Grants awarded to children’s charities at St. Germaine luncheon in La Jolla

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button above to see 10 photos from the St. Germaine Children’s Charity’s annual Membership and Grants Award Luncheon.

By Vincent Andrunas

St. Germaine’s annual Membership and Grants Award Luncheon took place June 10, 2014 at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club. In attendance were outgoing and incoming St. Germaine officers (and a few doing both) plus representatives of 13 San Diego child abuse prevention agencies receiving grant checks. One of these, Hannah’s House, was also chosen to receive the annual Barbara Christensen Heart of San Diego Award.

Other grant recipients were Angels Foster Family Network, Armed Services YMCA San Diego, Aseltine School, Association of Human-Animal Bond Studies, Casa de Amparo, Healthy Start Military Family Resource Center, New Haven Youth and Family Services, San Diego Police Foundation, St. Vincent de Paul Village, STAR/PAL, The Children’s Initiative, and Walden Family Services.

Guest speaker Nicole Rooney, deputy district attorney from the Family Protection Division of the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, offered inspiring thoughts about saving abused children and bringing abuses to justice.

Overall, $150,000 in grants — the largest amount yet — was distributed, in honor of St. Germaine’s 30th anniversary. Most of those funds were raised at a single daytime event — last December’s Silver Tea, chaired by La Jollans Sue Kalish and Maryl Weightman.

The St. Germaine Auxiliary to the Child Abuse Prevention Foundation was founded by Barbara Christensen and nine friends in 1984. Renamed St. Germaine Children’s Charity in 2009, the organization boasts 330 members.

The group continues Christensen’s legacy of giving, working to fund help for children from babies to young adults, and has awarded nearly $3 million in grants and $1.7 million in in-kind gifts over the years.

This year, St. Germaine’s Silver Tea is scheduled for Dec. 9, 2014.

• For information about St. Germaine Children’s Charity, visit

stgermainechildrenscharity.org