in need

Scammers have been making money for years by convincing their victims to send money for a variety of reasons including promised prizes, loans, jobs, discounted products or other financial rewards in exchange for money upfront. At times the scammers even pretend to be family members in need of cash or law enforcement officers demanding payment. The scammers told people to send money through Western Union. No one received the cash, prizes or services they were promised, and before now there was no way to get their money back.

The 14th annual Holiday With a Hero campaign culminated Wednesday in Carson City at Walmart after months of fundraising. At least 240 homeless children from across the Carson City School District met with Santa Claus before being paired with first responder heroes for a Christmas shopping spree.

Overnight, some elves went through South Lake Tahoe, hanging bags of mittens, scarves and hats from trees near bus stops on Highway 50. The anonymous good Samaritans want those who need to keep warm to grab a bag and keep the contents.

A card accompanying one of the bags by 7-11 said "I am not lost. Please take me if needed and keep me warm. From Your Tahoe Family."

For the fifth year, the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority (LTVA) and South Tahoe Refuse & Recycling (STR) teamed up to benefit Christmas Cheer All Year with “drive and drop” at LTVA’s California Visitors Center and curbside collection on regular garbage pick-up days.

Once again we were overwhelmed by the generosity of our South Shore community. 160 pounds of food and 85 toys were collected.

Thank you to all the individuals and businesses who participated in making the holidays a little brighter for those in need.

With gratitude

Anne Sutterfield
Online & Operations Manager

More than a dozen reports from the public about a phone scam prompted the Washoe County Sheriff's Office to issue an alert.

The callers claim to be a person's grandchild and they are in need of financial assistance because they're in jail, or have been involved in an accident. It is not unusual for scammers to use personal information about a potential victim’s family members in order to sound credible. This type of information is often easily obtained via the Internet or social media.

The Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority and South Tahoe Refuse & Recycling Services will again team up this holiday season to make giving to Christmas Cheer easier than ever.

The LTVA’s Drive and Drop for Christmas Cheer takes place Monday, December 4 through Saturday, December 9, from 9AM-5PM. Drive through the Visitor Center parking lot at 3066 Highway 50, South Lake Tahoe, and drop your donations of food or toys into the bins provided by South Tahoe Refuse & Recycling.

Cash donations should be brought into the Visitor Center. Restaurants and businesses are encouraged to participate.

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What is currently six portable buildings at the Al Tahoe school site could be a new home for the Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe (BGCLT). That is the idea Jude Wood presented to the school board Tuesday night.

Wood, the BGCLT Executive Director, spoke in front of the Lake Tahoe Unified School District's Trustees, giving them a look into a proposed partnership and future facility use agreement with the District with a new Clubhouse built on District owned property. The Club would fully fund the new building.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Philanthropy and South Lake Tahoe non-profits were recently celebrated by the Barton Foundation as they honored their 2017 grant recipients in a luncheon at Riva Grill.

South Lake Tahoe Boy Scout Troop 594 is partnering with American Legion Post 795 for the 2017 Scouting for Food collection on Saturday, November 11.

Please bring your donated food items to the American Legion, 2748 Lake Tahoe Boulevard in South Lake Tahoe from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., prior to their Veteran's Day Ceremony which begins at 11:00 a.m.

Please join them as they help provide for those in need, and to also recognize those who have served in our Nation’s Armed Forces.

No glass containers or perishable food please.

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Bread & Broth and Live Violence Free both have opportunities for the South Lake Tahoe community to help those less fortunate this Thanksgiving.

Bread & Broth is providing a free Thanksgiving Dinner to the community on Monday, November 20 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at St. Theresa Church. This is the non-profit's 28th year of serving meals to those in need.

The National Park Service (NPS) is considering raising fees at their most popular locations during the peak season to pay for overdue and badly needed improvements to the aging infrastructure of national parks. This includes roads, bridges, campgrounds, waterlines, bathrooms, and other visitor services.

The Mueller family really enjoys making people happy! As owners of Adventure Mountain Lake Tahoe, the sledding, tubing and snow play resort located at the top of Echo Summit, they provide winter activities that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

Faces of Homelessness, an event hosted by the Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless, will take plan on Thursday, October 26 at the historic Valhalla Tahoe at 5:30 p.m.

Around the country, formerly homeless individuals are sharing their stories through a series of Faces of Homelessness panel discussions. The South Lake Tahoe version will feature speakers from Northern California, including Lake Tahoe.

Thanks to a generous donor, Temple Bat Yam hosted the August 14th Bread & Broth Monday Meal at St. Theresa Grace Hall. B&B, a non-profit, all volunteer organization, began feeding the needy of the Tahoe South Shore community in 1989 as a multi-denominational food outreach program. Throughout the past 28 years, volunteers of all faiths have supported the B&B program and Temple Bat Yam’s Adopt a Day of Nourishment dinner is a testament to the continuing support of all faiths in feeding the hungry of our community.

The El Dorado County Food Bank will be returning to South Lake Tahoe on Wednesday, July 26 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Those in need of food supplies can stop by their new location, the parking lot of St. Theresa Catholic Church located at 1041 Lyon Avenue. They stop there the 4th Wednesday of each month at the same time, same spot.

More information can be found at www.foodbankedc.org.

To help address the needs of the hungry of our community, Bread & Broth, a non-profit, all volunteer organization, has been serving free, nutritious meals for all who come to our Monday Meal dinner at St. Theresa Grace Hall. To fund these meals, B&B invites individuals, families, businesses and service clubs/organizations to sponsor an ‘Adopt A Day of Nourishment’. By donating a tax-deductible gift of $250.00, up to 110 people will be fed and up to 5 folks from the sponsor group can participate alongside the B&B volunteers at their sponsorship dinner.

The Tahoe Douglas Elk Lodge #2670, an on-going supporter of the Bread & Broth Adopt A Day of Nourishment program, hosted Bread & Broth’s Monday Meal on June 12. The Elk Lodge is a service organization whose members work together on national and local levels to help the needy through community service. The Tahoe Douglas Elk Lodge exemplifies their mission through the many serve projects they perform for the South Lake Tahoe community and the Bread & Broth organization.

“Tahoe Douglas Elks are always available to help Bread and Broth,” stated Steve Kurek.

In addition to leadership events, club meetings, and recreation trips, the Club Live program at the Tahoe Middle School promotes service to others and on Monday, May 22nd, Club Live sponsored a Bread & Broth ‘Adopt A Day of Nourishment’. At the Monday Meal, program leaders Larry and Paula Lambdin and club members Mylee Blanchard, Destiny Hursh and Elisa Roberts provided incredible service to the guests who came to Grace Hall for a tasty and filling evening meal.

Work had recently resumed on the new rehabilitation facility for Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care (LTWC) on Al Tahoe Blvd. Thieves stopped by last week and helped themselves to several hundred feed of copper line from the South Lake Tahoe project.

A contractor was connecting the sewer line to the South Tahoe Public Utility District (STPUD) connection at Pioneer Village 900 fee away. In order to locate water, electrical and sewer lines in the future, contractors now bury a copper wire just above the line making the task easier should it be needed.

After this harsh winter, so many of our homes and businesses are in dire need of a paint touch-up, some gardening, or other cleanup projects to help keep our community beautiful. Like many other local buildings, Live Violence Free is gearing up to bring their office back to the polished, welcoming space it has been since it was opened years ago.

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The annual trek to the dump for Clean Tahoe's Community Cleanup Day will be from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 3.

Time to clean up your yard, garage and home and dispose of everything at a low rate of $5 per vehicle load for California residents or $10 for those in Nevada. U-Hauls and oversized trucks will be priced by size.

For the day there will also be free document shredding and free e-waste disposal. Get rid of refrigerators for just $15 each (normally $42).

Daniel Deemer is biking across America on his "Bike for the Homeless" tour from Big Sur, California to Ocean City, Maryland to bring awareness to a social issue he is deeply passionate about.

In partnership with Tahoe Youth and Family Services, Dan is using the trip in an effort to raise funds for the agency and increase awareness of homelessness.

Dan will be leaving Big Sur on May 22, 2017. He has no predetermined route, but will be passing through the Sierra Nevada on SR-88, and through South Lake Tahoe.

For 50 years the Lake Tahoe Humane Society has offered services to animals in the South Lake Tahoe community. They are now facing challenges after their Executive Director Niki Congero was fired when allegations of embezzlement arose when their bank called them about irregular activity on the agency's debit card.

During the spring and summer of 2016, the City of South Lake Tahoe received many complaints for homeless people causing safety and health problems in parks and public places, mainly Lakeview Commons, Campground by the Lake, Heavenly Village and the transit centers at both ends of town.

This spring the number of calls have increased, and officers from the South Lake Tahoe Police have responded. The main five locations the problems occurred at in 2016 remain the same so far in 2017.