Child abuse, violent domestic partners, unhealthy living situations and the hungry, poor and needy, just to name a few. The Tahoe Safe Alliance is operates in the Greater North Tahoe/Truckee communities with offices in Incline Village, Kings Beach and Truckee. In 2017 they assisted approximately 5,000 youths from those areas. Yes...5,000! They have full time counselors in every school within those areas. They are mainly supported through state and federal grants but always fall short due to the pressing need.
Paul pulled out a map of Truckee that the 2014 Truckee Senior High class put together. They placed a red dot on each and every domestic violence call to the Truckee police during their 2013-2014 year and the map was covered in red dots. No area within that map was free of a red dot. There were hundreds of them. He also told us that those dots did not include the many calls that they had received directly and was not reported to the police and that it has gotten worse since.
Did you know that within the past few weeks we have had three murders in our community? Incline Village, Kings Beach and Tahoma. I don't read the local paper often enough I guess but that along with all those dots really got our attention. So we asked him where would a donation be used to help. He told us that they have found that youth activity programs go along way. They also need money to feed the kids as many are not getting properly fed. The list goes on and on as you can see.
Last year through your help volunteering at the airshow EAA1073 received $37,500 (apx) and $22,000 is directly earmarked to help our local youth. You board over the past few months having given the following in this effort:
- Truckee Civil Air Patrol............................$15,0000
- EAA Air Academy scholarships..............$9,000 (earmarked for this summer)
- Save the Veterans Hall............................$4,000 (many youth programs are conducted for free at the hall)
- Mountain Belles Program.......................$2,000 (they sing for free at dozens of local youth events)
- Lastly, your board voted to donate ........$10,000 to Tahoe Safe Alliance to be strictly used for direct youth assistance.
I know that the above dollars add up to more than what we took in last year but we've been carrying a sizable bank account ever since the LongEZ was donated to the chapter which we sold for $30,000.
I wanted you to know just how important you are to this chapter in volunteering for the airshow in any capacity. Though your direct assistance for a couple days a year we are able, as an EAA chapter, assist so many grateful organizations that need our help.