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Big News Times Two!

9/27/2022

We’ve updated our website (https://www.actionalliancecr.com/) to share all the ways Community Action Alliance of San Ramón reaches out to help our adopted community. Now it’s easy for you to stay up to date with our programs and find ways to help improve the lives of those who live in poverty, experience food insecurity, and/or need a basic education that might otherwise be unattainable.
To make it easier than ever to donate financially to these important outreaches, CAA has partnered with Global Giving in the US to create three opportunities to help, all tax-deductible for US Citizens:
- CAA’s Help Brighten the Lives of Children Living in Poverty initiative, through the Blankets for Babies, Birthday Buddies, and Christmas Toy Drive programs. Learn more here: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/help-brighten-the-lives-of-children-in-poverty/
- CAA’s Feed Hungry Families in San Ramón initiative, through our Gift of Education, Árbol de Esperanza alliance and Tamale Christmas program. Learn more here: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/feed-hungry-families-in-san-ramon-costa-rica/
- CAA’s Give the Gift of Education initiative through our Education Scholarship Program. Learn more here: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/give-the-gift-of-education-to-children-in-poverty/

CAA now has more than 100 members and we’re growing every day. With all the sweat equity, limit to what we can accomplish to improve the lives of others here in San Ramon.

With much hope for the future we remain,

Your Community Action Alliance Board of Directors

Time Flies and Kids Grow Up, but it’s Never Too Late to Make an Impact!

9/13/2022

All of our CAA Scholarship Program 2022 graduates are eagerly awaiting December, when they will graduate high school. Some will anxiously await news of acceptance into one of the three public universities. As you might recall, the university entrance exams are scheduled for August and September. The last class review session concluded on Saturday, September 10. We hope our investment in the two different classes of exam preparation reviews have paid off for these students, but we know that public university admission is now quite competitive, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed for success for these students.

Notwithstanding these high school pressures and anxieties, it was all fun and games at the Escuela de Potrerillos in celebration of Dia del Niños on Friday, September 9. Linda and I volunteered to provide gift baskets for each of the 17 Potrerillos elementary students, and we also delivered a five-gallon tub of Dos Piños ice-cream and cones—the kids eagerly lined up and we packed those cones as fast as we could to keep up! After pizza, ice cream, and games, we assembled the kids to help them learn to throw a Yo-Yo, and all the while, we quizzed the kids on their mastery of beginning English. A few students surprised us, but most were at a very basic level of English as we anticipated. Few have any exposure to English speakers in our rural area. Linda and I are tutoring two local students in basic English (6th and 8th graders) in our home, and we know that many other CAA members also contribute time to tutor students. We are exploring opportunities to organize regular English (reinforcement) classes at the local Potrerillos school, but this will have to await discussion with the local parents (PTA), and approvals.

Working with these young elementary kids on Día del Niños reminded us of the investment CAA has made in education for numerous children, starting in 2013, with students in the second or third grades. Now even that first class, containing the youngest students, is graduating Colegio in 2022!
Time flies, but our recent Día del Niños experience reminded us that it is never too late to make an investment in education for one of these deserving students from a poverty-stricken family in our adopted community.
Whether you donate your time, expertise, money, or tutor a student, it is an investment that will pay dividends for years to come. Please consider expanding CAA’s impact to the community through your service and support—it is a fulfilling journey!
These Potrerillos Escuela students will enjoy ice cream all week!

Big News Times Two!

Time Flies and Kids Grow Up, but it’s Never Too Late to Make an Impact!

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