Empty Bowls 2011!

Wow! We love the Empty Bowls fundraising event--what a fun, worthwhile, feel-good event! Thank you so much to everyone that worked so hard to pull this together, especially Diane, Jill and Jack, all the students who made those amazing bowls and beautiful signs, all tonight's volunteers, every restaurant and business that donated food to make this event possible, and finally to all the community members that came out to support the Shelter! Here's a wonderful flyer put together by the organizers that explains the history of Empty Bowls, how the students made the bowls, and also has some current statistics about the Shelter.

Many, many thanks to the businesses and organizations that donated to this event:

Soup and Meal Donors:

• Bacio Catering
• Basque Norte
• Bidwell Perk
• Christian Michaels
• Gooney Bird
• Grilla Bites
• Italian Cottage
• Leon Bistro
• Logans Roadhouse
• Mim's Bakery
• Nash's
• Panighettis
• Pelicans Roost
• Red Tavern
• Ricardo's
• Sierra Nevada
• Spice Creek Cafe
• CUSD Nutrition Services (Bread)

Dessert and Coffee Donors:

• Bidwell Perk- Coffee
• Mim’s Bakery- Dessert
• Costco- Dessert

Empty Bowls 2012 is being held March 8th, 2012. Click here for more information!

Thank you Soroptimists!

The Torres Shelter wants to publicly acknowledge the generosity of Soroptimist International. The tagline for the Soroptimists is “Improving the lives of women and girls, in local communities throughout the world.” This is an ambitious and yet apt description of what Soroptimists do.

I first came across the Soroptimists when I lived briefly in Chicago in the late 80’s. They donated some funds to my neighborhood watch that wanted to build a stronger neighborhood. The funds provided were small, but just right to extend the scope of the group. After I had returned to my hometown in Milwaukee, I would hear occasionally about the Soroptimists and always felt that their choices struck to the heart of issues. Years later, when I was running NAMI Greater Milwaukee, I was fortunate to work with Milwaukee’s Soroptimists. We created some additions to the CIT (Crisis Intervention Training) program that provided training on how to handle emergency calls regarding people in acute mental health situations.

Locally, the Soroptimist Clubs have given to Catalyst, Sabbath House, Esplanade House and others. When I heard the Soroptimists were also interested in helping the Torres Shelter, I was very pleased. Not only because we have funding needs, but also because after so many years; I see interest from Soroptimists as a validation of our effectiveness.

Thank you to the Soroptimists for funding some transportation costs for our guests, but also for the impact your groups are having throughout the world.

Sincerely, Brad Montgomery

2010 Christmas Tree Auction & Holiday Festival Thank Yous

The Torres Community Shelter would like to thank everyone that supported our 8th Annual Christmas Tree Auction & Holiday Festival. To all the extraordinary volunteers that organized and ran the event and to everyone involved in one way or another—your participation made this event a tremendous success! There are so many people to thank…artists, businesses and others that donated wonderful auction items; Christmas trees designers and decorators; musicians; everyone that donated, prepared, and served food; sponsors, including our Platinum Sponsor: Plumbing Supply; our Silver Sponsors: Chico Printing, Deems & Keller Law Office, The Graphic Fox, Klean Kanteen, Mission Linen Supply, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship; our Bronze Sponsors: Industrial Equipment, Prevention Education Program, Stanfield & Associates Insurance, Rabobank, Capay School, Safepath, 20/30 Club, California Color Auto Body & Paint; our Table Sponsors: Impact Marketing, Ann & Jim Ponzio, Jim & Dee Vance, New Urban Builders, Faith Lutheran Church, and finally, all of you that attended and supported us that night for our largest fundraising event of the year. Please scroll through this list of our event sponsors... we really appreciate every single one of them!

Fundraising continues to be vital for us, especially with the number of people staying at the Shelter hovering in the mid 90's. They are why we are here, and they are why a select group of people worked so hard to make this event a success. My heartfelt and sincere thanks to Brad, Diane, Aimee, and everyone on the Auction Committee—your energy and dedication for the past ten months made this all possible.

Every day of the year a multitude of people from our community support the work we do at the Shelter, allowing us to do it 365 days a year. Together we are making a difference.

Thanks again!

Karen Betenbaugh

Board Chairman
Torres Community Shelter

Thank You Magoon Signs!

A big Thank You to Magoon Signs for the new WELCOME sign! Besides being friendly and welcoming,it directs people to the more convenient parking lot entrance. We are always grateful to our friends in the business community - especially now in these challenging economic times.

Arabic Dinner

Our Arabic Dinner fundraiser turned out wonderful! Thank you so much Ali Sarsour and crew for cooking such a delicious meal for us. We had a full house, and received lots of compliments on the wonderful meal and fun evening. We also want to thank the musicians who made our evening so enjoyable: The Rail Flowers: Beth, Ellen and Hannah Knight, along with Holly Taylor, Dan Quinn, Henry Pratt and Kathleen Kirby. Thanks too to all of the many other volunteers that made this event possible including National Charity League for serving. Finally, thanks Diane Slater for all your work in organizing this and all our great events!

A Special Shelter Friend…Perry Gill

Perry Gill is the owner of Sunrise Carpet Cleaning and Restoration in Chico and provides free professional cleaning services to us at the shelter when we need the deeper cleaning done. Perry has been there for us again and again. Perry has an annual Luau at his home and collects donations from his friends during the party for the Torres Community Shelter. Perry's generosity was never solicited; he has followed the shelter in the news and in the community. Most recently Perry was planning a fundraiser for the shelter featuring his friend Norton Buffalo. When that was no longer possible, Perry contacted the Shelter and offered a free concert for our Guests on Thanksgiving and helped provide one of our meals that day. We appreciate Perry's thoughtful nature and on-going efforts to come up with creative and fun ways to support our community shelter. Thank you to Perry and his friends in the Joyce Johnson Band for the wonderful concert. Our Guests loved it!

A Personal Thank You to Mark Friedman from Brad Montgomery:

On Saturday, November 21st, several Guests from the Shelter, more than 100 others and I were treated to a wonderful evening at Faith Lutheran Church. A classical pianist named Mark Ryan Friedman provided a free concert as a benefit to the Shelter. He played beautifully; Rachmaninoff, Chopin and Liszt. Mark had reached out to me a few months earlier and asked if he could organize and play this concert for us. Mark basically put the whole event together by himself with some close friends and family. Donations were collected at the event and the event was a financial success for the Shelter as well. After playing, Mark surprised everyone by proposing to his sweet and lovely girlfriend Mcrae. This was a very moving and memorable night that made quite an impression on everyone who attended. I wanted to thank Mark and the good people at Faith Lutheran for making this happen.

Thanks to the many sponsors and donors of the 7th annual Christmas Tree Auction and Holiday Festival!

The event was a huge success. Guests at the shelter will be drier and less hungry this season thanks to the generous support of many individuals and businesses. Our event sponsors included Slater and Son, CB Properties, Deems and Keller Law Office, NAMI Butte County, Therapeutic Solutions, Inc., The Hignell Company, Stairways Recovery, Club Stairways and Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Chico. We also appreciate the donations given by many local businesses and artists. In addition to our sponsors, we'd like to thank the over 250 people who attended and purchased many fine auction items.

The Torres Shelter provides clients with a safe, clean, supportive place to spend the night. The shelter staff helps clients find jobs and more stable living conditions. Our clients currently include four families and seven children, and our numbers will continue to climb as the weather gets colder. Our event sponsors have set a wonderful example in their contributions to this very important work. Their financial support benefits not only the individuals that we serve, but also the broader community. The more success we have assisting our guests, the more our entire community benefits. Thank you, and happy holidays. — Brad Montgomery

Donated Services Help Stretch Our Budget!

We have some very generous businesses that are donating their services to the shelter! We would like to give a BIG thank you to Helen Duval Design, Ed’s Printing, Digital Path, Hunter’s Pest Control, NorCal Waste, Turf King and PacifiCom.

Thank You Students!

37 students from the Sociology Department at Chico State helped us out this fall! They helped out during our check-in process, helped to collect stories from our Guests and also assisted with a number of cleaning, organizing and clerical duties while they were here. A big thanks to Professor Cynthia Siemsen who arranged this help for us as part of the Book in Common focus!

On Oct. 8 Linda Bilsborough and a number of her students organized a Health Fair for our Guests that was held right here at the Shelter! Everything you did was greatly appreciated!

This spring we were extremely lucky to have so many students volunteering to help us at the Shelter. The Butte College Nursing Program collected donations for us and set up homeless awareness booths at the mall and outside the Shelter one Saturday. Associated Students at Chico State donated the proceeds of a "Hunger Banquet". They also held a canned food drive and a coat drive for our guests. The Diversion Excursion sent many,  many useful items our way. An instructor at Butte College, Bruce Enyeart, just cleared a grassy field next to the Shelter that had become a fire hazard. The Chico State Construction Management crew continues to be invaluable by helping us in so many ways on a regular basis. Finally, Professor Jon Knolle and the Advanced Web Design Class at Chico State created this beautiful new website for us!

Thank You Catholic Communities Group

Thank you to the Catholic Communities group for putting together a special meal on the Fourth of July for our Shelter guests at the last minute. The Torres Shelter is fortunate to have many groups that consistently and generously provide meals at the Torres Shelter. From time to time, we have a cancellation as we did for this Fourth of July. Understandably, finding a group to substitute for this day was proving difficult. Like all of us, holidays are very important to our guests at the Shelter, maybe even more precious. Thank you to the Catholic Communities group for understanding this and stepping up for us like they have so many times in the past.

Joe Craven Concert!

We had a Joe Craven concert at the Shelter that was set up by Trudy Duisenberg of Enloe Hospital! When Joe Craven was in town to give a concert as part of Chico State University’s concert series he offered to do a concert right here at the Shelter. It was a rousing success and one of our guests even joined him on the harmonica! A big thanks to the very kind and talented musician for visiting our shelter. We really appreciated the entertainment!