Good News Friday: Good Deeds - October 4, 2013
Generosity in the spotlight.
The Rays Baseball Foundation, the official charity of the Tampa Bay Rays, has awarded a total of $100,000 to 19 nonprofit organizations throughout the Tampa Bay region, part of the foundation’s Community Fund Grant program. Grants averaged $5,000; local recipients included Community Haven for Adults & Children with Disabilities, Inc., Early Learning Coalition of Manatee County, Inc., Manatee Children’s Services, Inc., Manatee County Family YMCA, Meals on Wheels PLUS of Manatee, Inc., the Food Bank of Manatee, the Family Network on Disabilities of Manatee/Sarasota, Inc., and the Florida Center for Early Childhood. To date, the Community Grant Fund program has awarded 150 grants totaling close to $775,000 to local charities.
All Faiths Food Bank is purchasing a new refrigerated truck, made possible through a grant of $125,000 from the Edward H. Lyman Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. This is the second truck the food bank will purchase with funds provided by Lyman.
University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee has received a grant from Tampa businessman John McKibbon’s JB McKibbon Foundation, which will help the school’s College of Hospitality and Technology Leadership (CHTL) establish the M3 Center for Hospitality Technology and Innovation; the grant will also elevate the McKibbon Hotel Management Endowed Professorship to the McKibbon Hotel Management Endowed Chair. The M3 Center will eventually allow for master’s degree students to serve as graduate assistants to CHTL. The grant is part of the school’s “USF: Unstoppable” fund-raising campaign.
The Mosaic Company Foundation plans to match all October donations, up to $50,000, for Selby Gardens. The funds will go toward the Ann Goldstein Children’s Rainforest Garden. Construction on the project, which will include interactive displays and hands-on experiences for learning about rainforest ecosystems, began in March.
Bank of America has awarded $20,000 to CareerEdge Funders Collaborative to support workforce development in the region. CareerEdge reported successes this quarter in job creation and job-readiness development, and Bank of America responded by awarding $20,000 following a grant request made earlier this year.
Yesterday, nearly 2,000 volunteers helped complete 183 projects at local social service agencies, schools and other organizations, part of the United Way Day of Caring in Sarasota, Manatee, Hillsborough, DeSoto and Pinellas counties. More than 105 companies sent employees to contribute to the projects, completing an estimated 1,500 days of work in six hours. United Way of Manatee County and United Way Suncoat partnered in the effort.
A number of local businesses are hosting a motorcycle poker run to help raise funds for the daughters of Ernie Bernal, who recently died in a motorcycle accident. The event is tomorrow, Oct. 5, starting at Peggy’s Corral in Palmetto at noon (registration at 10 a.m.). Additional locations include River Roo, Beef O’Brady’s in Lakewood Ranch, Tink’s, and Ace’s in Bradenton. Tickets are $15 per person or $20 per couple, and all proceeds will go to a trust fund for the two girls. For more information contact Tina Fletcher, (941) 348-0353.
Fleet Feet Sports Sarasota has donated dozens of sports bras, socks and sports apparel to the Resurrection House, a day resource center for the homeless in Sarasota. The donation is part of an ongoing effort to re-allocate new and gently used merchandise to benefit the area’s homeless.
Carol Ann Kalish, a shareholder with the law firm of Williams Parker, was recently recognized by the Sarasota County Bar Association for her service to the community, including her time as chair of the Center for Building Hope, her family’s annual Christmas morning visits to the pediatric unit of Sarasota Memorial Hospital, her board service at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School and the Cotillion Club of Sarasota, and her support for the American Health Lawyers Association and the Health Law section of the Florida Bar. Kalish chairs Williams Parker’s litigation practice and is a member of the firm’s health law group.