Xilinx’s wonderful holiday gift: $35,000 in charitable grant funds!!!

Holly Case, a dear friend, and parent volunteer on our 2018 volunteer trip, who taught robotics with her son Zack on our February 2018 Leland High School parents and students volunteer trip, told us about Xilinx’s (https://www.xilinx.com) charitable grant program. We wrote two grants and Xilinx awarded us $15,000 and, just recently, $20,000!

Thanks to Xilinx’s generosity, we are funding university scholarships for 12 of our alumni boarding at Leadership Academy in Phnom Penh. Further, their funding will allow us to create a localized version of Leadership Academy—advanced after-school STEAM classes, career counseling, leadership training, and community service activities--for 30 alumni attending high school.

Holly’s work and Xilinx’s choice to support our educational programs will make a lasting difference in the lives of our students. Thank you so much for such a special holiday gift!

***Speaking of giving, the CARES Act allows individuals and couples who do not itemize to deduct $300 and $600 respectively. Please consider donating to your favorite charities before the yearend.

One example of a worthy cause: We read in the San Jose Mercury about Lorena Martinez’s overcoming many recent tragedies to help her 18-year-old son Alex who is disabled due to a bicycle accident at 14 when his chain broke and his handlebars punctured his intestines. During surgery, he went without oxygen for a time, crippling his movement and speech.

In 2016, Austin’s father Christopher died after months in Lorena’s care tending to his illness. After her father’s death in 2014, Lorena became her mother’s caregiver, tending to her dementia and cancer. And Leonora’s older daughter left her two daughters in Lorena’s care during rehabilitation efforts and then died in 2019.

Click on the following link to read more and donate: https://wishbook.mercurynews.com/wishes/2021-echunger