Tom Bieri, SAY’s Executive Director, played a part this weekend in helping the Santa Rosa Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force put on a boxing event that was aimed at raising awareness of the gang prevention efforts being done in our community.  Held at the Santa Rosa Plaza, Double Punches Boxing Club put on an incredible show of well trained humble young fighters. There was also a Celebrity Boxing Match between Sonoma County Board of Supervisor Efren Carrillo and Double Punches Coach and Golden Glove boxer Enrique Gutierrez.  Enrique was once ranked first in the U.S., and he put on an impressive show.  Efren showed incredible heart out there in the ring with the master.

John Meislahn, an SAY Board Member, was one of the Masters of Ceremonies for the event.  SAY’s Matt Martin was seen mingling with the crowd.

The Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force has given money SAY to run our Youth Employment Center (YEC) as well as the Santa Rosa Clean Slate Tattoo Removal Program. The Clean Slate Tattoo Removal Program is a partnership with the Santa Rosa Community Health Center and Kaiser Permanente.

This summer, our YEC staff was folded into the Sonoma County Youth Ecology Corps to employ 100 at-risk youth in the Santa Rosa region. The Youth Ecology Corps is a a collaborative effort that involved the Workforce Investment Board, the Sonoma County Water Agency, New Ways to Work, the Sonoma County Department of Education, and the Human Services Department.

As part of a contingent of community representatives that received a Golden Resolution in recognition of Gang Prevention Awareness Week, Tom Bieri and two young men employed by SAY in the Sonoma County Youth Ecology Corps spoke before the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning. On Tuesday afternoon, they helped receive a resolution from the Santa Rosa City Council honoring Gang Prevention Awareness Week. Recently, these two young men were each offered jobs by the City of Santa Rosa to continue their work in the parks after the Youth Ecology Corps ends at the end of this week.

Many thanks to a community that is coming together to support offering all of our youth the unique kind of hope and sense of personal significance that comes with having a promising job.  This is an important part of our gang prevention efforts.

You can view a gallery of images from the event here on photographer Melissa Agoc’s website.

SAY celebrated the Grand Opening of the Sunflower Community Garden with a BBQ party last Thursday, July 29th. Our partners from the City of Santa Rosa Recreation, Parks & Communities Department, as well as members of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce were on hand for a ribbon cutting ceremony led by SAY’s Executive Director Tom Bieri, and Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President Juan Hernandez and Vice President Macros Suarez. Video of the ribbon cutting ceremony is below:

After a month and a half of solid work in in the Sunflower Community Garden, the SAY Youth Employment Center crew has accomplished an enormous feat–they have transformed the once overgrown garden into an organized, and bountiful, vegetable garden. As you can see in our before photos, the garden needed a thorough overhaul, and our 4 crew members outdid themselves in their efforts to clean up the space. Caitlin Childs, SAY’s resident photographer, revisited the garden on July 14th to get some after photos, which you can see below:

SAY celebrated the Grand Opening of the Sunflower Community Garden with a BBQ party last Thursday, July 29th. Our partners from the City of Santa Rosa Recreation, Parks & Communities Department, as well as members of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce were on hand for a ribbon cutting ceremony led by SAY’s Executive Director Tom Bieri. Photos from the Grand Opening Part are below:

Thank You! With your help, the 2010 Human Race was a ton of fun and profitable.  Together with SAY’s wonderful Human Race crew, friends, board members and staff helped raise over $4,000 for SAY programs and services.  The fleet and the fast, together with the sure footed, walked and ran the 3 and 10k races.  We are sure records were set due to the energy boost everyone got from wearing a snazzy SAY t shirt.  (We still have a few left.  See below on how to purchase one.)  After the race, we all had an important birthday party to attend. The Tamayo House  celebrated its 5th anniversary.  In honor of this occasion, La Tortilla Factory hosted an incredible BBQ Pig Roast.

Here are a few photos from the day’s events:

If you would like to purchase one of our tee shirts for just $15, please call Caitlin Childs at 707-544-3299 x 216 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to reserve a shirt.  (Who knows, it might make you run a little faster???)

Whew! It’s been a whirlwind few weeks here at SAY as we prepared for this year’s BIG Event The O SAY Corral. The big day came on Saturday April 10 and the O SAY Corral was a HUGE success! We raised more than $133,000 at the BIG Event through sponsorships, ticket sales, auction purchases and donations, and we had a great time doing it!

Highlights from the O SAY Corral include:

• The arrest of Tom Bieri, SAY’s Executive Director on charges of “Tom Foolery”, the arrest of Tom’s daughter Kayla on charges of “horse thieving” and the arrest of SAY’s Board President on charges of having a “Poor Golf Swing!”
• Music from Hugh Shacklett and George Inskeep, Jan White, Scott “The Singing Cowboy” Gerber, and the Blue Moon Band.
• The SAY Board of Director’s performing a rendition of “Achy Breaky Heart” led by Ray Olmstead.
• A rowdy live auction including a Ladies Night dinner at the Santa Rosa Firehouse followed by dancing and drinks at the Cantina, and not one but two trips to France!
• A heartfelt story from SAY’s Outreach Coordinator Lisa Fatu and from Mariano, a member of SAY’s Youth Advisory Board about his experiences in working with SAY to change his own life.
• And last, but certainly not least, the incredible generosity of the more than 300 attendees in helping us to raise more than $125,000 in funding for our programs and services.

Mike Chase of Mike Chase Photography and Elizabeth Goldman, SAY’s Lead Therapist were on hand taking photos of our guests in all of their western attired glory, check out some of their photos below: