Photo Courtesy Of Sunday Friends Sunday Friends, which helps low-income families get back on their feet, held a back-to-school drive in August, collecting donated backpacks and other school supplies.

The 2009 holiday season may be bittersweet for some. A bad economy still lingers, and non-profit groups – 12,500 in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties – get hit particularly hard when money is tight.

Still, this is the season of giving, and philanthropists say giving should be more of a priority, not less, when times are tough.

The Town Crier has made giving a bit easier with its annual Holiday Fund, which officially launches this week. Residents have an opportunity to fund 15 organizations that have proven track records of focused goals, efficiency and low overhead. They all make a notable impact on the less fortunate – especially children and families.

The Holiday Fund includes a group of local matching donors and administrative support from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which processes the donations and disburses the funds to the organizations.

This year’s recipients are Music For Minors, Sunday Friends, the Community Health Awareness Council, Partners for New Generations, House of Grace, Jeremiah’s Promise, the Community Services Agency dental program, Hidden Villa summer camps, Bayshore Christian Ministries, East Palo Alto Kids Foundation, Mother Branch, Downtown College Prep-Alviso, Help One Child, Career Closet and RotaCare.

Through the end of the year, the Town Crier will profile each of the organizations. Featured this week are Sunday Friends and Music For Minors.

Sunday Friends

“Sunday Friends has changed my life, because I am able to spend quality time with my children,” said one participating mom. “I am able to sit and talk to them about different things that I’ve learned at the program. I’ve learned to have more patience with my children. I’ve also learned to get ahead in life and to have a better future.”

Founder Janis Baron has heard many such comments in the 12-year history of the family-oriented organization. Sunday Friends focuses on low-income families who meet Sundays at Lowell Elementary School in San Jose. Family members perform tasks to help other needy residents, accumulating tickets for their work. They can then use the tickets to purchase necessities such as food and laundry detergent.

The idea, said new executive director Michael Hobson, is that families must earn their necessities.

“There are no handouts for anyone,” he said.

In the process of organizing projects such as children’s art for convalescent homes, Hobson said, families learn “everyone has something to give to the community despite their own apparent needs.” Only through work and reward as a way to build self-esteem can these low-income people “break the cycle of poverty,” he said.

Sunday Friends offers classes for parents, including English as a second language and home financing.

The organization is surviving the shaky economy in relatively good shape, Hobson said, due to prudent spending and a commitment to a “rainy-day fund.” Sunday Friends’ annual budget is approximately $275,000.

“The Holiday Fund makes a huge difference,” he said.

For more information on Sunday Friends, visit www.sundayfriends.org.

Music For Minors

Having a Music For Minors docent in Lorie Tharp’s classroom made her job easier, at the same time giving her students an essential piece of the education picture.

“Music should be a key part of the learning process, but without our docent, I would have no time to fit it in,” said Tharp, a teacher at Miramonte School in Los Altos.

For more than 30 years, Music For Minors has been relentless in its mission to recruit and train docents to teach music education to children in kindergarten through third grade. Founded in Los Altos, the organization began in response to state funding cuts that eliminated music instruction.

Supporters, led by executive director Mona Williams, assert music is a catalyst to improving skills in math and reading, and important for a well-rounded education.

Though the mission has stayed the same, changes have been plentiful. The docent base has shifted from parents with a vested interest in teaching at their child’s school, to “free agents,” as Williams calls them, docents who simply teach for a love of music and go wherever assigned.

Music For Minors currently has more than 100 volunteer docents teaching 7,000 children annually in schools all over Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

After years of limited funding, the organization has become more stable financially, as a new generation of parent volunteers assume leadership roles. The annual budget is approximately $368,000. The non-profit’s board of directors includes venture capitalists and high-tech executives.

For the first time, the organization this year is undertaking a pilot program to measure the impact of the docent program.

“It’s part of the Holiday Fund that helped us do it this year,” Williams said. “The Holiday Fund is of paramount importance to us. It’s crucial.”

For more information on Music For Minors, visit www.mfm.org.

Next week, the Town Crier will profile Holiday Fund recipients House of Grace and Career Closet. To donate to the Holiday Fund, make checks payable to “Town Crier Holiday Fund” and send to 138 Main St., Los Altos 94022.

For more information or to donate online, visit www.latcholidayfund.org.

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