EE Newsletter: December 22, 2014

Friends:

It’s been an incredibly busy few weeks, and Cherie is already on to planning the next set of events so I’m writing the letter for her.

Without further ado:

. The HITS races out in La Quinta were a big success despite water so cold that hypothermia was a serious threat. This was the first open water swim for several of the kids, and a few were doing their first triathlon ever. Cypress Elementary principal Ryan Rubio took third in his category! (See the Awards gallery, bottom, for a photo of him getting his award.) This first two photos are swim practice with Coach Ben before bike and run training on the course in the weeks prior to HITS.

With swim coach Ben Hobbins:

Shivering but ready: Ana, Jamajae, Abigail, Sam (Abigail’s brother), Israel and Enrique.

Dad Robert greets son Michael exiting the water:

. The Tinsel Tri in Hemet was great fun, as always, and we had over 60 kids there. Temps were in the 30s to start with but warmed up considerably by the time we jumped in the pool. Enrique Campos actually came in first in the 5K…and he was doing the full tri!

Registration is normally a chaotic undertaking but the race helped us out by giving us all our packets in advance…which basically moved the chaos from their tent to our cars. Not too many photos because your humble photographer did the race, and by the time he finished, kids had already gotten their trophies and were heading home.

. Last Saturday we did the Santa Paws 5K in Palm Springs, to benefit Guide Dogs of the Desert. The race is produced by our good friends Molly and Jay Thorpe, and the great angle is that they supply a Santa Suit to every racer. Those came in handy this year because it was seriously cold. The other cool thing about this race is that there are about 100 dogs in it. As they’ve been doing a lot lately, the kids cleaned up at the podium and walked away with a lot of hardware.

The race was an hour away from San Bernardino but Cherie spent weeks arranging rides so we had a great turnout:

…but the kids looked much better in their Santa suits:

Our very own Enrique Campos won first overall:

Saving the best for last: December 20^th we held our annual Awards & Scholarship party at the Drayson Center at Loma Linda University (also the site of our upcoming Swimathon). We hope you’ll take a few minutes to visit the photo gallery, and here are some additional highlights:

 - A number of kids were honored for special achievements. Karen Mandujano was awarded her second Academic Achievement Award; Joseph Patterson was inducted into the National Honor Society; Enrique Campos was elected captain of his high school track team; Michael Williams was chosen to represent the State of California at the national Congress of Future Science and Technology leaders in Boston; Nik is being asked by his medical devices company to open a new geographical sales region in the Inland Empire; and Glenn Bell and Ahris & Arian Mayorga all competed at the USA Track & Field Junior Olympics Championships in New Mexico.

 - This was a big year for EE parents. When Cherie first started the program, we barely knew who they were. Last Sunday Cherie called out all the parents who had raced with the kids this past year and sixteen of them came forward. Then she invited their kids to come up and give them medals. It was a moment no one could possibly have predicted back then.

 - The highlight, of course, was awarding scholarships for our college and college-bound students. Scholarships funded by David Martin, the Blazeman Memorial Scholarship Foundation, Cherie’s corporate sponsor Boingo, Molly and Jay Thorpe, and the John and Lizzie Brenkus family were awarded to Ana Campos, John Alvarez, Enrique Campos, Marlene Samano and our general education fund. By the way, for years John Alvarez has had his heart set on attending Cal Baptist University and just found out that he’s been accepted, which was wonderful news.

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That’s it for 2015. In the coming weeks the kids will be racing the Highland YMCA 5K/10K/Half Marathon, we’ll be holding our annual Swimathon, and we’ll be heading back to La Quinta for the Desert Triathlons. Stay tuned for stories and photos.

Your generous contributions make all of this possible, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. A healthy, happy and safe holiday to you all.

 -lee