Summer Ends with 250 Backpacks for ICAN Youth Thanks to Chandler Compadres & Chandler Community

August 1, 2012

Summer has come to an end after spending our first 2 months in the brand new ICAN Lon E. Hoeye Youth Center! It’s been an amazing transition from our old facility to the new, which offers three times more space. Through the summer ICAN youth numbers increased to an average of 300 a day; that’s 300 youth participating in our youth programs that build leadership and life skills and prevent youth substance abuse, gang activity and juvenile delinquency.

The end of summer was marked with our annual luau celebration on July 20, where 250 youth got to spend the day participating in crafts, dancing, and more fun! Throughout the day there were appearances from Spongebob Squarepants and Muno from Yo Gabba Gabba who hosted a dance party in our gym. Youth were extremely excited and had many more visitors from volunteers like the Flower Girls, Intel, and Bank of America. The day ended with a treat, every youth received a backpack full of essential school supplies for academic success from the Chandler Compadres. For the last 3 years, the Chandler Compadres have donated backpacks with the community helping to fill them up.

Thanks to everyone who made the Pack-a-Backpack Drive such a success including Chandler Compadres, 360 Vantage, Avnet, AlphaGraphics of Gilbert, Bank of America, Bernard’s Builders, Big Two Toyota-Scion of Chandler, Chasse Building Team, Edward Jones, The Hungry Monk, PayPal, Microchip, Tasti D-Lite Chandler & Chandler United Methodist Church.

Here are a few photo highlights from the day: (View the full album on the ICAN Facebook)