Dear friend of El Buen,

The Holiday Season is around the corner, and embedded in our celebrations are the values of love, joy, happiness and family. For us at El Buen Samaritano Episcopal Mission, it means helping families, who would otherwise miss out on experiencing the joy and spirit of the season. Learn about our upcoming annual Breakfast with Santa event.

As the year comes to a close, we have much to look forward to in 2012, a critical year in the history of El Buen Samaritano, not only because we celebrate our 25 years of service to Austin's Latino community, but because we'll have the honor of sharing with our friends and partners our strategic plan for the next five years at our Gala de Esperanza. However, we can't unveil our future without first sharing with you our accomplishments in 2011:

The continued growth of our population and increase in the number of uninsured individuals was felt at El Buen Samaritano's Wallace Mallory Clinic, which saw a 19-percent increase in the number of patient visits, and kicked off its ¡Viva la Salud! initiative, designed to promote wellness and disease prevention among Latinos in Central Texas. ¡Viva la Salud! made its first appearance at Univision Austin's Feria de Salud (Health Fair), where staff and volunteers provided close to 2,000 free screenings to 875 patients.

In April 2011, El Buen Samaritano launched ¡Salud Hoy!, a program designed to provide effective weight-management techniques for overweight or at-risk children and their families. To date, the program has impacted more than 80 families.

Outdoor Kids, allowed 130 youth to learn about nature survivor skills, plant and animal wildlife, nature conservation and more. The program prepares youth for El Ranchito, a week-long summer nature immersion program made possible through a collaborative with the Westcave Preserve. Through these efforts, El Buen Samaritano recently received the E. Lee Walker Award for Collaboration by the Children in Nature Collaborative of Austin.

Hunger is a real concern for thousands of Austin-area families. El Buen Samaritano's year-round basic needs program provided food assistance to a monthly average of 1,300 individuals, who, due to unfortunate circumstances, were not able to make ends meet. And on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, El Buen Samaritano held its 21st Annual Hands for Hope Thanksgiving Event, which provided Thanksgiving Care Packages to 1,400 families in need. That's 200 more than last year!

With increased demand for services, our volunteer program has expanded. We had the help of 558 volunteers--an 18-percent increase from the year before!

A total of 1,137 students went through El Buen's adult English as a Second Language program; and close to 338 children completed the Child Learning Center's preliteracy curriculum.

On behalf of El Buen Samaritano and the families we serve, I'd like to thank you for your continued investment in our mission of hope. These accomplishments would have been impossible without your help. Furthermore, El Buen would never be able to fulfill its mission without the extraordinary efforts of its friends, volunteers and partners.

As we celebrate 25 years of El Buen Samaritano's mission of hope, I invite you to learn about our upcoming Gala de Esperanza. You have made it possible for El Buen Samaritano to reach this monumental moment in our history, and such history is best honored in the presence of those who have made the fulfillment of our mission possible through the years. I hope to see you at our Gala de Esperanza in April, as we come together to honor our history and unveil our future.

Wishing you the best this Holiday Season,

Victor Azios, Executive Director