Small nonprofit organizations learn early to say please and thank you. The Pythian Youth Foundation is pleased to share the friendship of and say thank you to Alex Veronas, who not only donated a $6,000 stainless-steel freezer, but also delivered it 380 miles to the Pythian Youth Camp in the Sequoia National Forest, and installed it. Veronas owns and operates Alex Restaurant Supply at 1133 E. Wardlow Avenue in Long Beach.
A longtime Long Beach businessperson, Veronas said that the donation was an easy decision for him; it was an opportunity to make a difference in the life of a child. Like businesses, children only survive when enough people care. His donation of a high-quality refrigeration system replaced an old freezer at the Pythian Youth Camp, which the foundation operates. The foundation, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit corporation, has provided more than 600 free camping scholarships to children from Long Beach and Signal Hill over the past ten years.
The camp is a legacy left to California’s at-risk urban youth by the late President Harry S. Truman, who set aside 19 acres of federal land in the Sequoias for youth to play, learn, and reconnect with nature. The Pythian Youth Camp is at an elevation of 7,000 feet, and it operated in partnership with the US Forest Service.
Last year, the Foundation partnered with the Downtown Long Beach YMCA to send 35 youth to camp for seven days. The camp is one of the few wilderness camps in California that is accredited by the American Camping Association. It operates between mid-June and September each year and serves approximately 300 youth between 9 and 11 years of age each camping season. The Foundation depends on community businesses, corporations, special events, and friends like Alex Veronas for its support.
For information about the camp, or ways you might help, call me at (562) 881-0165 or email pythianyouthcamp@earthlink.net.
Thomas White
Executive Director
Pythian Youth Foundation
