Celebrating 2024: Another successful year!

Our first quarter news ushers in an exciting milestone: We have reached our 10-year anniversary of helping young girls, women, and their families become more healthy, active, and productive.  Each year, we continue to be able to add more activities and events that will help our community thrive in the future.  To celebrate, we proudly unveil our refreshed website!  This modern design enhances user experience and reflects our commitment to serving our community. Explore our new features, stay updated with the latest developments, and engage with us like never before. Here’s to a fantastic start to the year!

ADOPT-A-FAMILY EVENT

We are energized to report that we held another successful Adopt-a-Family event at the Campbell Community Center in December. We helped 50 families with 232 individual members.  As always, we started the day with a walk before the event to get our energy going.  Then, it was straight to work for volunteers who arrived several hours early to set up before the donors arrived at 11:00 am. Thanks to four of our CIMI members who cooked various wonderful Mexican dishes such as pozole, tamales, champurrado, chicken mole, rice and beans, vegetarian burritos,  and more. There are plenty of desserts, such as bunuelos with sugar, fruit, cheesecake, and homemade flan, and plenty of drinks like horchata, sodas, and coffee.  

CIMI member Tania Guerrero was in charge of the decorating committee and did an excellent job creating a fun holiday-themed event, including a photo booth. The planning of our end-of-year event began in November by selecting the families with the highest record of walks throughout the year and dividing them into 5 groups to complete the event tasks.  

Around noon, the sponsors called up the selected families, giving out gift cards and each family taking a photo. The total donation for this year’s event was $20,800, with over 45 independent donations.  Ms. Stella Jia donated paintings, which were sold, and funds were used to adopt our 50  families. Volunteers, moms, and members who cooked and set up early were called for a round of applause and a big thank you.

The CIMI members were so grateful they had each created unique thank you poster boards and cards, and all the Apple sponsors received various gifts. There were lots of smiles, hugs, and holiday spirit. Sherry Heinz was the first donor to come up. Paty Lozano and her daughter made small gifts, and others gave framed pictures. 

CIMI participants also had an opportunity to give thanks and share their experiences. “Thank you to all the donors and to all the people who cooked really good food today: thanks to Patty, Marieal, Tania, Aracely, and Rosario. I have a great team. We always say we are from CIMI, and all the ideas, for all of us, are possible today. So thank you for all the time you spend with all of us involved in the CIMI Community. Aracely, thank you; if you were not here, these things wouldn’t be possible,” said one CIMI member. 

“You can come here, get stronger and time passes, and it helps me every single day, for myself and my daughter.  I want to thank the CIMI community as a whole, and God Bless you. I will be here for a long time,” said another CIMI Member. 

SPOTLIGHT

Roaria Jimenez was honored for her work with CIMI over the past 5 years.   She was presented with a MAC laptop to show our appreciation for all her contributions and hard work. President Aracely said, “ She makes sure everything is up to date in the database so we can select the families we will pick yearly.  In addition, she managed all of the walking programs for CIMI for the entire year…Ever since she started this job, she’s been learning so much and attained her high school diploma while managing 3 children at home.  She is so capable and so smart. She now comes up with ideas I didn’t think of. “ 

Admittedly shy of speaking,  Rosario said, “ I always try to do my best. In the beginning, I didn’t feel comfortable making decisions about this program that is so powerful and big. Still, Aracely and the CIMI team gave me the confidence to continue with my studies and continue learning new skills.”

To top the afternoon off, Ivonne Figuerora,  shared the accomplishments and videos of the girls who completed the coding boot camp last year.  Each girl was awarded laptops for completing the program. We raffled off gift cards and wrapped up the event at 2:00 pm.  Thank you to all who have supported CIMI this year. Your support is transforming people’s lives, and we look to a great year.

About us

CIMI is a volunteer-based non-profit organization of running enthusiasts who want to give back to the community. They believe in empowering girls and women through running and other activities.