Friends of Vista Hill - About Our Members

Vista Hill Corporate Citizens

We salute the Vista Hill Corporate Citizens who help us in many ways throughout the year.

OUR FIRST THREE MEMBERS…..

Travelers Aid, San Diego
Travelers Aid Society San Diego, runs Help Desks for travelers which is very important to visitors to this community. They are also particularly interested in assisting woman and children who are victims of domestic violence.

ezGDS, Inc.
Easy Global Distribution System offers non-profit organizations a unique opportunity to generate substantial funding from the dynamic industry of on-line travel sales. Tom Allen, member of FVH Board and COO of ezGDS, was our third member to join. Mr. Allen has dedicated a lot of his time to Vista Hill throughout the years and continues to be a great supporter!

Mission Federal Credit Union
Community minded, MFCU is passionate about education, this member contributed $10,000 to kick off our campaign to remodel
ten classrooms at Stein Education Center. They also provided a terrific Marketing/PR workshop for our staff.

Special appreciation to the following for their membership.

Anthony's Fish Grotto La Mesa is a Stein Education Center Workability Site which provides an opportunity for our students to work independently with minimal supervision. Also, our students wear their uniforms to this site which makes them proud!

Apollonia Greek Bistro is a wonderful restaurant in Costa Verde Center in University City. It has been recently redecorated and is a place we often go to for lunch or dinner meetings…the food is delicious. Owner Tony Farah has given gift certificates to Vista Hill and is an enthusiastic supporter of our causes. For more information or to see their menu, visit the website at www.apolloniabistro.com.

Can Depot Recycling is a Stein Education Center Workability Site and also donated the large recycling containers for our Walk-A- T hon. This site is great for lower functioning students and provides them with experience in mobility, litter abatement, sorting, and organizational skills.

Craig Applefield Insurance Services, Inc.
A community-minded organization we appreciate very much!

Crown Point Catering
Crown Point Catering owned and managed by Vicki Hamilton, has been involved with Vista Hill since 1987. Vicki currently serves as FVH Board Chair and has served as a member on many of our past committees. Crown Point Catering continues to offer wonderful catering services to Vista Hill for all of our charitable events. Vicki's dedication and generosity to our organization are greatly appreciated.

Cubic Corporation
Since its founding in 1951, Cubic has helped make a difference in the San Diego community by supporting a wide range of nonprofit organizations whose issues and values are aligned with corporate interests and employee values. The company has an especially strong commitment to organizations that promote youth activities, scholar-athletes, and health. Cubic Corporation has been a long time supporter of Vista Hill and has been contributing since 1995.

Dave's Wholesale
Dave's Wholesale donated a brand new big screen television to Stein Education Center for the Walk-a-thon in 2007. The television
set was given away in the opportunity drawing which brought in needed funds for SEC. Also, several of our current students at SEC are involved with Dave's Wholesale through our Workability Program.
This program helps our students learn, live, and grow!

Dream Florist in Hillcrest gives some of our younger Stein Education Center students a wonderful opportuntiy; they are able to help with most aspects of a floral shop which is a terrific learning experience

JOANN Fabric & Crafts is a Stein Education Center Workability Site which has provided a diversity of tasks for high and low-functioning students. Our students love wearing their uniforms; they get practice with laundry upkeep; and some students are beginning to practice customer service skills.

MEA Digital
MEA Digital is a top 50 interactive marketing strategy and services firm based in San Diego, CA . MEA Digital joined Vista Hill's Corporate Citizens in January of 2008 and also made a wonderful contribution of $1,000.

Midas Auto Service Experts provided items for this year's Walk-A-Thon Opportunity Drawing, and they are an introductory Stein Education Center Workability Site. Our students like the chance to be around cars, so this is a favorite.

Northern Trust has a long history of supporting and giving back to the communities it serves. Vista Hill feels fortunate and grateful for the outstanding support provided by Northern Trust through its sponsorship of events, employee matching gifts and employee volunteer efforts.

Singer Sewing Center supports our students by being a Stein Education Center Workability Site. Our students are learning to help repair and clean vacuums which requires them to improve their hand-eye coordination. This year Singer donated items for the Opportunity Drawing at our Walk-A-Thon.

Sombrero Mexican Food
Sombrero Mexican Food, which has approximately 15 restaurants around San Diego, has worked with Vista Hill's Stein Education Center (SEC) for the last couple of years. They so generously donated food for the volunteers, participants, students, and staff at the Stein Education Center Walk-a-thon. They have a personal connection with SEC and we are happy to have them by our side.

Souplantation Mission Gorge has been a Workability Site at the Stein Center for approximately 3 years. It is within walking
distance for our students which helps with gas these
days. This year Souplantation set up a booth at our
Walk-A-Thon handing out good things to eat.

Particular favorites were the chocolate chip cookies!

The Brady Companies
The Brady Companies, incorporated in 1977, is one of three subcontracting companies operating throughout California. Ronald Brady, CEO of The Brady Companies, and wife Mary Alice Brady have contributed generously to Vista Hill for many years. They attend our events, support us in many ways, and they are great bidders at our auctions!

The Home Depot – Store #1032 – Market Place
The Home Depot is involved with many non-profit organizations throughout the community of San Diego . They provide great activities for the students of Stein Education Center at our annual Walk-a-thon.

Also, they lend a helping hand when we have capital projects, especially during the construction of our new teaching kitchen at the main campus. All of the wonderful ideas and suggestions were such a big help!

Projects your company might wish to work on:

Mother Hubbard's Cupboard, our emergency food pantry at ParentCare, was established by the San Diego Women's Foundation. Non-perishable foods (not out of date) and emergency supplies are needed: toilet paper, diapers, soap, toothpaste. Many clients could use help in this arena. If your company could run a food drive for Vista Hill, it would be a great boon!

Bikes (new or gently-used) for children aged 10 on up; simple ones without hand brakes or fancy attachments are best for our developmentally disabled children.

Windmill Thrift Shops in North Park and City Heights at 3081 and 4611 University Avenue …If your corporation holds a rummage sale, we'll pick everything up. To arrange, call Ben at (619) 291-2415. Proceeds benefit Vista Hill and Senior Communities – two great organizations!

Books! We need gently-used books -- for babies, children, adolescents, teens, young adults, and adults because our clients/patients/consumers range in age from zero to senior citizen, and because some of our families have no books at all.

Emergency grooming items (tooth brush, tooth paste, soap, deodorant, comb/brush, etc.) are always needed, and member companies could make small packages of these items so we could hand them out as needed.

If your company were able to provide small duffle bags (with company logo) filled with standby supplies including emergency grooming items, wash cloth, towel, notebook and pen, t-shirt, bandana, socks, tissues, etc. This could be critical for some of our Vista Hill families who are in dire need of everything.

For companies wishing to provide financial support, we have a great Matching Gifts Opportunity for remodeling ten classrooms at Stein Education Center; and we have many other program needs which we'd be happy to present to any corporate member.

Also, financial support would help our hard-working severely emotionally disturbed (sed) students at Stein Education Center who play in an intramural league. They could use uniforms – matching pants and shirts to start….approximately 15 growing boys.

Assembling fruit baskets as small rewards for our adult developmentally disabled constituents would provide the adults with a healthy snack to take home. When our adult consumers have something like this waiting for them, it is very well received; they love it!

Having a supply of Ready-To-Go Back Packs would be very helpful. We receive some of these from time to time – usually in August or September; but when a child comes to us at other times in the year and has nothing, it's really wonderful to be able to pull this out and hand it to him or her.

New or gently-used sturdy exercise equipment is needed in several programs – cable weight machines, stationery bicycles, and walking machines.

For more information please contact Ann L. Mound, Vice President, Executive Director, Friends of Vista Hill at 858.514.5151 or email amound@vistahill.org.