Thankful Thursday: Starry Starry Night Supporters

Corps Member Ali Bueno was joined on stage by her mother Lisa Arellano to share their story.

Last Thursday night, City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley celebrated our service at Starry Starry Night, our annual fundraising gala. We were joined by teachers, administrators, elected officials, sponsors and community members to share in our joy and learn about the impact we are having on the hundreds of students in San Jose we serve everyday.

This was our site’s chance to really share our story.

It was truly inspiring for me to see students performing a school launch on stage in front of a large group of people. I teared up when corps member Ali Bueno and her mother shared their heart wrenching story of overcoming the obstacles of raising a child as a teen mother. I swelled with pride when corps members Christina Johnson, Alyssa Chun and Alejandro Belden did a spoken word performance about their service.

But the celebration wasn’t only about our contributions to the community.

CEO of Applied Materials Mike Splinter with corps members Jeff Arnold and Celina Chun. Splinter was the recipient of the City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley Service Leadership Award.

We also had the pleasure of honoring Mike Splinter, CEO of Applied Materials, for his commitment to serving the Silicon Valley community. Applied Materials is a huge supporter of City Year; this year they are sponsoring a school-based team serving at Lee Mathson Middle School.

Thanks to the incredible support of the more than 360 attendees, we were able to raise more than $160,000 during the Fund-a-Need portion of the dinner which was co-led by City Year Vice President and Regional Director Stephen Spallos and City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley board chair Carl Guardino, President & CEO of Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

Overall, we were able to raise more than $230,000!

We couldn’t have done it without the support of our event sponsors.

If you’d like to see more of this inspiring event, please check out the City Year Flickr.

And if you’d like to donate, visit cityyear.org/donate and designate San Jose/Silicon Valley as the recipient of your gift.

Below is a video that includes interviews from some of our guests.