Some 20 volunteer cooks will be serving up a Cowboy Breakfast to guests and supporters of Bridge to Home at a third annual private fundraising event Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.
The entertainment comes after.
Ordinarily Frank Schiro of Stevenson Ranch runs a successful auto collision repair business in North Hollywood. Serving as team leader of the cooks rustling up food for fundraiser during the city’s Cowboy Festival, Schiro is no stranger to making breakfast.
For the past 19 years, Schiro has been a volunteer, cooking breakfast for people experiencing homelessness nearly every Saturday during the winter season when Santa Clarita’s homeless shelter is open.
And these Bridge to Home supporters belong to no particular group.
“We’re a group of community people who have been doing this for years,” said Aurora Dawn Harris. “Frank Schiro has been taking care of the food, I handle the silent auction, and my husband – who is a musician – gets musicians to play.”
“We’re supported by different churches,” Harris said. “A lot of faith-based people are involved.”
While it’s a private event, Harris said they’ll work to accommodate anyone who shows up for the fundraiser.
Head chef, Schiro began making breakfasts for the homeless before the city’s shelter opened. He is now the organizer and “kingpin of the BTH Breakfast Club volunteers,” Harris said.
Over time Schiro’s breakfast club has grown as friends, children and other fellow church goers and community members have joined to lend a helping hand.
Every Saturday morning at 6 a.m., during the winter, while other people are sleeping in or drinking coffee in bed, Harris said, Schiro’s team of early risers bustle around to cook up breakfast for the residents of Bridge to Home’s winter shelter.
The food is “served with compassion, on a cold winter’s morning, to the less fortunate,” she said.
Money to pay for the food comes from the volunteers themselves, who split the grocery costs among all the volunteers so one person doesn’t have to pay for it all.
While the volunteers mix up the menu during the winter, they plan a hearty old fashioned cowboy breakfast on Saturday for the fundraiser.
“We look forward to raising some money for this worthwhile nonprofit cause and create awareness of wonderful opportunities of love right here in our valley,” Harris said.
The third annual Cowboy Breakfast fundraiser is being held at The Honest Lawyer, 24367 Walnut Street in Old Town Newhall.
The event features Cowboy and Americana music, a photo booth, bake sale and silent auction, with all the proceeds going to Bridge to Home.
