NovatoSpirit Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Thanks to the donations and goodwill that many showered upon us in February, NovatoSpirit is blossoming. This Spring we will be able to offer athletic scholarships to more low-income children than ever before.

Donors from all over Marin and the Bay Area gave us $14,935 during our February Fundraiser, which was handsomely helped by an anonymous donor, who offered to match all donations up to $8,000. Several charitable organizations took advantage of this matching-gift offer, including Wells Fargo Bank, the Jewish Community Federation & Endowment Fund, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch.

Our partner One World Children’s Fund (www.owcf.org) hosted an evening event for us and two of their other partners from the Democratic Republic of Congo (CAMME) and India (Nirvanavan Foundation). In addition, the medical staff from the Marin Community Clinics of Novato hosted an all-day bake sale to benefit the children we serve.

Alison Moore, a registered nurse at Marin Community Clinics, helped organize the bake sale. Alison is also a Board Member of NovatoSpirit, and has served for 10 years alongside Board Member Suzanne Daggert, a senior tax professional at Ghirardo CPA. Together, we three have run NovatoSpirit since the nonprofit was founded in 2005.

When asked why she’s dedicated a decade of volunteer service to NovatoSpirit, Alison said, “Every day, I see a growing number of kids who could benefit so much from the physical activity and mentorship that the NovatoSpirit scholarships provide and I know we have more work to do. When I see how much pleasure our kids derive from their scholarship activities, I feel immensely proud to be a small part of something that will hopefully have a lifelong impact on an underprivileged child.”

Suzanne added, “I believe NovatoSpirit is unique in that it asks students and families to take responsibility to be active in making beneficial changes that will last a lifetime. I am proud to be a part of an organization that builds stronger individuals, families and community.”

Suzanne and Alison were spotlighted recently in the Novato Advance, which ran a front-page story about NovatoSpirit’s fundraising efforts. We are grateful to Editor Joe Wolfcale for his generous front-page coverage.

Because people were so generous to us in February, we were able to award some athletic scholarships immediately to children who applied for tae kwon do and dance scholarships.

Our newest tae kwon do student wrote, “I don’t do any exercise, because I live in an apartment and cant jump or run or else there will be complaints from my downstairs neighbors. I’m really excited about tae kwon do, because at my school, kids bully me and I want to learn to defend myself!”

Another new student is a 7-year old girt who requested a dance scholarship.

In her application she wrote, “I always tell my mom that I want to go to dance classes and she always says no because they are too expensive. But inside of me I am always thinking how can I go. And be like kids in TV how they do cartwheels and splits. If I go to dance classes it will help me with my shyness. And have more friends and help my body too.”

And our newest dancer, an 11-year-old girl, wrote this: “Dance not only helps me physically and mentally but spiritually. Every time I dance I feel free and happy. Dance gives me the strength to continue with all the challenges that life brings to me.”

These girls may be joining their Love2Dance classmates at a performance called “#Instadance” Sunday, May 24, at 4 p.m. at the Marin County Civic Center Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium. This show is open to the public.

Also in May, Mr. Robert Ito of the White Tiger Kempo Karate School will be hosting a tournament for our karate kids and other students. The karate tournament will be held Sunday, May 17, at 10 a.m. at the Novato Youth Center, 680 Wilson Avenue in Novato, and the public is welcome.

Currently, NovatoSpirit is serving 47 children. Our goal this year is to serve 60-65 children. Your generosity has given us the momentum we need meet our service goal. Thank you for making our 10th Anniversary year a happy one.