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Highlighting Jacksonville’s Philanthropic Community
As our community continues to face a tight economy and shrinking budgets, the Daily Record has established this page that will each week chronicle the efforts of local nonprofit organizations. Bailey Publishing & Communications invites all members of the local nonprofit community to submit news, announcements, success stories and any other information they feel would be of interest to our readers. E-mail to: [email protected].
We also encourage our readers to become more aware of the needs of these worthy organizations as they try to continue to provide valuable services with reduced resources.
Record donation from Friends to library
Friends of the Jacksonville Public Library presented a $200,000 check to the library, proceeds of FJPL book sales this year. Books were sold at two Great Jacksonville Book Sales at the Fairgrounds, the Saturday Morning Bookstore at University Park Library and online sales.
The money will be used to enhance the library’s budget.
FJPL President Harry Reagan said the donation is the result of a lot of hard work by volunteers.
“I’m proud of the volunteers who helped make this possible,” said Reagan. “We work very hard to raise money for the Library.”
Reagan also said most of the money came from two Great Jacksonville Book Sales at the Fairgrounds. FJPL is already preparing for the next Big Sale at the Fairgrounds March 5-7.
Library Director Barbara Gubbin said, “We are so grateful to the Friends for their commitment to the Library. Holding a second book sale this past October further demonstrates the Friends’ dedication to ensuring the library can maintain its quality services to the community.”
Feeding families for the holidays
This year, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Operation Blessing International (OBI) will mark a decade of joining forces at their annual charity event, a food distribution that will provide thousands of struggling Jacksonville families with much-needed food just in time for the holidays.
Tomorrow OBI, Jacksonville Jaguars’ Alumni Ambassadors and more than 250 corporate volunteers from Wachovia will be on hand in the early morning hours at A. Philip Randolph Park to pack and later distribute thousands of grocery bags of fresh items and shelf-stable foods including apple bites and bagged salad from Chiquita and Fresh Express, spaghetti through the American Italian Pasta Company and canned vegetables from Allens Inc. to community families in need.
The Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation also contributed a $5,000 grant to purchase additional shelf-stable products.
“With unemployment currently over 10 percent, record numbers of Americans are struggling just to feed their families,” said Kathryn Blevins, procurement account manager for OBI.
In the past 10 years of this event it has helped more than 25,000 families by distributing 820,000 pounds, 27 truckloads, of products. That amounts to more than 50,000 grocery bags of fresh and shelf-stable food and 11,000 goodie bags for children.
This year’s sponsors also include The Bethel Baptist Institutional Church and PRI Productions.
Founded in 1978, Operation Blessing International has touched the lives of more than 215 million people in more than 105 countries and 50 states, providing goods and services valued at more than $2.1 billion to date.
Iberia Bank matches donations for local charity
IBERIABANK has launched a campaign called “Change is Good” to benefit a local charity this holiday season.
Drop off a donation at any of the bank’s three branches in Jacksonville Beach, San Marco or Mandarin by Dec. 31 and it will be matched by IBERIABANK and then donated to the American Lung Association in Jacksonville.
“We are excited about this opportunity to collect loose pocket change and turn it into a real investment in our community,” said Karen Hughes, vice president and manager of the Jacksonville Beach branch.”Partnering with a local nonprofit organization like the American Lung Association and supporting the communites we serve is very important to us and our clients. We encourage everyone to stop in one of our Jacksonville area branches to participate.”
IBERIABANK Corporation is headquartered in Lafayette, La. and has 135 bank branch offices in Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Texas and Florida. It also has 26 title insurance offices in Arkansas and Louisisna and mortgage representatives at 43 locations in 11 states.
Whole Foods celebrates milestone with philanthropy
Also tomorrow, Whole Foods Market at 10601 San Jose Blvd. will celebrate its first anniversary by donating 5 percent of the day’s sales to the YMCA’s Strong Kids Campaign.
The YMCA reaches out to families throughout the community to provide opportunities they may not otherwise have. Funds raised provide scholarships for children to participate in recreational, learning and life-enhancing experiences that build strong kids.
The Y touched the lives of more than 113,000 people in 2008. More than 32 percent of them participated thanks to the $3.4 million dollars of financial assistance provided through the Strong Kids Campaign. That’s more than $9,000 every single day or $280,000 every single month of the year.
Computers donated to daniel
Enterprise Integration and CSX have joined forces to donate 150 gently-used computers to daniel, Florida’s oldest child-service agency. The partnership promises to benefit the non-profit while helping to spare the environment in the process.
“CSX and daniel are both clients of ours,” said Michael E. Locher, president and CEO of Enterprise Integration, a Jacksonville-based company specializing in corporate IT operations management. “When CSX was ready to retire its used computers the company was happy to give them to daniel and we were pleased to donate the hard drive re-imaging, keyboards and mice needed to make them viable.”
CSX CEO Michael Ward and Technology President Frank Lonegro were equally excited about participating in this donation as it blended two of the company’s ideals, assisting local nonprofits and being green, with one gift.
The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that during a five-year period more than 250 million computers will become obsolete. Without recycling efforts impacts on landfill use and surrounding ecosystems can be expected. Locher noted that by recycling computers in this way corporations don’t have to worry about disposing of them properly or the equipment taking up valuable storage space.
The recycled computers will be used by daniel kids in their computer lab on the agency’s Belfort Road campus. The lab is utilized by children in daniel’s residential treatment center and foster care programs, as well by some of the agency’s administrative team.
“I can’t even begin to add up the dollar value of the donated CSX computers and Enterprise Integration’s technical support,” said daniel CEO and President Jim Clark. “All I know is that the creative teaming of two longtime daniel supporters for a worthwhile common cause is truly priceless.”
Daniel is Florida’s oldest non-profit child-service agency. Originally established as an orphanage in 1884, daniel has evolved into a multi-service agency that assists more than 1,000 children, adolescents and families each day with a variety of innovative and nationally-recognized programs.
Nonprofit notes
• The UPS Foundation, Inc. has donated $25,000 to Ability Housing of Northeast Florida. The nonprofit agency will use the proceeds for its CASA program which consists of 29 single-family rental homes throughout Jacksonville.
The homes are reserved for adults with disabilities wishing to live independently, some of whom are formerly homeless. As the average income of the CASA residents is less than $11,000 annually, the rents charged do not cover routine operating expenses.
For more information, go to abilityhousing.com or call 359-9650.
• U.S. Marine Corps soldiers in their dress blues greeted children from the Sulzbacher Center as they arrived for a special morning Dec. 5 at Dave & Buster’s. The children enjoyed a breakfast buffet, drinks and unlimited games. Each child was also given a Christmas gift. Volunteers from the U.S. Marine Reserves Toys for Tots program and Allen D. Nease High School’s NJROTC were on hand to help with the event and to play games with the children.
The event was made possible through a partnership between Dave & Buster’s, the Radisson Hotel and the U.S. Marine Reserves Toys for Tots Program.