Valley of the Moon Children's Home

Sonoma County, a dynamic county combining agriculture and industry, City and country creating unique and varied challenges for its citizens join us as we present some of the information and services provided by the county of Sonoma to help us as we move into the 21st century. Welcome

to Sonoma County in the 90s with your host Dana to Rico. Hello, I'm Dana d'Errico and welcome to Sonoma County in the nineties. Today I have with me two people that represent the Valley of the Moon Children's Home and they're going to be discussing a charity

event that's coming up to raise funds for that foundation. So let's join Katherine Kennedy who is the manager of the Valley of the Moon Children's Home and Gary Green, All who is the Redwood Empire chapter of Public Relations. Good to have both of you here today.

This is kind of an exciting combination and a little bit different for our community and our county. Um, Katherine, why don't you tell us a little bit about the Valley of the Moon Children's Home. Okay, data. First, I wanna let you know, um, for 15 years,

I was the manager out of Valley of the Moon Children's Home. Now I'm the Community resource Development Manager for Human Services and I work really closely with Valley of the Moon Children's Foundation and with the Children's Home with their volunteer program and I train all the

volunteers for the Children's Home and then I work with the Foundation to help raise monies for projects that we have that augment the needs there. I've been doing this job for about a year. Okay. So you're really now in charge of fundraising and the last time

you were on the show, I guess you were the manager, the manager. You want me to tell you a little bit about the Children's home. Okay. The Children that come to the Children's home are brought there because they're in crisis, they're brought by law enforcement and

it's time, it's very scary time in their lives because they're being taken from their homes. It may have been a parent was in an accident and there's no family to take care of the Children. Or it could have been that a parent was arrested. Uh no

family members could be contacted or it could be that the child was abandoned. Um We also have instances of um where the suspected um physical abuse or sexual abuse. So the child is brought by law enforcement to the Children's home and we do everything possible to

let them know they're not there for anything they've done wrong, but they're there for protection and that um will do everything to meet their needs while they're there. So the Children that are there are there due to no fault of their right, right. All of the

Children, they're there for protection and they have not committed any kind of crime Gary. Why don't you tell me a little bit how you play into this. The Harley owners group is a rather interesting group in Sonoma County that I'm involved with and the national charity

that is M. D. A. For the Harley owners group but we like to do local charity events also. And every year we select a charity that we want to raise money for. And this year we selected the value of the Children's home. So your group or

organization uh decided to select a charity in order to raise some money is my understanding. That is correct. And can you tell us a little bit about that um fundraiser that's going to be happening, It's called the main event. Now every year the Harley owners group

has the main event down to Petaluma Fairgrounds. This year will be on august the 15th from 12 to 4, it will be all sorts of things going on there. But the main focus of this main event is to raise money for the selected charity that we

have selected for this year. The value of the Children's home has been sort of adopted by the Harley owners group and for the last about five years during christmas time uh the Harleys riders go out there to the Children's home and bring gifts for the tree

out there. And during easter we also have an easter egg hunt for the Children, the Children get to sit on the motorcycles and have pictures taken of them. The pictures are taken with Polaroids and the Children keep the photographs, we do not have custody of the

photographs and Children keep them for their own history and their own records and they have a wonderful time with the group. So the Harley group does a little more than just ride motorcycles. Oh yes, we do lots of things in Sonoma County for the citizens of

Sonoma County. Mostly Children fundraisers. That's correct Children, that's what I've noticed many times during, especially through the summer months, huge amounts of motorcycles going up the freeway or whatever. And I guess they're, they're, they get together and have fundraisers. These are called runs and these runs

are for charity events throughout the state. We support other chapters during our main event in august, there will be chapters from other areas of the state pouring into Petaluma for the main event Catherine. Can you tell me a little more about the Foundation and what kind

of goals that it has? Okay, the Foundation is a group of community leaders in Sonoma County who are dedicated to augmenting the needs of Valley of the Moon Children's Home and the Redwood Children's Center and both the Children's Home and the Redwood Children's Center meet the

needs of Children who are their suspected abuse, abandonment or neglect. They are currently undertaking, they're currently undertaking a capital campaign to raise money to build a new home because of their working on being proactive but there have been times that the Children's home where we have

had to bring out the mattresses because there's not enough room. You get a family of seven Children in there and that can bring your population way above 32 is, is the most Children that we can serve at the home at one time. Um, and we serve

all of Sonoma County, Children from Petaluma through Children from bodega bay, Children from Sonoma, Children from Cloverdale, Healdsburg, all of Sonoma County. So there's over 650 Children who come through the children's home each year. And the county provides an excellent facility, provides all the staff and

a um, well trained staff and we work really closely with public health with mental health with the Sonoma County office of Education to really look at the child and meet their needs while they're there. But the foundation is augmenting those needs, say a child plays the

guitar and they don't have their guitar or they, we've had a child who played the saxophone and she, it had been stolen. So we rented the saxophone for her, the foundation did while she stayed with us. And so she was able to, you know, maintain her

musical ability and it's real important. Some, we've also purchased dresses for prom or football uniforms, you know, whatever we augment the needs of the Children. But the need is growing beyond that, it's the county was going to remodel the facility. But um, with looking at how

we're growing here in Sonoma County. The Foundation decided we need to educate the community about who the Children's home, who those Children are there and how we can really make a difference in our community by helping them and building a new facility will really make a

difference. Um, what is the average length of time that a child would be placed in the Valley of the Moon? Children's Home. Children could be there for a few days. There may be family members that the child is able to go and live with, but they

also may be there for six or seven months. We worked really closely with foster parents, uh, infant through six year old Children will go to directly to a satellite foster parents home and they're specially trained to work with Children who are in crisis. It's a lot

less traumatic for the infant through six year olds to go directly into a home For Children who are 6-18, they all they want is to go home. So it's much more traumatic for them. They need that transition time to see if they're going to be able

to go back home or or prepare themselves to go into a foster home so that it can be successful. Um, Where is the Valley of the Moon Children's Home located at this time, the Valium and Children's home is located right across from Oakmont, out on highway

12. It's at the Los Kalikow Center and since I've been the volunteer coordinator, we've really been able to uh, develop a great relationship with Oakmont and we've really developed a strong volunteer activity and support. It's just been excellent. We've had retired teachers, we have people who

do portraits of the Children. We have artists. It's just been a great relationship. The relationship with the Harley owners group has been going on for five years and I've been very lucky to be able to be there every christmas and every thanksgiving that they've come out

and I've enjoyed it a lot and the Children absolutely love it. What do you do at christmas and thanksgiving gary christmas? The toys are brought out for the Children and how are you, how do you collect these toys? Members just go out and get them. Sometimes

there's a passing of the hat at a chapter meeting and the monies are taken down to say Costco or toys r us or some other major outlet and uh different types of toys for different age groups are acquired and then we meet somewhere and the group

as they, a number of Harleys riding down the highway. Sometimes at christmas time people will see teddy bears and stuffed santa clauses and those sort of things hanging off the handlebars and on the rear end of the bikes going down the highway and sometimes the members

will dress up like santa claus and that sort of thing. So it's just a lot of fun. The kids really do respond to this a lot and it's a, it's a big day in their lives when we all come out there and we play with them.

We talk with them and they sit on our bikes, they have their picture taken it. It's a, it's a lot of fun now, what do you do at thanksgiving? Thanksgiving? We just make sure that there's baskets that are taken out there just as we do during

uh, easter easter is big time because we have the easter egg hunts for especially the smaller Children. And so it's just part of the Harley owners group, Redwood Empire Chapter, what they like to do locally here and the Valley of the Moon is a natural because

all the people, practically all the members of the Harley group, our parents, they know the feelings that some Children have and, and after hearing the stories of some of the things that happened to some of these kids, uh, we've really glommed onto this group and as

the ticket sales for the giveaway motorcycle that we are having the next question, volunteers from the Valley of the Moon have really helped us out a lot. The raffle bike is an FX DX super glide sport, which is a new 1999 motorcycle which is going to

be given away at the main event and we are selling tickets throughout Sonoma County at various venues from wineries to special events. The ticket sales, ticket sales if we wanted to purchase tickets, where could we go to purchase the ticket probably to the Harley shop to

Harley shop down at 76 01 Redwood drive of course has tickets all the time that can be purchased and one does not need to Purchase tickets in order to win the motorcycle donations can be accepted also just as a free donation, but the bike will be

located throughout Sonoma County at various venues from now until October August 15. We're going to have to pause here. Stay tuned. We'll be right back. Mhm If you have diabetes, there are a world of reasons to get a dilated eye exam because diabetic eye disease doesn't

have to take away your sight. If you need any more reasons just look around you shut down. Welcome back to Sonoma County in the nineties. Let's rejoin Katherine, Kennedy and Gary green. Oh we're talking about the Valley of the Moon Children's Home fundraiser event. That is

a collaboration between the Harley group here in Sonoma County and the Valley of the Moon Children's Home Gary. You were talking about the big raffle that's coming up. It sounds like an exciting, beautiful motorcycle which is kind of interesting. It is black and it definitely has

an attitude does it? Dana, you are a writer, you understand. Yes, I have a Harley. What I wanted to ask you Gary. How much are the tickets and how many do you think that you'll be selling. The total number of tickets are 25,000 now that may

seem like a lot, but we're not printing anymore after that run goes through the possibility of winning is much better than the lotto and tickets are two for $5 and you can purchase as many as you want and we will continue to sell these tickets throughout

Sonoma County and the main event on august the 15th. Can you tell me Gary, did the Redwood chapter of Harley group donate this motorcycle or is that a full donation or do the tickets go towards the purchase? As with any major vehicle? It has to be

paid for Jim Lasker at Michael's Harley Davidson, the owner of Michaels was gracious enough to acquire the motorcycle from Milwaukee at very low cost at cost or below and anything over the price of the motorcycle goes to the Valley of the Moon. Now, weeks ago today

is july the 18th and many weeks ago we've already paid for the motorcycle. So everything from now until august the 15th goes to the Valley of the Moon. Everything now, How many years have you done this? Have you been raffling a motorcycle? It's been several years.

Well, it's been about 67 years that the Harley owners group has raffled motorcycle giveaway bike. The main event has gone on for about 10 years and uh again, every main event is specifically for fundraising for charity. A local charity. Again, the national charity for Harley owners

group is M. D. A. And millions of dollars. Going to those coffers every year from chapters all over the world. But we like to do our thing right here in Sonoma County and again are charity of choice this year has been valued the moon and we're

very happy to be doing it. Catherine. Tell me about the activities that go on at Valley of the Moon Children's Home. And you were talking about volunteers that you've had a great response from Oakmont. Perhaps some of our viewers out here would like to be volunteers

also. And what kinds of things would they be doing? Well. We have tutors in the school who helped Children read, helped them with math problems or a lot of the Children who come in, they've been in crisis for a while and their families. And so sometimes

they really need this time to get that one on one attention to help them. Um, get ahead, you know, so they can be prepared for when they go back into their public school. So that one on one attention is really important. Um, we also have people

who come in and volunteer as artists. It depends on what the talent is of the volunteer actually, we get to know who the volunteer is. Uh, what do they do really well, what do they enjoy doing? Could be movement, dance could be sports. Um, art. It's

what their, where their talent lies because the Children enjoy learning all new things and we, you know, we have, we have the time and we've got a captive audience is the Children are there until they're able to go home. So it's really nice for the community

to come in you were talking about rather than remodeling the existing location to build a new, Is there any, do you have any idea where they proposed a building site and how many Children are they um proposing to accommodate in the new site? In the new

site? There has been a study that was done with the county um asking all the different agencies that work with the Children what would be the best facilities. So we have got plans drawn up of what the dream facility would be and the county has provided

um five acres, it's right adjacent to the Children's home. We're in a beautiful area. That's so it's a wonderful place, It's a secluded and quiet and um it's a really beautiful location. So we know where the new facility will be. Um it's educating the community and

that's part of what the Harley Davidsons owner group has been doing is helping us educate the community about who the Children's home is and who the Redwood Children's Center is and who who do we meet the needs of its our Children in Sonoma County who are

in crisis. So we've really appreciated the work that the Harley Davidson group has done by helping us help other people learn about us because it's amazing. You know, a lot of people have never heard of the Children psalm or the Redwood Center and Gary. Tell me

a little more about what's going to happen at the main event besides this wonderful black sleek motorcycle that you may win, I need to buy some tickets. What about the, is there a barbecue? What goes on? We have scored a major group to help with the

food in johnny garlic's, They're going to be preparing the food down there. We also are going to have numerous drawings for a lot of donated prizes. We have secured prizes from all over Sonoma County, one entire place donated a set of tires. I mean, we just

don't know what we're going to have, we just have a room full of prizes and we're gonna be giving out throughout the day. The highlight of the day, of course will be the giveaway bike at 4:00, but also during the day, there are going to be

a number of events taking place. There, one of the more popular ones is called a slow race. I'm sure the public has seen a number of motorcycles and Harley Davidsons racing down the highway from time to time. Well, this is a slow race and sometimes we

have Sonoma County's finest, either Highway Patrol or santa rosa city police officers on motorcycles who come down and compete with these Harley riders in the slow race to see who can go on a course. The slowest and it is very hard to do. And that would

be amazed at the balance of some of these folks on motorcycles and especially the police. It is just amazing. The inch ahead. It's very slowly. It's fun to watch. We invite all motorcyclists to come to this event and we invite all the public, it's just not

for motorcycle. Yes, I'd like you to express that. I have gone a couple of times, two to the events and all motorcycle riders are included. A lot of people think, well, Harley stay away. That is not. Please elaborate on, we are not the one percenters. There

are some out there, of course the Harley owners group is are people like you and me, like you like everyone, the camera crew. It's it's people who have normal jobs and normal occupations and they just love to ride motorcycles as do other brand motorcyclists who like

to ride too. So, it's a fun sport. We do invite all brands of motorcycles, it's just not a Harley event. Were just the sponsors of the event and we invite the general public because there's gonna be a ride in bike show. The bike show is customized

motorcycles that are just unbelievably beautiful and the public can vote on their favorite, it's people's choice. So there'll be that and great food, lots of prizes and of course the giveaway bike at four p.m. Where is this going to take place. Did you mention that yes,

at the pendulum fairgrounds from 12 to 4 on august the 15th, that's where it is every year at the fairgrounds. And they usually have that vintage bike show also. Are they going to have that this year? I don't know if it's gonna be in conjunction with

us because we have our own bike show going on at the same time. It's been great fun selling the tickets too because my volunteers and I have gone along with Harley Group and had the bike behind us and it's very easy to sell tickets young all

the way up to, you know, very older people are really interested that dream once Harley right, it's really been fun and then they wanted to help the kids too. So they feel good about it. Well, that's kind of one of those american Dreams or whatever to

have a Harley Davidson. It's an American thing. I don't know why, but I guess you could call it one of the last icons of true Americana just celebrated its 95th anniversary. It's the only American product still made in America. And uh, it's, it has the mystique

of, of riding the sound, the, the group, the leather, if you will, it's a lot of fun. I wrote other bikes and then took a long period of time off before I started riding again. I turned 50 years old and I said I have to have

one And I know I turned 40 and said I'm buying one and I have had so much fun and it's a great bunch of people. Yeah, yeah. I think one of the exciting things about it the first time I really wrote it at nighttime and you

turn on the light and it looks like a jukebox. You know, just the way the lights come up and everything on the, on it. It's kind of just a real retro type type thing. Also, main event is gonna be a lot of fun. And again, we

really would like to invite the public, the general public to show up. Is there a phone number where our viewers could call or anybody can call and get more information? Well, I think we probably should call Michael's Harley Davidson at this time. And it's in Michael's

Harley Davidson. And what about you, Katherine? Do you have a phone number? Right. If they would like to learn more about Valley of the Moon Children's Foundation or about volunteering for the Children's home, they could call my number 56558435655843. can you tell me Katherine A little

more about the goals for the fundraising of the foundation over the next five years? Well, over the next five years, we hope to raise enough money to build the new children's home. And what kind of numbers are you looking at you have? We're looking at, we

need to raise $5 million. Oh, that's a lot of money. Right, so it's really getting out there too to the people in the community, the movers and the shakers who can make a difference for our Children here. And what other kind of fundraisers do you have

in mind over the next five years? Do you have any coming up here in november november 20th? We have Toy Story two. We actually have a preview of Toy Story that's going to be shown in Sonoma County and the director john Lasseter and his wife nancy

have picked us chosen us to be the recipients, the Valium and Children's Foundation and to help us with our fundraising efforts and that's really going to be exciting. Now, what is the Toy Story two? You have to, it's a Disney film, there was Toy Story and

then now Toy Story two is going to be coming out, thanksgiving, but prior to it coming out we will be showing it here in Sonoma County. I see and all of the monies that will come through that will go to the Foundation. So the, you say

all of the money, we will have it how early? We'll have it probably a week to two weeks before it's so shown. And so all the profits then go to the Valley of the Moon's Children Foundation, it will be a night's premiere event and we're looking

at showing it at the raven theater and there will be a silent auction with um, a lot of uh memorabilia from the movie signed um, posters and where will this event take place at the raven? The raven. The auction will take place also. I guess we're

looking at having a tent outside in front of the theater and then showing the movie inside the raven. So when is that going to happen? November 20th in november. Now, why did you select the raven? Well it's john Lasseter likes an old type theater. It was

previously in Sonoma at their theater there. We wanted to have a place that would hold more people and the raven Disney actually selected it. They came up and looked at several places and decided that would be the best place for it to be shown. Well, thank

you, we're out of time and I want to thank both of you for being here and it sounds like there's some exciting things coming up. And also Gary, I'm sure everybody will turn out and I want you to bring me a ticket so I can buy

some. This is Dana Derek. Oh, I hope you enjoyed the show. I look forward to seeing you next time. Thank you