Thunder by the Bay Festival Raises $315,000 for Suncoast Charities for Children
UnidosNow Future Leaders Academy for Middle School graduate Santiago B. and his family.
Image: Courtesy Photo
Sarasota County expects to receive a $201,535,000 allocation from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) to assist with Hurricane Ian recovery and mitigation efforts.
More than 50 young participants in UnidosNow’s Future Leaders Academies program were acknowledged for their academic successes on May 25 at the Harvest House’s Life Enrichment Campus in Sarasota. During the event, UnidosNow executive director Cintia Elenstar announced that of the group, 15 high school seniors achieved 100 percent college acceptance and collectively earned approximately $4.5 million college scholarships and grants. The graduates will attend MIT, Wake Forest, University of Portland, UF, New College, USF, Ringling College of Art, State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, among other schools.
The Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation recently approved more than $5 million in grants for 20 local nonprofits that support the community in the areas of arts and culture, early learning, student success, business development, foster care, ecological restoration, and more. Six of the grants will go toward capacity building for nonprofits to strengthen their infrastructure and, in many instances, add full-time staff.
The 25th Annual Thunder By The Bay Music & Motorcycle Festival, held this past February at the Sarasota Fairgrounds, raised a net revenue of $315,000 for Suncoast Charities for Children. This exceeded last year’s net revenue of $267,000.
Ringling College of Art and Design’s Film program has been selected as the new home of The Carl Foreman Award to honor singular achievement by a graduating student in screenwriting, directing, or producing. The award was originally created by Evelyn “Eve” Williams-Jones in 1983 in conjunction with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in memory of her late husband, Carl Foreman, a prolific screenwriter, director, and producer. Its winners include Joe Wright, Amma Asante, Belinda Bauer, Asif Kapadia, and Steve McQueen.
All Faiths Food Bank recently received two grants to support its work feeding those in need: $20,000 from the Isermann Family Foundation and $30,000 from Bank of America Charitable Foundation. These grants will support the BackPack and Mobile Pantry programs, respectively; the BackPack Program provides "backpacks" filled with kid-friendly, healthy food to take home to eat over the weekends and during school holidays, and the Mobile Pantry Program provides community members with fresh produce, meats, and groceries at sites throughout the region.
The Exchange (formerly the Woman’s Exchange) announced that it will award $500,000 to 24 regionally based arts and cultural organizations and 14 high school and college students. Additionally, five organizations are recipients of the new Elizabeth Lindsay Arts in Education grant.
Arts Advocates is pleased to announce that 11 Sarasota and Manatee county students have been awarded scholarships for the 2023-2024 school year totaling $38,500.
Last month, Samaritan Counseling Services was awarded a $25,000 grant provided by the James Franklin Warnell & Dorothy J. Warnell Fund of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County to support mental health services for uninsured and under-insured children and families in our community.
The Palm-Aire Women’s Club celebrated its 65th anniversary by distributing grants to six local charities in need of funding. They are Baby Basics, Dollar Dynasty, Healthy Teens Coalition, Hope Family Services, Mothers Helping Mothers and Second Chance Last Opportunity.
Late Venice philanthropist Joan Hrachovina recently gifted more than $1 million worth of stock to the Friends of the William H. Jervey Jr. Venice Library, a nonprofit that supports programming, materials, and services not funded through the library's operating budget. Hrachovina, 96, passed away on December 16, 2022, leaving a large number of shares of Home Depot stock to the Friends of the Venice Library. The stock was worth $1,119,647.01 upon her death, according to a receipt from the company. Hrachovina was a longtime supporter of the Friends of the Venice Library. Her regular donations were utilized to enhance programs and services provided by the library.
Neal Communities recently donated $10,600 to Take Stock in Children of Manatee County to provide a tuition-based college/technical college scholarship to a student in the Manatee County program.
The Library Foundation for Sarasota County was awarded a $10,000 Capacity Building grant from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County to support advocacy and outreach efforts. The grant will allow the Library Foundation to strengthen its online presence and provide library supporters with additional digital tools to champion Sarasota’s public libraries.
Easterseals Happiness House was awarded a grant in the amount of $2,500 from the Manatee Community Foundation to provide tuition assistance for Manatee County families with children 6-weeks to 5-years-old with disabilities, who are currently enrolled in the Lily Preschool.
