogy, D.A.P. is com­mit­ted to bring­ing the HIV epi­demic to an end. For more infor­ma­tion about any of D.A.P.’s ser­vices, call 760–323-2118, visit www.desertaidsproject.org.

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Foundation Continues Support of AAP Food Voucher Program

Apr 27, 2016

AIDS Assis­tance Pro­gram — Food Samar­i­tans (AAP) announced today that the Auen Foun­da­tion recently awarded a $25,000 grant to the orga­ni­za­tion to sup­port its food voucher pro­gram for low-income Coachella Val­ley res­i­dents who suf­fer from HIV/AIDS and other chronic ill­nesses. This is the 17th con­sec­u­tive year that the Auen Foun­da­tion has sup­ported this program.

“Since we began giv­ing to orga­ni­za­tions in the Coachella Val­ley, AIDS Assis­tance Pro­gram – Food Samar­i­tans has stood out as an orga­ni­za­tion that ful­fills a basic need for some of our community’s most vul­ner­a­ble res­i­dents,” said Catharine Reed, Senior Pro­gram Offi­cer for the Auen Foun­da­tion. “Our entire grant directly sup­ports client ser­vice, not admin­is­tra­tion costs. And because AAP receives a 6 per­cent dis­count from Stater Broth­ers off the value of the pur­chased food vouch­ers, our grant is effec­tively val­ued at 106 percent.”

AIDS Assis­tance Pro­gram – Food Samar­i­tans was founded in 1991 to help the most at-risk mem­bers of the Greater Palm Springs com­mu­nity – peo­ple who are low-income and com­pro­mised by HIV/AIDS. It recently expanded its ser­vices to include peo­ple suf­fer­ing from can­cer, MS, heart or liver dis­ease, and other chronic ill­nesses. Its ongo­ing mis­sion is to ensure that all AAP clients can con­tinue to live their lives with dig­nity and self-respect.

“This kind of long-term sup­port from the Auen Foun­da­tion is not only cru­cial to help­ing us con­tinue to fund AAP, but demon­strates the kind of com­mit­ted part­ner­ships that we have been for­tu­nate to forge over the last twenty five years,” said Mark Anton, CEO and Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of AAP. “AAP does not receive fed­eral or state finan­cial assis­tance, so gen­er­ous pri­vate dona­tions like this allow us to con­tinue to sup­port the peo­ple who need it most.”

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