By Brian Kaiserman
Staff Writer
The Sandpipers Philanthropic Organization hosted their 24th annual Holiday Homes Tour from Dec. 2 to Dec. 4 to showcase South Bay homes decorated for the holidays.
Sandpipers is made up of all females and is a volunteer organization. The tour’s main goal is to raise money for Sandpipers so that they are able to give back to the community through different fundraisers later in the year, Director of Public Relations Gina Callari said.
“The holiday homes tour is one of the two main fundraisers hosted by Sandpipers,” Callari said. “It generates a lot of the profits which we need to help us fund other philanthropic events throughout the year.”
This year the tour consisted of four homes located in Manhattan Beach. Three of the homes were shown all three days and on the final day of the event, a bonus home was showcased.
Photos: Sandpipers Holiday Homes Tour
“All of our funds and volunteer work all goes back to the community,” Callari said. “Everybody dedicates a lot of their time and we are able to rely on a wide breadth of different women from the South Bay community to help put the event together.”
The tickets for the tours ranged in price from $30 to $35 and the proceeds will help benefit over 60 local charities. All of the proceeds went back to Sandpipers in order to fund different charitable events throughout the year.
“There are so many people in need around the community that people are unaware of and the homes tour is an amazing way to help them while also providing a wonderful experience to get people into the holiday spirit,” Callari said.
Approximately 2000 people attended the Holiday Homes Tour. Local business sponsors such as Classic Tile, Plaza Bank and Southbay magazine helped sponsor the event. The event was mainly organized by Sandpipers Director of Fall Events Tasha Gates.
Sandpipers Holiday Homes Website:
“I decided to take on my role as the head of the Holiday Homes Tour because I believe it has a major impact on our community and I thought that it was an excellent opportunity to give back,” Gates said.
The Sandpipers young members are also instrumental in helping the event run smoothly Gates says. According to Gates, their job is to inform people on the tour about certain aspects of the house of which they are touring.
“My main task was to help explain different parts of the houses being toured and also to help guide people in the right direction of the home which allowed for things to run much more efficiently,” Costa sophomore Alexandra Bedingfield said.
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