For the second year in a row, the nearly two-dozen staff at Re/Max Executive in Manteca are stepping up to the plate to help the hundreds of homeless students attending various schools in Manteca Unified.

The wine and cheese tasting event will be held, also for the second time, at Delicato Family Vineyards from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24. Tickets are $20 per person which will also cover the catered food plus dessert. There will be tickets available at the door the day of the event, said Cheryl McFall, Re/Max Executive manager who oversees 17 agents and two staff at the office located in the office building at the northwest corner of West Center Street and Union Road. The office is located at Suite 203 on the second floor.

Several members of Manteca Unified’s Health Services are expected to attend including Caroline Thibodeau, the department’s director.

“She will talk about how the program works,” McFall said, referring to the ongoing efforts by the Health Services department to provide different types of assistance to the district’s homeless students including clothes and school supplies.

McFall said they are hoping to duplicate, if not surpass, the $1,500 that they generated last year when they started the fund-raiser. The proceeds will be presented to the school district during a Board of Trustees meeting.

Re/Max Executive went into action when they learned about some school children in Manteca Unified living in cars and in other people’s homes.

“That came to our attention and we, in our office, wanted to do something about it,” McFall said.

Her staff provides all the food by pooling together money to buy the catered food. Delicato provides the venue for the wine and cheese tasting at no charge.

“It’s really something that our agents look forward to,” McFall said of the fund-raiser.

Other individuals and business groups in the community who have heard about what Re/Max has been doing for the homeless students “through our clients and friends and social networking” have stepped forward as well to be part of the philanthropic effort, she added.

“Some companies have donated something (for the drawing) like flower arrangements, theme baskets,” McFall said.

There are nearly 700 homeless students scattered throughout the more than two-dozen elementary and high school campuses in the district, according to figures from the 2012-13 school year.  Some are living in cars. Others are staying in motels. Still others are “doubling up” with relatives or other families because of financial reasons. They are “kids (who) are bounced around a lot,” with their meager belongings contained in a pillow case that is their “personal suitcase, according to Thibodeau during an interview in June 2012.

For further details about the fund-raising event, call Re/Max Executive at (209) 239-7653.