CLAMS makes donations to four more local charities

The Canyon Lake Association of Men (CLAMS) has been out again presenting checks to area charities in Southwest Riverside County. Helping Hands, The Boys and Girls Club of Southwest County, HOPE and Animal Friends of the Valleys were the fortunate recipients.

Helping Hands, founded in 2016 by Canyon Lake’s Robert “Bob” Sasser, is a local charity that brings food and companionship to the less fortunate in Canyon Lake and adjoining cities.  The majority of Helping Hands volunteers in the group are Canyon Lake residents.

CLAMS club member Randy Schutz presented the donation check to Canyon Laker Lawrence Evans, the Executive Director of Helping Hands, whose motto is “Helping Hands provides people who care an opportunity to serve people in need.”

The Boys and Girls Club of Southwest County was started in the Temecula Valley approximately 30 years ago and has grown to service the communities of Temecula, Murrieta, Lake Elsinore and Canyon Lake.

The director of the local Boys and Girls Club receives a CLAMS donation check from Randy Schutz of the club. Photo by Mavis Schutz.

A CLAMS donation check was presented to Board of Director Genie Kelley who said, “No child is turned down from our services, ever.”

Canyon Lake children who attend Cottonwood Canyon Elementary School can take advantage of The Boys and Girls Club’s local clubhouse. The clubhouse provides before and after school care and very enriched activities. Boys and Girls Club’s vans deliver the participating children to school and pick them up from Cottonwood Canyon. The club’s motto is “Great Futures Start Here.”

Randy with wife Mavis Schutz presented a donation check to HOPE Director Patti Londot last week. HOPE (Helping Our People of Elsinore) was established in 1990.

“I first started working with HOPE in 1994 when Temescal Canyon was a very new school and HOPE was just down the street,” Mavis said. “It is exciting to see how much it has grown over the years.”

HOPE not only services Lake Elsinore residents, but those in Canyon Lake as well. Every Thanksgiving Canyon Lake volunteers collect frozen turkeys and dinner fixings to donate to HOPE.

HOPE’S new motto and name is Dream Center and can be seen online at dreamcenterLF.org/hope.

Animal Friends of the Valleys also had a humble beginning when Lake Elsinore had only 12,000 residents and Canyon Lake 2,300 residents when it was originally established in 1987 as LEAF (Lake Elsinore Animal Friends). It was renamed when it expanded to include contracted services for the cities of Canyon Lake, Menifee, Lake Elsinore, Murrieta and Temecula as well as unincorporated areas of the county. Beth Soltysiak, Director of Donor Development, accepted the CLAMS donation Randy presented to her. AFV core values are compassion for animals and treating all animals with respect and compassion.