MORNING: HELPING SARASOTA SENIORS

Sarasota is full of lonely seniors, often isolated from Northern family and friends and in dire need of health care and other basic services. This Monday morning, Stewart Stearns, president and CEO of the Community Foundation, vice president of programs Wendy Hopkins and grants committee chair Sophia LaRusso meet with Alex Young and Katie Knight of the United Way, along with Bob Carter and Cathy Emmett of Senior Friendship Centers, the Sarasota Manatee Jewish Federation's Howard Tevlowitz and Rose Chapman of Jewish Family and Children's Services. They're here to talk about how they can work together to coordinate health and human services for the elderly of Sarasota County.

Together they explore possible funding sources to provide homecare, mental health services and other vital programs that prevent elder abuse and exploitation, including making creative use of new gifts from Community Foundation donors who have an interest in helping the elderly. "We brought these groups together for lively dialogue and will continue to pursue a new senior initiative with real impact," says Hopkins.

"Jewish Family and Children's Services has worked successfully with the Community Foundation of Sarasota County for many years, especially when it comes to helping seniors," adds Chapman. "With the foundation in a key role, we're formulating a potential new senior initiative that can leverage resources from the Foundation, the United Way and the Sarasota Manatee Jewish Federation, and look forward to providing major support to an even greater number of needy seniors in Sarasota County."

MID-MORNING: Partnering in Education

Later in the morning, the Community Foundation and its key funding collaborators-the Community Foundation, the Selby Foundation and the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice-meet with new Sarasota school superintendent Dr. Gary Norris, associate superintendent Lori White and national consultant Dr. Ken Tewel to give Dr. Norris a briefing on the history and accomplishments of the Educational Partnership, now in its seventh year. The group has been helping the school district prioritize its needs and focus on areas ripe for attention, such as K-3 literacy, school-to-work career education and leadership development for district staff.

The funders have each been contributing $50,000 per year to the Educational Partnership-more than $1 million since 1997. Norton discusses his vision for the school system and plans for the upcoming year, including his goal to close the "achievement gap" that exists between white and minority students in the county. "The school system is so grateful for this support," says White. "The Educational Partnership has been instrumental in moving our district forward on key issues relating to student achievement. It has increased our capacity by providing necessary professional development to our staff to support systemic change."

Noon: helping Hopewell Cemetery

Few people know that Sarasota County maintains a cemetery on Bee Ridge Road east of I-75 for people who die with no money or relatives to bury them. The county provides about 10 to 20 free burials a year here, but Hopewell Cemetery has been "gently neglected" by the Parks and Recreation department, says Hopkins, resulting in a deterioration of the grounds and making it hard to accomplish burials. The Community Foundation has urged the county to clear weeds, improve the grounds and give more attention to the care and maintenance of the cemetery.

Over lunch, Stearns and Hopkins meet with John McCarthy and Shirley Amore of the county's Parks and Recreation department to talk about the need to mow the grass, trim the trees, install a fence around the front of the property, and add signage, a flagpole and an historical marker. Soon after this meeting, the county increases its supervision of Hopewell Cemetery and sends a horticulture crew there for one week to accomplish necessary improvements. The county has now made the upkeep of the cemetery a priority.

Why did the Community Foundation get involved in this project? Because a foundation donor, Mrs. Inger Bagger Stovall, read an article in the newspaper about indigent burials in the county and was moved to ask what she could do to help. When she died, Mrs. Stovall created a fund within the foundation to provide for improvements at the cemetery. Stearns and Hopkins followed up on Mrs. Stovall's wishes. Thanks to her fund, more improvements will be made in the future.

Afternoon-scholarship concerns.

Mimi Goodwill, scholarship coordinator for the Community Foundation, meets with the six volunteer committee members of the Father Connie Dougherty Scholarship Fund to interview student candidates for scholarships. The committee screens 12 applicants with the task of selecting 10 to receive $4,000 scholarships apiece. All the students are impressive; the committee looks for those who best exemplify the guidelines, set by the example of Father Connie Dougherty 29 years ago: academic excellence, visible community involvement and concern for others.