Dear Friends and Neighbors,

We are a community of caring. We come together as individuals to care for and support one another, and not just at holidays. But especially at this season of giving, we recognize there are many in Idyllwild who need that extra hug, kind word, offer of support or a helping hand.

We, the Idyllwild Community Fund Advisory Committee members, are honored to be part of growing an endowment, managed by the Community Foundation in Riverside that will continue to make gifts to deserving local non-profits for as long as Idyllwild continues. Annual gifts, averaging $13,000, are generated from interest accrued on the fund’s principal. This past year we awarded $12,120 to 11 worthy Idyllwild organizations to help each achieve a stated objective that without our funding, might have gone unfulfilled. Recipients include: the Casa Center Against Sexual Assault of Southwest Riverside County; the Chapel in the Pines Christian Fellowship; the Idyllwild Scholarship Fund; the Mountain Communities Firesafe Council; the PTA smARTS program; the San Jacinto Mountain Community Center; the Idyllwild Help Center; the Idyllwild School Booster Club; the Natural Learning Research Institute; the Art Alliance of Idyllwild; and the Idyllwild Master Chorale. We also contributed $2,000 to the Idyllwild Youth Grantmakers Program, teaching philanthropy to Idyllwild School 6^th through 8^th graders and several of our members helped mentor the students throughout their 12 week training sessions.

For the past 19 years, since an anonymous couple made a generous donation to seed the ICF, we have vetted grantee applicants and recommended grant recipients. We conduct site visits and get to know the applicants and their needs. We conduct a year-end honoring ceremony for the grantees, held this year at Silver Pines Lodge. For the first time this year we held a “Wine in the Pines Auction with a Twist that netted over $4,000 to augment the Idyllwild fund to make more local grants possible.

As President I can say that this committee has been wholeheartedly active in expanding our fundraising, increasing our awareness in town (some still confuse us with other similarly named organizations), and contributing to one of the most productive years in ICF history – all thanks to you who know us, respect our mission, and desire, through donating, to make life better for so many of our friends and neighbors. A special thanks to Red and Laurel Corbin for a recent $500 donation.

This 2014 ICF committee showed up and did the work enthusiastically – not just one or two of the members – all of them. Termed out this year and leaving as of December are Summer Brown, Gigi Kramer, Ron Krull, Trish Tuley and Adele Voell. With a new vetting procedure in place, our vetting committee recommended, and the full committee adopted as new members Holly Guntermann, Holly Owens, Mary Morse, Bill Whitman, Suzanne Avalon and Larrynne Carver. We look forward, with your help, to another year of helping to improve the lives of our community residents.

Your gifts and thoughtfulness sustain us.

Happy Holidays, with our warmest wishes for a healthy and fulfilling New Year.