Working Single Mom a Volunteer and Sponsor of Colfax Charter Elementary

When you think of corporate donations, you probably imagine some gargantuan company that gives a small fraction of its profits back to the community in the form of huge donations: George Lucas’ Edutopia; The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Target’s Take Charge of Education. You probably don’t picture a single mom doing network marketing from home.

Meet Sally Hallada, mother of four school-aged sons who works for Arbonne, a company that eschews conventional advertising and sells personal care and nutrition products by word-of-mouth. This year Sally is not only a Platinum Sponsor ($1000) at Colfax Charter Elementary School in Valley Village, she is also one of the volunteers in charge of drumming up donations from other parents with their own businesses.

Although it’s a fraction of the over half a million dollars annually raised by most other affiliated charter schools, last year Colfax parent-owned businesses donated $28,000, and its platinum, gold and silver contributors include: Suburbia Salon on Ventura; Mark Blanchard Yoga and Optimal Chiropractic (both on Tujunga); three real estate agents (Aundrelyn Knott of Keller/Williams, Shelly Smith of Von der Ahe Real Estate Group, and Dan Elias of Rodeo Realty); Panda Express; two law firms (Pines Laurent, LLP and Koletsky, Mancini, Feldman & Morrow); Aflac agent Tracy Nini; Speech, Language and Educational Associates; Final Touch Roofing; and Tis the Season Christmas Lights.

And then there’s Sally … and Arbonne.

Sally learned about corporate sponsorship as a volunteer/mom at Carpenter Elementary School. She and her former husband moved to Studio City in 1994 to ensure that their future children would go to this great public school, but by 2001 they were a family of five still living in a one-bedroom apartment. Her husband was having trouble finding work as a lighting designer and Sally was working part time selling skincare for Arbonne. One day she made the decision to turn her job as an independent consultant into a full-time job. Even in those early lean years she annually donated $500 to Carpenter as an Arbonne corporate sponsor.

A decade later, Sally is now in qualification for national vice president with Arbonne, which means that soon she’ll be able to double her salary, and be among only 200 people who are at the top level of the company. She’s now a single mom, raising her four sons who range in age from six to 16 – a task she’s been able to pull off since Arbonne allows her to work from home.

Five years ago she moved to a house in Valley Village, and this year her two youngest sons are attending Colfax Charter Elementary, a school that in Sally’s eyes has risen to the caliber of Carpenter. She doubled her donation amount, and encourages other families to give generously.

“Community sponsorship is a way for businesses to show the community that they are here for the long haul,” says Sally. “All the kids are hearing now is budget cuts, the everyone’s cutting back on their future and their education. Wouldn’t it be nice if the local businesses said, ‘No – I’m going to take my advertising dollars and I’m going to put them into the school rather than into the billboard, or the newspaper that nobody’s looking at.’”

She explains that with corporate sponsorship, money goes in first. “It’s not like you’re hoping to make money off this at some point and then possibly write a check. You’ve already committed to writing the check.”

For Colfax Charter Elementary, the drive for corporate sponsorship is especially important because it offsets the cost of the Colfax World Fair, which takes place this year on Saturday, June 4.

“What’s nice about the World Fair is that it’s open to the whole community,” Sally explains. “It’s visible. You get more exposure as a community sponsor. They come from Dixie Canyon, they come from Burbank schools, from all over the neighborhood, so as a community sponsor you get more exposure than just the people from Colfax. When they see your name on the banner, they see you as donating directly to that school.”

This theme of giving back is one that Sally credits directly to Arbonne. She lists some of the ways Arbonne helps their community – both locally and globally. Arbonne donated $100,000 to the Red Cross after the earthquake in Japan and 65,000 protein shakes to the relief workers in Haiti. They annually give money to Sojourner Center for battered women and Operation Gratitude for the soldiers. She mentions one Arbonne consultant on her team who adopted two babies from China and regularly donates to Love Without Boundaries, which helps orphans in China. Another team member spends a month of every year in a different third world country distributing money to those less fortunate.

Sally humbly offers her own contributions. When a friend at church told her about a troubled teenage foster child who was looking for a home, Sally took her in for two years and helped her graduate from high school. Since her divorce, Sally’s ex-husband was diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease and Sally and her boys annually participate in the Huntington's Disease Society of America/Team Hope-LA 5K Walk/Run at CBS/Radford. She has her checkbook out whenever anyone she knows or is on her Arbonne team participates in a charity walk or campaign. Even with four sons, she volunteers with local Girl Scouts, educating them about nutrition so they can earn their nutrition badge.

Colfax Charter Elementary welcomes community sponsors whether or not they are Colfax families. May 1 is the deadline for corporate sponsors who want their banner posted during the Colfax World Fair. For those interested in Colfax Charter Community Giving, or more information about Arbonne’s company or products, email Sally Hallada at: sallyhallada@sbcglobal.net.