Auctioneer Zack Krone engages guests at the Champions’ Luncheon in Temecula that helped celebrate the 40th anniversary of Rancho Damacitas. Valley News/Courtesy photo
Rancho Damacitas Children & Family Services, founded in 1983 as Thessalonika Family Services, was started as a foster home for young girls removed from their homes due to severe abuse and neglect. As the needs of the children grew, so did the organization. More foster homes were added until land was purchased outside Temecula to build a residential campus. In 1988, construction began for what people would soon come to know as “Rancho Damacitas.”“As a residential treatment program, our mission was to provide a normalized experience for children that were in the foster care system due to neglect and abuse,” board member Joseph Gray said. “Although these children required an intensive treatment program, our goal was to provide them with as close to a normalized experience as
