The AGAPE Network is so very grateful to the Aunt Rita's Foundation for their continued financial support. It is this continued support that has enabled us to continue to provide our clients with a nutritious food box. It is so necessary that we have this additional funding , as the number of food boxes we are providing has increased from 212 to 350 in the past year. AGAPE purchases the food from a local supermarket and produce company , so that there is a wide variety of canned vegetables, canned fruits, dried goods and meats. Our produce company supplies excellent quality produce. This has resulted in our clients being able to gain needed weight and also to enjoy variety in their menus. Without Aunt Rita's Foundation this would not be possible. There are not words that can express our gratitude.

Blessings for all you do, Rev. Terese E. (Bonnie) Ott, AGAPE Network

The opportunity to be a part of such an incredible organization like Aunt Rita's has helped us bridge the gap among the youth not receiving valuable information about HIV prevention and care. We are honored to help serve our community and be a part of a broader scope that offers such a vital resource for all communities.

Michael Weekly, Director of Programs,1n10, Inc.

In this time of economic uncertainty, Aunt Rita's Foundation has instilled a sense of confidence for our programming. Our Aunt Rita's Foundation funds help us to purchase the supplies necessary to provide HIV testing and prevention services. This is grassroots fund raising at its best; the funds we receive come from our community and have fewer restrictions and requirements than governmental and other grant funds.

Matthew Nelson, MSW, Native Health

The funding received from Aunt Rita's Foundation allowed Care Directions to maintain the women, children, youth, teen, families' medical case management program, which serves over 700 clients per year. Case management provides comprehensive assessment, care planning, advocacy, supportive counseling, and links HIV positive clients to a wide array of services, including (not limited to): primary medical care, medications, dental care, behavioral health services, transportation, financial assistance, and housing. Case Managers follow-up with clients on a regular basis to ensure that the care plan and interventions are meeting their needs. Without the additional funding from Aunt Rita's, the agency would have had to decrease the number of women and families served in that program. Decreases in state and federal funding, in addition to increases in clients needing services, combined, puts a considerable strain on maintaining the program making Aunt Rita's assistance invaluable.

Debbie Elliott, Vice President of Client Services, Care Directions

Southwest Behavioral Health

Being able to say thank you for the contribution from Aunt Rita's this past year (2008) means so much to us and the services Southwest Behavioral Health Services, Inc. helps provide to the community for individuals and families with or impacted by HIV/AIDS. There is much assistance needed that is not covered by government funding to make the housing operations whole, to make houses, homes, and to bring integrity throughout all processes. This year's contribution supported buying food when SBH and residents ran out of money, helped with household cleaning supplies, personal medical supplies, bandages and first aid kits. Additionally some landscaping and disposal services were taken care of as were maintaining amenities around the housing units that are not eligible for grant payments. Many unplanned repairs and maintenance emergencies were helped by these funds.

Aunt Rita's means not having to go without in may ways as we help build a superior quality of life experience that otherwise would be unapproachable for all our residents. It is this difference that makes this acknowledgment of Aunt Rita's donors and donation easy to affirm and a pleasure to express our gratitude for all that is freely given.

Geoff Davis

The money TERROS received helps support the delivery of more Say It Straight (SIS) interventions to ethnic minority community members to stop the spread of HIV, Hepatitis and the onset or relapse of substance use. It also aided in filling gaps that were not covered in current funding streams. The money raised also afforded us the opportunity to further enhance our training and outreach efforts with more materials for our prevention and education messages. The intent had been to broaden both our English and Spanish speaking community members' needs.

Brin Scott, Director of Crisis/HIV Prevention Services

The money we received from Aunt Rita's Foundation in December 2008 allowed Phoenix Shanti to end the year nearly "in the black" for the housing and counseling services we provided and still provide a modest gift card to our homeless housing residents and clients at the holidays, in addition to the holiday gifts provided by community groups.

Keith A. Thompson, M.Div. Executive Director/CEO Phoenix Shanti Group

Because of the generous donation from Aunt Rita's Foundation, Concilio Latino de Salud, Inc has been able to continue its more than 20 years of HIV/AIDS by the provision of some critical HIV/AIDS prevention efforts for the underserved populations in Maricopa County with emphasis in the Hispanic/Latino communities.

David Aguirre, Prevention Specialist Concilio Latino de Salud Inc.

The $8000 that we received through Aunt Rita's Foundation, as a result of SAVORlife and The AIDS Walk, allowed us to provide more services to clients throughout Maricopa and Pinal Counties. The program was also able to develop community education materials for distribution to clients and the public at health fairs, community fund raisers, etc.

Karen Stuart

Joshua Tree Feeding Program, Inc. spent the monies we received from Aunt Rita's to purchase the food needed to make and dirstribute 250 food boxes for our clients infected with HIV/AIDS. Each box contains 12 completely nutritional meals, enough food for one person for 4 days. Aunt Rita's Foundation issued part of our monies prior to Thanksgiving so that we could provide food boxes so all of our clients could have a Thanksgiving meal.

Scott R Robinson,Vice-Chairman Joshua Tree Feeding Program, Inc.

Ebony House has been sponsoring Bridges Over Barriers (B.O.B.), a support group for African Americans living with HIV/AIDS since 2003. This support group fills a critical need in our community but had been suffering due to lack of funds to support the group's activities. Money raised from SAVORlife and AIDS Walk has been used to support B.O.B. group activities including providing transportation across the Valley for participants, providing meat and fruit supplements to food boxes, social outings for home-bound PLWHA, and providing financial assistance for funerals to the families of group members who have made their transition. The AIDS Walk dollars could not have come at a better time and we continue to reap the benefits of this gracious fund raising effort.

Angelica Lindsey-Ali, HIV/STD Outreach Services Ebony House Inc.

The funds Compassion in Action received from Aunt Rita's have helped and will continue to help this year in the following ways. Each month we hold a dinner and program called Abundant Life which is attended by 20 - 30 people touched by HIV. Each year we hold one of these dinners at Nello's Pizza as a special night out at no cost to our clients. We also serve approximately 60 families each month through our food box program. These funds help with additional food and other cost not cover by Ryan White grant. We are also able to help with special needs that come up with our clients, such as a woman we have known for the last 5 years who has been working hard through a career training program so that she can provide for her daughter. When we recently found out she never had her own bed we were excited to let her know that we could buy her a new bed thanks to the Aunt Rita's grant.

Steve Robenalt

Aunt Rita's generous donation of $8,000 helped Southwest Center provide vitamins on a charity-support basis for certain clients who could not afford to pay for these life-saving nutrients and health advice. Because of Southwest Center's wellness support, the Center has saved Arizona taxpayers an estimated more than 16 million in avoided hospital stays according to a 2008 study of long-term HIV/AIDS survivors.

Carol A. Poore, President and CEO Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS

Chicanos Por La Causa Inc. (CPLC) would like to express our extreme gratitude to the volunteers, board members of Aunt Rita's Foundation for allowing CPLC to participate in the 2008 fundraising events. $8,000 was able to go directly to providing supportive services to people living with HIV/AIDS. Not only was CPLC grateful for the donation but our consumers expressed their gratitude as well. 2008 was the first year that CPLC participated in the Aunt Rita's Foundation fundraisers. As the year passed CPLC felt the pressure of the economic crisis the State of Arizona faced as programs were cut completely. Resources that once existed for CPLC's consumers were now non-existent. As the demand for services increased, funding took a dramatic decrease. CPLC, as many other non-profit agencies throughout the state were faced with difficult decisions as a method of containment. With the funding that CPLC received in 2008 was able to offset some of the LUCES Program's (Latinos United Against HIV/AIDS) deficit that enabled LUCES to continue providing HIV/AIDS services within the Latino communities in Maricopa and Pinal Counties. Bilingual services such as support groups, case management, psychosocial support, targeted outreach, behavioral health were all supplemented by the Aunt Rita's Foundation fundraising money.

2008 Aunt Rita's Foundation funds given to the Bill Holt Clinic at Phoenix Children's Hospital was used to provide registered nursing care. The registered nursing position provides indirect and direct medical services to both infected and exposed infants, children, and youth as defined by the Ryan White Part D Care Act. Indirect medical services for infected and exposed children include, but are not limited to, prepping medical charts for office visits, calling to remind families of appointment day and time, and reviewing patient's cases with the medical team prior to appointment. Additional indirect medical services may include scheduling follow-up appointments for exposed newborns, rescheduling appointments per family or provider request, providing presentations within the community regarding pediatric HIV, and providing information and patient support to the school districts. Direct medical care includes, but is not limited to, patient check-in and medical history review, carrying out provider's orders (i.e., immunizations, eye exams, hearing exams), accompanying patients to lab, providing support before, during, and after lab draw, and providing discharge information to families regarding changes in medications, follow-up appointment, and any additional follow-up needs. Additional direct medical services include pill swallowing training, providing disclosure information to both the patient and their families, providing nursing services at Camp Incredible and Camp Honor, providing consults and follow-up information with hospital case managers for exposed newborns, and providing nursing triage via phone. This position has been vital to the clinic by improving the quality of care, patient retention and improved health status for our patients.

Amy Edmonds