The Salvation Army San Francisco center is a state licensed [speaker not understood] recovery program. At any given time upwards of 200 people are here onsite, go through the program and get their life back together. Our residential capacity is 106 single adults with up to 30 families and up to 52 kids with those families. Youre not likely to find many treatment programs with Child Care Program and also a licensed detox facility, but we have them here. We are truly a place for new beginnings and we have been that place at this location for 40 years. All those years weve been celebrating thanksgiving with our friends. As evidence of our thanksgiving history, i have these photos. Some of you have already recognized Dianne Finestein before she was mayor. She was on the board of supervisors, i think. Even before that, the gentleman in the middle uniform there is my grandfather who was the executive director here before i was born. So, weve been doing this at least 50 years, a long time. It
All of our wonderful bureaucracy to help open us up even more. Thats, of course, our director of the red cross. Harold. Come on up, harold. applause now that i know im a city employee, im hoping for a big pay raise. [laughter] you know, any time youre in a room with ed lee, you know that there are going things going on. What a wonderful leader he is for the city of San Francisco and the entire bay area. Were so very fortunate to have in this the best place on the planet, some of the best leaders on the planet, without any question. I got a call from Joaquin Torres saying ed lee wanted me to be part of this program. I told my wife, well start vacation later. [laughter] i am honored absolutely to be a part of this. When i am in the room with janice and Cecil Williams and rita semmel, its hard to get better than that. I mean, these are people who have shown us the way, how to lead, how to put that compassion to very good work. So, i am honored to be here to say i want to make sure that al
The Advisory Board, Advisory Councilmembers who are with us today, Harbor Light Advisory Council chairman jim ayers. Right over there. applause harbor light and chinatown core Advisory Council lilly chin. Hey, lilly. Chairman of the Salvation Army metro Advisory Board and Harbor Light Center Advisory Councilmember, you all know him, pete ratto. applause hey, pete. And introduce our volunteers and vips, San Francisco city ask county, the honorable mayor ed lee. [cheering and applauding] from the San Francisco Police Department, the chief of course, greg. And the San Francisco Police Department command staff. [cheering and applauding] the San Francisco Fire Department. With chief joanne hayes white, San Francisco fire Department Command staff. [cheering and applauding] were not there yet. A little anxious. [laughter] where was i here . United states army, Deputy Commanding officers of the pacific division, colonel petty stratford, senior officer staff. [cheering and applauding] San Franc
applause . applause . Thank you guys so much for that beautiful performance can we give them another round of applause . applause . All the this time if i can ask mr. Joaquin torrez to join us again on stage, joaquin will be introducing the mayor and if i can ask my fellow Committee Members to also join us on stage. Joaquin. Thank you very much i have to say as director the mayors oches of Neighborhood Services its refreshing to have a mayor so dedicated to couldnt and it makes my job easier when our people in the Community Want to feel our elected efficients make our needs and its in physical presence and i have had the great pleasure of serving under our mayor lee who i would like to make a invite to make a few remarks in honor or of arab heritage month here in San Francisco. Thank you, thank you joaquin, thank you, welcome to our orange city hall. I want to welcome everybody here this fourthth animal america arab month of separation and its my pleasure to join us here and many of us
Its just great to have each one of you here. All of the volunteers working so hard and all of our volunteers up here who will soon be working hard. And we just thank you for coming together to help the people who will receive these meals tomorrow morning. Were going to start with a word of prayer and then were going to continue on. Heavenly father, we just thank you for this time and thank you for all the people who have come together today. And as we think about thanksgiving, we think about all the blessings that youve given to us. And we praise your name, lord, and we thank you for the opportunity that we have to give to other people during this time of the year. So, we just pray that you would bless this time together and pray these things in jesus name, amen. Amen. And now, ladies and gentlemen, id like to introduce to you our executive director [speaker not understood]. applause the Salvation Army San Francisco center is a state licensed [speaker not understood] recovery program.