SAN DIEGO, June 24, 2011 Continuing nearly a decade of ongoing support, Bluepoint Solutions, a Vista-based company offering item capture and payment processing solutions for credit unions and banks, and its CEO, Hal Tilbury, are challenging the Southern California region to a donation match program in support of Monarch School, the San Diego public K-12 school for children impacted by homelessness. Bluepoint Solutions and the Tilbury family are matching community donations made before Sept. 23, the first day of autumn, up to $500,000. In total, the donation challenge aims to raise a combined $1 million.

The $500,000 match is spearheaded by Tilbury, whose company will match the first $250,000 and is personally matching the remaining $250,000 with his wife, Yolanda. As a constant supporter and former Board member of Monarch School, Tilbury recognized the need for additional funding to help build the new campus, and decided to challenge the community to double the donation.

“Homelessness is on the rise in San Diego and I believe we all have an obligation to help these children who, through no fault of their own, are in this situation,” said Tilbury.  “There is no better gift than education and no better way to break the cycle of homelessness. I truly hope the community will rise to the challenge and help build Monarch’s new campus.”

In addition to this matching challenge, Bluepoint Solutions adopted Monarch School five years ago committing to ongoing support. The company donates five percent of its annual net profits, matches all employee donations throughout the year, and provides paid-time-off for staff to volunteer at the school, many of whom go regularly. Going beyond just financial support, Bluepoint Solutions also sponsors Monarch School’s annual Mother’s Day party, donates dresses for the school’s prom and provide a monthly dinner for both students and parents.

Funds from the Donation Match program will be used to build Monarch School’s new campus that will break ground this fall in the East Village- Barrio Logan area of Downtown San Diego, just south of Petco Park. The new campus will allow Monarch School to serve more than double its current student population.

“Ask any student how they like Monarch, and their response will be that this school is their home,” said Jim McMillan, president of the Monarch School Board of Directors.  “We are providing so much more than an education; we are providing a home and stability. With the generous support of Bluepoint Solutions and Hal Tilbury, we will soon be expanding to the new campus and able to help even more students. For that, we are so grateful.”

For more information about Monarch School or to make a donation, visit http://monarchschools.org/news-events/latest-news-events or call (619) 685-8242.

About Monarch School:

Founded in 1988, Monarch School, located in downtown San Diego, is a public K-12 school exclusively for students who are at-risk and impacted by homelessness. Monarch School represents a unique public-private partnership between the San Diego County Office of Education and the Monarch School Project, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. Today, more than 175 students between the ages of four and 19 are enrolled. Monarch School’s committed team of educators, support staff and volunteers is dedicated to providing homeless and at-risk children with an accredited education while caring for their basic needs. Monarch School will break ground on its new campus in downtown San Diego in fall 2011. For more information, visit http://monarchschools.org or call (619) 685-8242, ext. 227.

“We feel it is important to give back to the community throughout the year, but especially during the holiday season. Hal Tilbury, our CEO and Founder, first suggested a company sponsored blood drive last year.  With the fantastic success of the two drives we’ve held over the past year, our team felt we could continue to make an impact and potentially inspire others in the community to donate as well,” said Anastasia Tilbury, HR Specialist for Bluepoint Solutions.

“Thank you to everyone who participated in the blood and food drive. The need for blood is constant and blood donors are crucial for a healthy and reliable blood supply. We hope that our example will motivate others to donate!  Whether through a blood drive, food drive or volunteerism of any kind, it is an amazing feeling knowing that you’ve helped change a life,” added Tilbury.

Bluepoint’s summer Casual Dress Campaign to benefit the Monarch School netted significant donations from employees.  Our accomplishments for July include 8 days of completed volunteer service and 251 donated items, comprised of clothing, cash and gift cards.  Our accomplishments for August far exceeded the July results with 19 days of completed volunteer service and 603 donated items.

Since our semi-annual sales meeting took place here in August, the Bluepoint sales team was able to participate in the campaign. All 15 members of the sales team, along with 4 from other departments, volunteered to participate in the August 16dinner that Bluepoint sponsored for the Monarch School.  Our volunteers prepared the menu, grocery shopped for ingredients, plus cooked and served the students, families and staff at the school.  Everyone pitched in to make delicious sloppy joes from scratch.  A great meal and a fulfilling event for everyone involved!

Bluepoint’s employees have already exceeded the company’s yearly goal for donations and service to the Monarch School, its designated charity, with four more months left to go.  Year-to-date, the results are impressive: 103 completed days of volunteer service with an incredible 1,612 donated items, 300 more than our total donated items for all of last year.  Congratulations to everyone for this fantastic effort!

Bluepoint’s summer Casual Dress Campaign to benefit the Monarch School netted significant donations from employees. Our accomplishments for July include 8 days of completed volunteer service and 251 donated items, comprised of clothing, cash and gift cards. Our accomplishments for August far exceeded the July results with 19 days of completed volunteer service and 603 donated items.

Since our semi-annual sales meeting took place here in August, the Bluepoint sales team was able to participate in the campaign. All 15 members of the sales team, along with 4 from other departments, volunteered to participate in the August 16dinner that Bluepoint sponsored for the Monarch School. Our volunteers prepared the menu, grocery shopped for ingredients, plus cooked and served the students, families and staff at the school. Everyone pitched in to make delicious sloppy joes from scratch. A great meal and a fulfilling event for everyone involved!

Bluepoint’s employees have already exceeded the company’s yearly goal for donations and service to the Monarch School, its designated charity, with four more months left to go. Year-to-date, the results are impressive: 103 completed days of volunteer service with an incredible 1,612 donated items, 300 more than our total donated items for all of last year.  Congratulations to everyone for this fantastic effort!

When: Saturday, May 8, 12:00- 2:00 p.m. PT

Founded in 1988, Monarch School and its committed team of teachers, administrators and volunteers are dedicated to providing homeless and at-risk children with an accredited education while caring for their basic needs. Today, more than 160 children between the ages of four and 19 are enrolled at Monarch School.

Bluepoint Solutions, a Vista, Calif.-based technology provider for credit unions and banks, has supported Monarch School for 4.5 years. The company organizes an ongoing clothing drive and matches all employee contributions. In addition, each Bluepoint employee volunteers his or her time to assist with dinners and other needs of the school.

Bluepoint Solutions is sending a contingent of employees, relatives and friends to Monarch School to honor mothers and mother-figures of homeless children.
The Mother’s Day Luncheon will consist of a two-hour buffet for mothers and their children.

Planned activities include:

• Buffet luncheon prepared and served by Bluepoint volunteers;
• A fun, decorated atmosphere with music and other festivities;
• A presentation of appreciation by the school addressed to the mothers;
• A small gift and rose presented to each mother;
• Roaming photographers, able to print photos on-site of mothers with their children; and
• A craft station where children can make Mother’s Day cards.

Bluepoint CEO and founder, Hal Tilbury, is a regular donor with his rare blood type and suggested a company-sponsored drive earlier in the year. Before sending a Blood Mobile on-site, The Red Cross requires a minimum number of blood donation appointments. So Bluepoint started promoting the drive in mid-November, both internally and externally, by distributing flyers to the surrounding business community. After our team secured the minimum number of appointments, we were able to schedule the Blood Mobile Blood Drive on December 16th. The Blood Mobile parked in front of Bluepoint’s Vista, CA office and handled donations from 23 volunteers: 18 Bluepoint employees, 2 employee family members who joined us just for the drive and 3 donors from the surrounding business community. Those numbers included several first-time donors, all of whom successfully completed their donation.  All of our first-time donors have committed to contributing again in the future! Our HR Specialist, Anastasia Tilbury, spent the morning making Belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream; a great way to keep our blood sugar levels up!

Given the success of the event, we are pleased to schedule an additional two drives in 2010.

Meanwhile, Bluepoint employees gathered canned and packaged foods during our month long food drive for the Community Resource Center in Encinitas, CA to help with their annual Holiday Basket program. The program offers food and other essentials to North San Diego County residents in need. It served 5,464 individuals this past year, including over 3,000 children. In addition to food, the Holiday Basket program allows the Community Resource Center to distribute toiletries, bedding, diapers and clothing. Each child also receives a toy.

Bluepoint focused on collecting baby food and breakfast food, but all types of food were donated. The team enthusiastically emptied their pantries of essentials and shopped for new things, often sharing tips with each other about sale items at local stores. As a result, 165 canned and packaged foods were donated.

Thanks so much to everyone who volunteered to promote, donate and support both the blood and food drives!

One of the extra services provided for the students at Monarch School for homeless children in San Diego is a weekly “shopping day” at the school. Volunteers meet and sort through clothing that has been donated to the school and lay it out by size and type of item. Monarch students come in grade by grade while school teachers and volunteers help them find things that they like and that fit them. Any clothing that doesn’t get chosen is taken to the San Diego Rescue Mission.

Anastasia Tilbury, Human Resources Specialist at Bluepoint, shares this memory: “When I volunteered for a shopping day I was touched that the kids were picking out clothes for their siblings.”

Every year Bluepoint Solutions sets a goal for donated clothing items to the Monarch School to support this program, and raises money through individual donation and fundraisers, such as the summer “casual dress” program held in July and August of 2009. This year our goal was 800 donated items, we reached 1200 and counting.

With the cold weather upon us, Bluepoint’s focus is on warm clothing such as jackets, sweaters, hats, and even blankets, through the winter months. We hope to collect more than 100 new items before the end of the year.

The Monarch School is a year round school for homeless children between the ages of 8 and 18 in the San Diego area. At Monarch, these children receive education plus additional services such as clothing, medical, vision and dental care, laundry, showers and meals. Monarch is open 51 weeks out of the year to help these students catch up to grade level since they have often had significant breaks in their education.

During the summer months, Bluepoint Solutions raised $1,200 for Monarch School for homeless children through a creative, employee-run fundraiser. The fundraiser allowed employees to wear casual clothing to work for a $50/month prepaid or a $5/day donation. Employee participation came from both our Vista and Norcross offices, as well as team members who work remotely. Monies were donated directly to the school or used to purchase Target gift cards that will be given to the students at their annual holiday party.

Bluepoint’s goal is to enlist other companies in San Diego County to participate in similar fundraisers next summer. The Monarch board thought this was a great idea.

Bluepoint “adopted” the Monarch School in January 2005. It started with a pledge for 50 days of service, along with ongoing clothing. Bluepoint now commits 75 days of service annually to the school. The company’s most popular program is going to the school one Monday a month to prepare and serve dinner to about 30 kids and their families. As of September 15th the 2009 annual donation goal of 800 items had already been met and exceeded!

Founded in 1988, the Monarch School is a year round accredited school for homeless and at-risk children between the ages of 7 and 18 in the San Diego area. In addition to education, Monarch students’ basic needs such as food, showers, clothing and medical care are also met. The Monarch Schools’ volunteers help to provide additional programs including mentoring and tutoring programs. If you would like more information about the Monarch School please check out their website at www.monarchschools.org.

In 2006, Bluepoint Solutions “adopted” Monarch School, a school for homeless children in San Diego. For the warm months of July and August, Bluepoint Solutions has adopted a “you can wear shorts or jeans any day of the week” policy as its latest fundraiser. The rules are simple: in exchange for the privilege of dressing down to the office, employees prepay $50 each for the two months, or pay as they go at $5 per day. It has been well received by employees and has already generated much needed funds for Monarch.

This fundraiser is the brain-child of Terry Chamberlin, Bluepoint’s executive assistant and coordinator of all things fun. Bluepoint currently has several programs in place to support the Monarch School. The company and staff donate a minimum of 60 days of service and 500 plus items per year. Employees are also able to donate by automatic payroll deduction, which the company matches.

The Monarch School is a year round school for homeless children between the ages of 8 and 18 in the San Diego area. At Monarch, these children receive education plus additional services such as clothing, medical, vision and dental care, laundry, showers and meals. Monarch is open 51 weeks out of the year to help these students catch up to grade level since they have often had significant breaks in their education.