Autumn Fantasy Gala October 19

Oceanside CA— Assistance League of North Coast (ALNC), has about 175 members from Carlsbad, Oceanside and Vista. The Assistance League is a national program dedicated to helping children and families in their local communities with over 22,000 members nationwide. The North Coast Chapter will be holding their largest fundraiser event of the year 10:30am, October 19th at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort in Carlsbad. Monica Dean from NBC 7/39 will be the Master of Ceremonies and they will be auctioning items like a trip to the Zulu Nyala Game Reserve in South Africa along with raffles and a silent auction. All profits go to the Assistance League of North Coast projects for school children in the three cities of Carlsbad, Oceanside and Vista along with Camp Pendleton.

ALNC has 12 programs but they often go beyond, such as when Laurel Elementary had students who didn’t have the money to go to camp. ALNC provided a grant to make camp possible for those students. ALNC has programs providing uniforms, emergency clothing, mentoring students, two different grant programs for school libraries, one provides new books for libraries the other provides books for students as a reading incentive program. “We meet students at Kohl’s where we provide money to each child to go shopping. We take high school boys from the New Haven program twice a year to J.C. Penney’s to purchase clothes,” explained Cheryl McGlocklin, Education Chair with ALNC. “We have a program where we buy children new shoes. We were doing 70 per week, they also get a health kit and 5 pairs of socks, and we met them at Payless Shoes. Now that Payless has closed we are going to the school, measuring the students then ordering the shoes which are delivered to the school. If we get a call with a special need we try to meet it.”
In the last two weeks ALNC has packed and shipped to five local schools over 215 sets of uniforms to schools who have made requests. The schools send Jan White the orders, which include the child’s name and size, and then a group of members from the organization meet at the Oceanside School District’s Warehouse to pack up the orders. During the beginning of the school year they receive about 100 request a week from elementary schools in Carlsbad, Oceanside and Vista.

Last month, seven Assistance Leagues met on base and provided clothes, shoes and school supplies for over 580 children of Marines.
Last school year ALNC heard from a social worker that there were children at a local school who needed shoes. “The majority of the students in the school needed shoes so we decided to provide them for all the students. We also gave them socks and health kits and every teacher a gift card for a teacher supply store. One little boy said it was the first time he had his own toothbrush,” stated Cheryl.
ALNC earns money through the Autumn Fantasy Gala, grants and the ALNC Thrift Shop in the Frazer Farms shopping center on Oceanside Blvd. The organization spends about $500,000 a year on local projects. The store is run entirely by volunteer members.
For more information on the Assistance League of North Coast and the Autumn Fantasy Gala, visit their website [Link] or the Facebook Page [Link]