Our President’s Message

Welcome to Our Website:

As members of Assistance League® of Victor Valley, we are dedicated, enthusiastic, “hands-on” volunteers, with no paid employees, meeting the needs of our High Desert community for over 40 years.

Assistance League volunteers through their flexibility, innovation, and resiliency have excelled at fulfilling our commitment to the Victor Valley community. Thanks to the determined efforts of our members, and generous community support, we were able to fund all of our philanthropic programs. We held an extremely successful “Sock it to ‘Em” mail campaign, exceeded our goal for grant funds, held a very successful Spring Fundraiser (Come Fly With Us to the Fabulous ‘50s), and continued to serve our customers in the Thrift Shop three days a week.

During the period June 1, 2022, to May 31, 2023, the Chapter accomplished the following:

Operation School Bell®-We spent $144,168.54 on clothing and grooming kits.  We clothed 1,343 students during 22 shopping events at Target and JCPenney’s.  In addition, we fulfilled 17 requests for specific items such as coats and underwear.  We clothed students from all eight school districts in the High Desert: Adelanto Unified, Hesperia Unified, Victor Elementary, Victor Union High School, Helendale, Oro Grande, Apple Valley Unified, and Lucerne Valley Unified.  This brings our total since 1987 to over 35,000 students.

Literacy Awards – $500 awards were given to new teachers to buy classroom sets of books at Galileo Academy. Vanguard Preparatory, Mariana Academy, and Apple Valley High School. We estimate that this will affect 540 students over the next three years.

Science and Technology Awards – $500 awards were given to Lucerne Valley Elementary, Vanguard Preparatory, Galileo Academy, Sycamore Rocks, Cobalt Institute for Math and Science, and Dr. Ralph H. Baker 21st Century Learning Center. We estimate that this will affect 450 students over the next three years.

Young Authors – We will be paying to bind 397 books for the following schools in Snowline Joint Unified School District: Elementary – Wrightwood, Baldy Mesa, Phelan, and Heritage elementary; Middle – Pinon Hills and Quail Valley middle; and Snowline Academy.  We are very excited to be supporting this program again after many years of it not being utilized.

Outreach-Purchased $10,500 worth of food for Apple Valley Family Center, Hesperia Family Center, and Victorville Elementary Family Center to supply their families who are in need.  We estimate this will benefit 646 students and families.

Moving Forward-We partnered with Family Assistance Program. They maintain three houses and a drop-in center in the High Desert that are designed for 18–24-year-olds who are no longer in foster care, state custody, or left due to unsafe home conditions. We have purchased and delivered household items for these homes and plan to support their Tiny Home Village, being built in Old Town Victorville, soon.

Operation Hug-The committee continues to deliver two bags of 15 bears to our three local hospitals (Providence St. Mary’s Medical Center, Desert Valley Hospital, and Victor Valley Global Medical Center). Approximately 800 bears were delivered this year.

Action Week! was an enormous success.  We once again distributed literacy kits to 65 kindergarten teachers at 15 schools. A total of 1,650 books were gifted to students through this program.  The kits included a Dr Seuss DVD, BINGO game, and bookmark, and best of all a new book that focused on wholesome, positive topics and values.by providing books, DVDs, and bookmarks to 43 schools throughout the High Desert that in turn provided books to more than 2,300 students.

Assault Survivor Kits®– We delivered 24 kits to Partners Against Violence that contained clothing and personal grooming items for victims of sexual assault when their clothing was retained as evidence in potential criminal investigations.

Our Assisteens® Auxiliary was comprised of 25 Assisteens from 11 different schools.  They logged a total of 865 hours of volunteer hours.  They put together 150 large duffle bags and 60 plush queen size blankets to Apple Valley and Victor Valley family resource centers.  These duffle bags include full size shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, razors, shaving cream, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, personal products, and socks. Feedback from the center has been very positive.  The teens love the beautiful bags and products included.

We have touched many lives and I am grateful be a part of this exceptional organization. We will strive to continue to make a difference in our community through our signature programs and are always looking for partners with whom we can work on new ones.

If you have a caring heart, time to give, and a desire to serve others, we invite you to join us and be about the business of “Transforming Lives • Strengthening Community”. Please look through the pages on this website to learn more about our chapter and the wonderful programs we provide.

For further information, please contact Carol Duffey, our Membership Chairman, at membership@assistanceleaguevv.org.

Sylvia Morrison, President