Mtn. View & Los Altos' 'Hometown Heroes' Event Set for September

Announcement from the Community Services Agency:

The 2014 “Hometown Heroes” breakfast and fundraising event will be held next month on Friday, Sept. 19, at 7:15 A.M. at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, announced Tom Myers, Executive Director of Community Services Agency (CSA) in Mountain View.

“Hometown Heroes” is an annual event to honor both individuals and businesses (for profit and not-for-profit) for their philanthropic contributions to both CSA and our local community.

The event is sponsored by Community Services Agency, the only non-profit, social service safety-net provider for Mountain View, Los Altos, and Los Altos Hills.

Honored this year as Hometown Heroes are: Sally Lieber (Individual); YIPEE! a program of the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce (community organization); and Google (business).

Featured guest speaker will be Pulitzer Prize winning Associated Press National Writer Martha Mendoza who has been reporting on the disparity of income in Silicon Valley in addition to the plight of homeless individuals and families.

SALLY LIEBER is a strong and vocal champion for CSA and its clients in both elected office and among political circles for many years. She has served in the California State Assembly for 3 terms, representing the 22nd Assembly District, which includes Mountain View. Among her legislative committees she served as Chair of the Joint Committee on Ending Poverty in California authoring legislation to increase the state’s minimum wage. In April 2006, Lieber spent several days living as if she were homeless in Silicon Valley in an attempt to understand the problems the homeless face, and how the legislature can help them. She begged for money, and collected cans and bottles, in order to buy food on the streets of Mountain View, using that experience to encourage the Governor to keep cold weather shelters open for the homeless in leading the organization through a strategic planning process which led to the adoption in 2011 of a new 3-year plan.

YIPEE is a program of the Chamber of Commerce Mountain View specifically for “Young Innovative Professional Entrepreneurs Etc.” who want to create a platform to build relationships, develop professionally, become politically and philanthropically active, and contribute to the economic development and high quality living of this community. They have harnessed their talents to organize food/toy drives for CSA throughout the year in addition to providing volunteers at many of the CSA events.

GOOGLE has been a sponsor of CSA events, including this breakfast, for a number of years; but this past year they have really ramped up their community involvement as corporate sponsor of this year’s Annual Back-to-School Backpack Distribution event (August 13, 2014); the donation of a walk-in refrigerator/freezer for our Food & Nutrition Center plus the donation of almost 400 pounds of fresh produce 2x/week from their organic food supplier. In addition a trio of Google employees assisted CSA with social media and website strategies through the Google Reach program.

“Community Services Agency has been part of the local social fabric for the past 57 years,” says Myers. “It truly takes collaboration between residents, government and businesses for Community Services Agency to accomplish its mission, especially in this economic climate. The Hometown Heroes event recognizes these efforts and we all should be inspired by the commitment and hard work of our very own ‘hometown heroes’.”

Individual tickets for the breakfast are $45. Partner/Sponsorships begin at $500. For reservations, sponsorships or other information, contact Jim Boin at 650.968.0836 x 115 or: jboin@csacares.org.