This past holiday season students from Granada Hills Charter High School were so occupied with giving that they didn’t have time to daydream about their own Christmas presents. Nearly 180 students from the charter school participated in a letter-writing campaign that raised $6,624 for “Believe,” a fundraiser created by Macy’s Inc. of Cincinnati to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America. The students, members of the schools DECA chapter, rallied thousands of volunteers to write letters to deliver to Macy’s in the Northridge Fashion Center. DECA Inc. is a national program based in Reston, Va. that mentors emerging business leaders and entrepreneurs. The students collected 3,312 letters to contribute to the fundraiser for Make-A-Wish, an organization based in Los Angeles that grants wishes to children diagnosed with life-threatening conditions. Through the Believe initiative, Macy’s donated $1 to the foundation for every handwritten letter to Santa Claus received. And Macy’s donated $2 for every letter submitted by Dec. 12. “The advisors really tried to keep their hands off the experience,” said Andrew Nelson, Granada Hills Charter High School DECA advisor. “The idea was to show students how to innovate and generate ideas (to) promote entrepreneurial instincts and skills.” Golf and Give California United Bank, a subsidiary of CU Bancorp in Encino, raised more than $200,000 for four local charities during its eigth Annual Golf Tourney. The proceeds of the Sept. 29 tournament, which were tallied last month, will benefit the Boys & Girls Club of West Valley, Casa Pacifica, Western Youth Services and Support for Harbor Women’s Lives. “The beneficiaries are typically children or family-based charities,” said Rich Hernandez, president of California United Bank. “It’s a program started by bank volunteers and customer support (and is a) very home grown type of event. It really does cover the greater L.A. area.” Hernandez said the amount raised at the tournament was the second largest amount ever. The high-priced event consisted of competitive rounds of golf, auction items, dinner and entertainment. Hernandez said the event was so highly anticipated that they had to turn people away, a trend that has taken place the last four years. The fundraiser started in 2005 as an effort to raise money for the Boys & Girls Club of West Valley, which was suffering financially at the time. To date the campaign has raised more than $1.4 million for a variety of local charitable organizations. Laurie Whalen-Martinez, president of Support for Harbor Women’s Lives, said her organization will benefit greatly from the money. “We run a very strict program with education groups so this money will allow us to continue providing those groups at the shelter,” she said. “It has been a blessing.” The San Pedro-based non-profit, founded in 1990, is a six-month addiction recovery program for women. The program offers educational courses, counseling services and workforce training for their clients, in hopes that their clients will enroll in school or join the workforce upon finishing the program. Getting Active Cal State University Northridge is working to combat childhood obesity by participating in the Coordinated Approach to Child Health, or CATCH project. Several students from the university’s Kinesiology Department are partnering with Dignity Health Northridge Hospital Center to promote fitness at local elementary schools. The hospital recently received a $290,000 grant from UniHealth Foundation, a private health care foundation in Los Angeles, allowing it to renew its program for the 2014-2015 academic year. Under the program, Cal State Northridge students have been teaching physical education classes to 1,200 students at Canoga Park and Hart Street elementary schools. “We’re trying to get them to see, when you get children moving, it complements what they’re doing in the classroom,” said Terry Sweeting, a Cal State Northridge kinesiology professor who helped coordinate the program, in a prepared statement. “This is part of the whole child and the learning experience.” If deemed successful, the CATCH program will continue next year with funding from Dignity Health, the San Francisco non-profit that owns the Northridge hospital. Staff Reporter Champaign Williams can be reached at (818) 316-3121 or [email protected].