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2003 Events |
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A SPECIAL DAY AT MILLERTON
Valerie Curley - Bureau of Reclamation I am pleased to report, based on Stephen Lee's records (Stephen was chair of the Children's 'Day Of' Registration Committee) the following number of children were actually hosted at the Saturday, October 4, 2003 C.A.S.T. for Kids event: 9 participants - Make-A-Wish Foundation of South San Joaquin Valley 9 participants - Children's Hospital Central California 11 participants - Fresno County Dept. of Children and Family Services 3 participants - San Joaquin River Intertribal Heritage Educational Corp. 5 participants - Waiting List developed by Coordination Committee A Total of 37 Happy Kids I think we all should feel great that 37 of the 55 kids we planned to host were able to attend. As you may recall, the majority of the kids we host cannot just go on a whim. Many of them have chronic illnesses or have been diagnosed with a life threatening illness. They have to plan their lives around treatments, doctor visits, and hospital stays. Or, they just, for a variety of reasons, do not have an adult who is able to take them to a lake and teach them about boating and fishing due to family finances and priorities, or based on the child's mental or physical abilities. For the Fresno County Dept. of Children and Family Services to select kids, early on they identify a team of interested social workers who work together to contact group homes and foster care providers. Once kids are identified and selected, a judge has to provide written permission for each child (ward of the state), to participate in our C.A.S.T. event since it is near and/or on water. Thereafter, arrangements are made to get the children there. All of these processes take a great deal of time so we applaud all the children agency reps. for going through 'all the hoops' they have and the ones we have, to provide an opportunity for the identified children to participate in our event. This year, I learned we lost some Fresno Co. selected kids from two group homes when the person in charge of one fell and broke her hip so the other lead person of the other home had to take care of her so their kids were not able to come. Although formal letters will be coming to all of our sponsoring agencies and organizations, I did want to take the time to tell you "THANK YOU" for partnering with us again this year. Through our collective efforts:
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