Points of Light
Compiled by Meenakshi Viswanathan
Saddleback Memorial Foundation raised $170,000 at its “Spirit of Philanthropy” gala to benefit Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills.
The PacifiCare Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., donated $150,000 to Santa Barbara’s Dream Foundation, which grants wishes for terminally ill adults.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car employees in coastal Orange County raised nearly $136,000 in 2003-2004 campaign pledges to United Way organizations in the Southland. The money raised includes Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation matching funds.
Mission Viejo-based The Merit Cos. raised more than $120,000 during its annual United Way campaign. The 2003-2004 fundraiser, themed “What Really Matters in Orange County Making It a Reality,” received donations from 240 employees of Merit’s three divisions.
St. Joseph Hospital of Orange raised more than $100,000 from its 19th annual Todos golf tournament. Todos, Spanish for “everyone,” is a philanthropic support group of the hospital. All of the proceeds raised will go toward its pledge of $500,000 for a new patient care center under construction.
Irvine’s Info Link Orange County, a nonprofit that links people in need with individuals and agencies that can help them, received three grants: $75,000 from the Orange County’s Children and Families Commission; $5,000 from the Pacific Life Foundation; and $1,000 from the Irvine Health Foundation.
The second annual Mimi’s Caf & #233; Battle of the Bands raised more than $40,000 to help support music programs in high schools across Southern California. More than 4,000 music lovers turned out to listen to high school music groups.
Phoenix-based law firm Snell & Wilmer LLP’s OC office in Irvine donated more than $38,000 to Orange County’s United Way. The gift was the result of a three-week campaign drive, the firm’s first fundraising effort for the United Way.
Kaiser Permanente Orange County donated $23,000 to the Tustin-based Orange County Rescue Mission for its work providing medical outreach to the area’s neediest residents. The grant is earmarked for mobile medical operations, such as a mobile food pantry and a mobile medical clinic.
The Aetna Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Hartford, Conn.-based health and benefits company Aetna Inc., awarded a $20,000 grant to the American Cancer Society in Orange County to support an outreach campaign aimed at raising awareness within OC’s Asian American community, and to reduce ethnic disparity in colorectal cancer screening.
The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California in Los Angeles awarded $20,000 to the Music Intelligence Neural Development, or Mind, Institute in Costa Mesa. The funds will help purchase student and teacher materials for the Math + Music program.
Kaiser Permanente Orange County awarded $10,000 each to two local agencies that provide special services to people who are HIV-positive or who have AIDS: Laguna Beach Community Clinic, for providing HIV education in the Latino community; and Irvine-based AIDS Services Foundation Orange County, for its program that transports clients to healthcare and social services appointments.
Kaiser Permanente Orange County donated a total of $12,000 to two OC groups serving the needs of the blind and hearing impaired communities. Providence Speech and Hearing Center in Orange received $10,000; Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, an educational library with a studio in Santa Ana, was given $2,000.
Kaiser Permanente Orange County donated $10,000 to Irvine-based Human Options, a nonprofit that assists battered women and their families by providing shelter, case management and legal advocacy. The funds were used to underwrite the cost of its domestic violence prevention materials.
Mission San Juan Capistrano’s Gardening Angels received a $2,700 grant from the Metropolitan Water District to plant native plants in the Mission’s west garden and install accompanying signage.
Irvine-based Fuscoe Engineering Inc. sponsored the Adopt-A-Class program of the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, which enabled 40 second-graders from Troth Elementary School in Mira Loma to participate in the “Junior Scientific LiteraSEA” program, which teaches about marine organisms and their lifecycles.
