Each year, Portola Family Connections presents the Little Red Wagon Awards, honoring local heroes in San Francisco who do the important work of supporting and advocating for local families.  Since 2008, Portola Family connections has honored 6 local heroes.  (To find out more about the inspiring story behind the awards, click here.)  The awards ceremony is also accompanied by a Fundraiser to raise money to help run Portola Family Connections services and programs throughout the year.

And our 2012 Honorees are…. 

We are delighted to announce our 2012 honorees: The Silver Giving Foundation and District 11 Supervisor John Avalos.  We are proud to honor both of these two and hope that you will join us in creating an event worthy of their impressive contributions.   Click here to learn more about our newest Little Red Wagon heroes.

The Silver Giving Foundation: the foundation has a more than ten year history of supporting exceptional educational organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area that demonstrate clear and exemplary track records of increasing literacy rates for children and youth, with a special focus on preschool and after school.  

John Avalos, District 11 Supervisor: Supervisor Avalos has worked as Community Organizer with Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth serving San Francisco youth and families, particularly in the Excelsior District and has a long record of serving the needs of San Francisco children and families.

Click here to find out more about our 2012 honorees!

HELP US REACH OUR 2012 FUNDRAISING GOAL! 

In addition to recognizing the work of these two great philanthropists, we have set a goal of raising $50,000, all of which will directly support our families with quality family resource services and programs.  Your contribution to this event, whether big or small, will not only help to support children and families in the neighborhoods we serve, it will also help to sustain the larger movement to ensure that all of San Francisco’s families have the resources they need to raise healthy children and build strong communities.

There are 3 ways to be involved and participate in our mission.  Pick one (or three!) and become a Little Red Wagon hero yourself!

1.  Make a donation  

Click here to donate online.  

To make a donation over the phone, please call Jenny at 415.715.5114. 

Send your gift in the mail: 

You can purchase tickets online through Brown Paper Tickets:

To make your purchase over the phone contact Jenny Sargent at 415.715.5114. 

Or just stop by one of our centers to buy your ticket in person. 

3. Become a Sponsor 

As a Little Red Wagon sponsor, your tax-deductible contribution will be prominently acknowledged on our website, on prominent signage at the event itself and in our event programs.  Sponsorships begin at $250.  Contact Jenny for more details at 415.715.5114 or jsargent@portolafc.org.

2012 Little Red Wagon Sponsors:

Get to know the newest Little Red Wagon heroes!

The Silver Giving Foundation

The Silver Giving Foundation’s outstanding team includes Phil Halperin, Natasha Hoehn and Jane Lanza.

Supervisor John Avalos
 A third generation Mexican-American, was born in Wilmington, California, a predominantly Latino industrial town in the City of Los Angeles. His grandfather scavenged the Los Angeles waterfront looking for scrap pallets to sell for fire wood and later became a longshoreman. His father is a retired longshoreman and ILWU union member. His mother worked as an office manager and helped raise seven children. John is the first person in his family to graduate from a four-year university, graduating with honors from UC Santa Barbara where he studied English Literature. Upon arriving in San Francisco in January 1989 he worked as an English teacher and cafe worker before finding his calling in the human services and community organizing fields.

John followed the path of a worker and a leader to become a candidate for Supervisor. He has been a strong community member and has spent the past 15 years fighting for social justice and equity at the grass roots level. He has worked as an educator and counselor with the San Francisco Conservation Corps and the Columbia Park Boys and Girls Club where he taught high school equivalency and college prep classes. He also connected hundreds of San Francisco youth with employment, health care, and housing.

While studying for his Masters in Social Work, John interned at the Mission Neighborhood Health Center in the adult medicine and HIV/AIDS clinic. He helped scores of people dealing with depression, domestic violence and HIV to stabilize their lives.

After earning his Masters degree in 1997, John worked as Community Organizer with Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth serving San Francisco youth and families, particularly in the Excelsior District. John served on advisory committees for the OMI/Excelsior Beacon Center and the Excelsior Boys and Girls Club. He also organized input on local parks and the Excelsior Library, and brought neighbors together to safeguard services like the Excelsior Clinic and protect and expand teen services in the district, like youth employment services at the Greater Mission Consortium and IT Bookman Center.

John left Coleman Advocates to work as a Union Organizer with the Justice for Janitors Campaign of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1877. John was instrumental in two contract campaigns helping thousands of union members win better wages and affordable health care.

In early 2005, Supervisor Chris Daly invited John to work as a Legislative Aide in his office where John opened the doors wide to ensure that the voices of San Francisco’s most vulnerable communities were heard. In his role as Legislative Aide, John has focused on making City government and the budget work for the people of all the City’s neighborhoods—not just the powerful and connected. His even-handed work on the City budget has drawn strong praise from Supervisors across the political spectrum, including Supervisors Sean Elsbernd and Ross Mirkarimi. John fought to make government more efficient, expanded funding for affordable housing and for vital programs like childcare, health and mental services, park restorations, and senior programs. He helped secure funding for the Geneva Office Building and in 2005 fought to keep the OMI Family Resource Center open.

John’s wife, Karen Zapata, is a third-grade teacher at Monroe Elementary School in the Excelsior. They recently bought a small house in the Excelsior where they are raising their daughter, Rene, aged seven, who attends SF Community Schooland their three year old son, Emiliano, who attends preschool in District 11. John draws on his personal experience to fight for working families in District 11 and throughout San Francisco.

Notice of Public Meeting

Family Connections, in accordance with the Sunshine Ordinance, would like to announce an open Board of Directors meeting.

Date:        January 18, 2012

Time:      6:30 pm

Location: Portola Family Connections

2565 San Bruno Avenue

San Francisco, CA

Phone:     (415) 715-6746 (Portola)

Thirty minutes will be reserved for public comment.

In July of 2010 Family Connections launched the Healthy Connections Initiative, focusing on prevention and education and incorporating modeling and healthy practices into all of our existing programs and services.  As we enter the second year of this important initiative, we are delighted to begin a new partnership as well.  Funds from Kaiser Permanente will specifically be used for work that addresses obsesity prevention during early childhood.  For this work, we will focus on nutrition, physical activity and self-regulation through mindfulness techniques.  We are looking forward to starting this work as a new year of programing begins this fall.

Over a three-month period, Coleman Advocates spearheaded a tireless grassroots petition drive. Along with Coleman’s Board and staff, parents, non-parents, activists, and “people who just wanted to do the right thing for children” gave a considerable amount of their time to gather 68,000 signatures to place the amendment on the ballot. Margaret’s idea was to deliver the signatures in little red wagons by hundreds of supporters, including children, in a march to City Hall. The event drew overwhelming media attention and by the end of the day, Coleman Advocates’ phones were ringing off the hook with City officials and others calling to pledge support of the campaign. On November 5, 1991, the Children’s Amendment passed with 55% of the vote. The amendment to the City Charter guaranteed that each year a portion of the property tax would be set aside to increase children’s services and prevent budget cuts in all children’s services for ten-years.

Get to know the latest Little Red Wagon heroes!

Suzy Vogler: a well known philanthropist in the Bay Area, Ms. Vogler has supported an impressive roster of non-profits both personally and through the Willow Springs Foundation.  Raised in the Midwest, she came to the Bay Area in 1978 to attend the California College of Arts and Crafts, graduating with a BFA in art education in 1981.  Suzy’s philanthropic work began in the mid 1990’s when she joined the Brodie family foundation, Willow Springs Charitable Trust. In San Francisco, Willow Springs supports organizations such as Edgewood Center for Children & Families, Advokids, Compass Family Service, Children’s Day School and Family Connections.

In addition to her work with Willow Springs, Ms. Vogler has been very active in the area of educational philanthropy. From 1998-2000, Suzy served as Board President of The German School of San Francisco, during a period when the school was struggling to survive.  Through her leadership and fundraising skills, she helped the Board to ensure the survival and future success of the school by stabilizing finances and steadily increasing enrollment.  Suzy was the first non-German speaking Board President in school history.

Ms. Vogler’s commitment to education is likewise evident in her active involvement with the Parent Association at Town School for Boys, where from 1998-2007 she served in numerous volunteer capacities, Nominating Chair, Community Service Liaison, Hospitality Chair. Currently, Suzy serves as a Trustee at Suffield Academy, a private New England boarding and day school.  For the past three years, she has served as the Annual Fund chair, raising parent involvement from 76% to 90% participation.

Dividing her time between San Francisco and the Hudson Valley of New York, Suzy continues to make charitable giving an important focus of her life.

Lise Maisano: as Vice President of the Grants Program for the S.H. Cowell Foundation, Ms. Maisano has been responsible for grantmaking in youth development, child care, disability assistance, domestic violence, child abuse and alcohol prevention.  Ms. Maisano has been with the S.H. Cowell Foundation since 1990, and has served as the Vice President Grant Programs since January 2006. In that capacity, Ms. Maisano manages all grantmaking functions of the Foundation and currently oversees our Family Resource Center and Affordable Housing interests.

During her early years as a program officer with the Foundation, Ms. Maisano was responsible for grantmaking in youth development, child care, disability assistance, domestic violence, child abuse and alcohol prevention.

Prior to Cowell, Ms. Maisano was the development director for the Giarretto Institute and a consultant with the Peninsula Community Foundation.

Raised in San Francisco, Ms. Maisano attended City public schools, received a B.A. in Social Relations from Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles and an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. She currently serves on the board of Northern California Grantmakers.