Children’s Choice Awards 2018
Friday, April 20, 2018 – Friends, staff, and the families of Saint Vincent’s Day Home gathered at Oakland’s Preservation Park for an evening celebrating the Day Home family – including our incredible supporters, and this year’s honoree, The Bernard E. and Alba Witkin Charitable Foundation.
Upon arrival, guests enjoyed champagne and an exuberant welcome from our most hospitable kindergarten students.
The “Starfish” Kindergarten class opened the dinner with a flawlessly executed two poems and two songs. Guests rose to a standing ovation to applaud our talented students.
Enjoy a video of their performance.
A family style dinner was served, just like our children eat at the Day Home daily. The meal was generously prepared by Chef Kristen Thiebault and our extended family at Nybll.
After a delicious dinner, Board President Hon. Carol Corrigan presented the 2018 Children’s Choice Award to Kenneth Kuchman, Executive Director of the The Witkin Charitable Foundation. Carol spoke of the longstanding, invaluable support of the Foundation and its impact on our students. For more on the Witkin Charitable Foundation’s support of SVDH, watch our featured video from the evening.
Executive Director, Kate Shaheed, introduced a past SVDH Student and current guardian of two enrolled Day Home students, Ms. Sherie Williams. Sherie gave a moving speech sharing the impact of her childhood at the Day Home and the positive impact of our quality early learning program in the lives of her children and now her nieces.
The evening ended successfully as we raised $46,000 to fully fund our speech therapy program for 2018-2019. Kate auctioned a basketball signed by the Golden State Warriors 2017-18 team, graciously donated by the Warriors Community Foundation. It could not have been more exciting as SVDH Board member, Zach Cohen, jumped in and offered us a Splash Brothers (Steph Curry & Klay Thompson) signed jersey and Michael Hunt from Mayor Libby Schaaf’s office donated the Mayor’s two tickets for a second round Warriors Finals game in a suite! The lucky winners celebrated as the room applauded their generous donations to the Day Home.
The evening ended with an exquisite dessert reception, nightcap, and a few extra special treats.
Thank you to all who came and spent an evening supporting the Day Home’s children and families! With your help, we continue to be able to ensure that all children – regardless of their economic situation – enjoy the thorough Early Learning experience they deserve and need for a lifetime of success!
A special thank you to:
Kristen Thibeault of Nybll for the evening’s delicious food.
Christina Hernandez of Nightingale Photography for the wonderful SVDH family portraits.
Wilma Germany of “Posh Occasions” for the beautiful floral arrangements.
Dave & Guille Cecil of Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits for their generous donation of the evening’s libations.
For more photos from the evening, visit our Facebook page!
Photos courtesy of Madison Foss
To watch the videos presented during the evening, visit our YouTube page!
We would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of our sponsors for the event:
