Boys & Girls Club, Rape Crisis Center, school technology program to get shares
Staff Report
After a one-year hiatus, the Chumash Charity Golf Classic returned in 2021 and raised $120,000 to benefit two pre-selected beneficiaries and help fund the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Foundation’s Technology in Schools Program, which provides grants for high-tech upgrades to local classrooms.
The United Boys & Girls Club of Santa Barbara County, the North County Rape Crisis and Child Protection Center and the Technology in Schools program each received $40,000 as a result of the tournament, which was held over a two-day period in September at the Alisal River Course in Solvang.
“After canceling our event in 2020, it was great to have an opportunity to come together, enjoy two great days of golf and raise funds for programs that help the vulnerable and underserved youth in our community,” said Kenneth Kahn, tribal chairman of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. “This year, we held a vote among our workforce to determine one of our event’s beneficiaries. Our employees chose the North County Rape Crisis and Child Protection Center. To include an organization that our workforce respects and supports made this donation even more special.”
The center provides direct services, including education and prevention skills, to children and adults to help alleviate the trauma experienced by survivors of sexual assault and child abuse.
“This donation lifts us up,” said Ann McCarty, executive director of the North County Rape Crisis and Child Protection Center. “This tells us that people have our back, and they understand how important it is to provide services to victims of child abuse, sexual assault and human trafficking in our county. It also means they want us to continue this work, providing the education and direct services.”
The United Boys and Girls Club of Santa Barbara County received its $40,000 donation recently during its own fifth annual United Golf Tournament at La Cumbre Country Club in Santa Barbara.
“We are extremely grateful to the Santa Ynez Chumash for their continued support of our organization,” said Michael Baker, CEO of the United Boys & Girls Club of Santa Barbara County. “Their incredibly generous investment will allow us to continue our efforts to reach the youth that need our services the most in all the communities we serve.”
The tribe’s Technology in Schools Program gives school administrators and faculty members the opportunity to apply for technology grant dollars to fund specific projects.
Grant recipients for the 2021-2022 school year are Los Olivos’ Dunn School, which received $15,000 to refresh its network infrastructure on its upper campus; Santa Ynez Valley Charter School, which received $9,000 to help cover the cost of 25 iPads and iPad covers to be used by its kindergarten through fourth-grade classes; and Santa Maria’s St. Louis de Montfort School, which was granted $15,000 to buy 49 Chromebooks for its Tech for Tikes program (serving transitional kindergarten and kindergarten classes) and its fifth-graders.
The deadline to apply for the 2022-2023 school year is April 30, 2022, and all applications must be submitted online at www.santaynezchumash.org.
The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians has donated more than $25 million to hundreds of groups, organizations and schools in the community and across the nation as part of the tribe’s long-standing tradition of giving. To find out more about the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Foundation and its giving programs, visit www.santaynezchumash.org.
