Year-End Highlights

The Olden Bears had a roaring-good year in 2025!

New Members: We integrated three new members: Eric Eisenman, Bess Gurman and  Larry Baer.

Understanding Needs: We enjoyed an afternoon series of meetings at Berkeley and met with the new Dean of the School of Journalism, Michael Bolden, and Professor John Matsui, the Director and Co-Founder of the Biology Scholars Program (BSP). We also met with Elizabeth Friedman Branoff, the executive Director for Development of the UCB Library.  She spoke to us about the need to preserve the priceless library collections.  Biology Scholars Program (BSP):  Professor Matsui and five of his outstanding students told us of the value of BSP. BSP developed as a mentoring and student development program. Today, more than 3,500 undergraduates from low-income, first family member-to-college, and minority and ethnic backgrounds have participated in BSP.  We are proud that the Olden Bears provided this outstanding and deserving program with a $95,000 gift.  

Basic Needs Center: We visited the Basic Needs Center, including the Food Bank, located in the MLK Jr Student Union.  Since that visit, the Olden Bears continued to support the Basic Needs with gifts totaling more than $56,000.

Golden Buddies Program: In May of 2025, the Olden Bears sponsored the Golden Buddies program. Six Olden Bear members volunteered their time at this great event. In 2024, 100 youth participated in the Golden Buddies Program and, in 2025, over 150 attended. The Golden Buddies Program is a collaborative initiative involving Cal football players, the Cameron Institute, the Special Olympics of Northern California, and Exceptional Sports (e-sports). The free clinic allows students ages 6-13, some with disabilities, to participate in a day of football drills and sports education at identified and fully staffed stations. Participants had the chance to connect with Golden Bear football players, who ran drill stations, encouraging the young athletes along the way. The Clinic empowers youth through sports while providing a fun, supportive environment.

Looking forward: We all hope that 2026 will be another inspiring year guided by many of the Olden Bears’  gifts and generous contributions to the University of California.Help us raise awareness of our mission and programs by sharing our website, social media pages, and events with your friends, family, and colleagues.

We should all be proud of 2024's work! 

Olden Bear Development: We continue to meet on the third Wednesday of the month on a zoom call at 6pm. The calls focus on what we are doing and why we are doing this work. The collaboration has been fantastic. Usually, five to nine people are on the call. These calls bind us together and really give meaning to our work as well as providing context for our actions. 

Community Impact: Overall, the Olden Bears have provided nearly $500,000 to the causes we support and have truly made a difference in many lives. We end the year with a bit more than $40,000 in our account and will raise more funds this coming year.

This year we supported the following funds:

Berkeley Hope Scholars: We provided this program (https://hope.berkeley.edu/home) with $92,500, representing a 15% increase over last year's funding. Please see the thank you note at the end of this update.

Cal Basketball: Supported Cal's Basketball transfer Mady Sissoko and his work through the Mali Foundation with $24,000. Also, donated $15,000 to the UC Berkeley Men's Basketball Excellence Fund.

Cal Journalism School: Provided $15,000 to the Berkeley Journalism Summer Intern Fund.

Cal Law School: Gave $2,500 to this fund.

Fiat Lux Scholarship: In 2023, we funded our 2022 pledge of $100K toward scholarships through the Fiat Lux Scholarship program at Cal.  Our pledge received a matching $100K grant from the Haas Family Foundation. Our program targets first-generation college students. In 2024, our funding supported our first student and we expect the fund to provide about $7K per year into perpetuity for scholarships. helping generations of Fiat Lux Scholars. The past year's Olden Bears Fiat Lux Scholarship supported Vy Ly and the distribution was $3.3K. This is estimated to grow and provide a payout above $5K this year.  This year the Olden Bear Fiat Lux Scholarship supports two students: Daniel Rodriguez Sotelo (Genetics & Plant Biology), and Amani Woodridge (Undeclared). 

Previous Year Funding: Our first contributions were to the Alameda County Community Food Bank, Berkeley Food Pantry, Basic Needs, Intercept Poverty. Intercept Poverty is a program founded by Cal football’s Elijah Hicks. We also donated to the fundraising efforts for food purchases at Oakland’s Burckhalter Elementary School, an effort led by Cal football's Marcel Dancy. The Olden Bears also made direct contributions to the Cal Athletic Department as well as the Cameron Institute, providing student-athletes with life skills.

Thank you all for this exciting and rewarding 2024 year!