Social Action Update

The Texas Hold ’em poker night of August 27 was a great success! Eight people participated in a night of refreshments and laughs and . . . oh yeah . . . we played some poker. To go along with the move-in baskets we are supplying to families moving from the shelter to transitional housing, we now can give a $50 grocery gift card to better help some get started. We raised $55 for the evening, allowing us to rollover $5 for the next card we buy. We will be holding these fund-raisers periodically to get more gift cards. We hope you will join us the next time. Watch for the date.

The big winner for the night was Tom Stapleford. He received the Poker Champ badge and you’ll see from the attached photo that he wore it proudly. (The big loser was Jerry Buchanan; he did not win one single hand due to his conservative playing. You won’t see his name with the word “conservative” close by very many times.) SAC member Jeanne Akerley created the badge and has a few more for future winners.

The local shelter mentioned above has gone through some restructuring, but fortunately, their operations remain the same—offering much needed services to the local homeless community. They are no longer part of the PATH network; they are an independent entity. At a recent fund-raising dinner, a total of $350,000 was raised! Actual expenses haven’t been totaled yet, but you can be sure that a wonderful percentage of that money will go directly to help the homeless. At that same dinner, it was announced that the shelter’s name has now been changed to Ascencia. So, what we have been calling PATH Achieve Glendale for years is now Ascencia.

The family who received the gift card mentioned (along with a move-in basket) has been homeless for almost two years. There are four children with their mother, who once all lived in their car. They finally were able to live in a couple of shelters before getting their apartment through Ascencia where they can now feel comfortable, keep their own hours, and finally eat Mom’s home-cooking that the kids have missed for so long. Thank you, poker players, for making this possible.

Jerry Buchanan, SAC Chair