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Angel Charity Celebrates Success $25 Million in Donations Has Helped 1 Million Children Since 1983 By Tara Kirkpatrick
Pima County children may have no greater guardian than this group of women. Over the past 34 years, Angel Charity for Children has donated more than $25 million to benefit more than 1 million children throughout Southern Arizona. There is no executive director or any full-time staff – only 150 devoted volunteers who pride themselves on being good stewards of their donors’ dollars. “You want to give every child in Pima County what you would want for your own children,” said Olivia Sethi, the organization’s 2017 general chairman. Added Chairman-Elect Carla Keegan, “We have an obligation to them. Every child deserves a roof over their heads, food on the table and a good education.” It’s why this venerable CPA has served as a member of Angel Charity for 23 years and will lead the group in 2018. Louise Thomas founded Angel Charity in 1983. Thomas, who had lost her 9-year-old son, Michael, to cancer, started the group “to turn a family’s tragedy into hope for a better life for the children of our community,” she said. “It was a way for my son’s life to not have been in vain.” In its first year, Angel Charity retired the mortgage of the Ronald McDonald House and funded the remodel of its building. The group, which counts attorneys, accountants, business owners, retired 202 BizTucson
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Fall 2017
Wings Over Tucson A Look at Angel Capital Projects Through the Years 1983, 2005
Ronald McDonald House Retired mortgage and added manager’s quarters, kitchen renovation. Funded a 12-room Isolation Wing as part of a new 24,000-square-foot facility.
1984
Arizona Children’s Association Renovated and remodeled once condemned buildings to create “Angel House.”
1985
executives and at-home moms among its members, is closing in on four decades of funding 501(c)(3) – nonprofit – agencies with the main purpose of aiding children. “As I drive past all of the buildings with the Angel Charity sign, I see children who were abused now being safe, children with disabilities now having opportunities, children able to play and learn and take the next step toward achieving their dreams,” Peg Harmon, CEO of St. Elizabeth of Hungary Clinic, said in a 2011 impact report by students in the University Arizona Eller College of Management. This year – its 35th – Angel Charity partnered with five nonprofit organizations to donate $747,010 to pay off the mortgage of the Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona, fund the Angel Charity Arts-in-Medicine Program run by Beads of Courage for young patients, buy a new van for Ben’s Bells, enable the Erik Hite Foundation to provide youth camp scholarships and help Junior Achievement of Arizona launch a virtual financial planning program for Tucson students. Beneficiaries are the winners of a rigorous annual selection process that is as scrupulously thorough as it is ultimately rewarding. “People have a misperception that we are a group of fluffernutters and we are not,” said Keegan, who has personally secluded herself continued on page 204 >>>
Las Familias Purchased the agency’s headquarters building.
1986
The Blake Foundation Funded facility’s renovation and expansion.
1987
Child & Family Resources Purchased the agency’s new headquarters.
1988
Open Inn Retired mortgage. Funded the remodeling of four shelters.
1989
Casa De Los Niños Funded a new, furnished 40-bed nursery named “Angel Nursery.”
1990
The Steele Memorial Children’s Research Center Funded the fourth floor, 32,000-squarefoot “Angel Charity for Children – Wings for Genetic Research.”
1991
El Rio Santa Cruz Neighborhood Health Center Funded the “Angel Children’s Clinic” on the first floor of a new building.
1992
Big Brothers / Big Sisters Funded the purchase and remodeling of the new “Big Brothers/Big Sisters Angel Charity Youth Center.”
continued on page 198 >>> www.BizTucson.com