Bank of America Charitable Foundation and a local market committee selected Junior Achievement of North Florida as the 2014 Neighborhood Builders Award recipient. The selection recognizes the nonprofit for its efforts to improve communities by teaching financial literacy skills to students in grades K-12.
Neighborhood Builders, which marks its 10th anniversary this year, is a strategic investment in communities, offering $200,000 in flexible funding and leadership training to high-performing nonprofits and their executives.
“Junior Achievement of North Florida has done so much to help raise the awareness of financial literacy among schoolchildren in the Jacksonville area,” said Gregory B. Smith, Bank of America Northeast Florida market president.
Junior Achievement plans to use the $200,000 grant to fund a new initiative that targets second- and third-grade students living in a low-income neighborhood of Jacksonville. Scheduled to open in 2015, the New Town Financial Literacy Center at Mitchell Community Center will seek to reach 2,500 students per year, teaching them the fundamentals of banking, business and taxes as well as financial literacy skills.
Silver anniversary at River Garden
Twenty-five years have passed since River Garden Hebrew Home for the Aged relocated from its original 3-acre site on Stockton Street in Riverside to the 37-acre Mandarin River Garden Senior Services campus.
Since then, the facility has undergone many changes, including a new name (River Garden Hebrew Home/Wolfson Health and Aging Center); adding home- and community-based services, such as adult day care and home-health care; and building a 10,000-square-foot wing, which includes the Frisch Family Pavilion and the Bernard and Alice Selevan Pavilion.
Paul Davis Restoration helps with coats and sweaters drive for kids
Marguerite and Mike Mumford, owners of Paul Davis Restoration of North Florida, sponsored the company’s annual holiday coat and sweater drive to benefit the Boys & Girls Club in Fernandina Beach.
About 50 new or gently worn items were collected from people and organizations in Northeast Florida with professional cleaning services provided by the Paul Davis office.
“Our support for the organization is year-round and includes donations and in-kind work at the nonprofit facility in Nassau County,” said Marguerite Mumford.
The Boys and Girls Club mission is to inspire and enable all young people, especially those in need, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens. To learn more, visit bgcnassau.org.
‘Meals on Wheels’ for Christmas
Aging True Community Senior Services, The Jacksonville Jewish Center and Congregation Ahavath Chesed will partner for the 28th year of holiday meal delivery in celebration of the Christmas season and the Hebrew tradition of Mitzvah.
The team will deliver more than 500 holiday meals Thursday to homebound seniors and disabled residents in Duval County. The meals, part of Aging True’s Meals on Wheels program, are critical to the residents they serve, who might not have visitors or a meal on Christmas Day.
The members of the two congregations, along with Aging True staff and volunteers, will prepare the meals today. The Temple and The Jacksonville Jewish Center volunteers will then personally deliver the meals the following day.
Students from Crystal Springs Elementary School and Empowerment Resources, along with Girl Scouts of Gateway Council, created more than 500 holiday cards to accompany the meals.
The Meals on Wheels program promotes senior health, vitality and independence for those it serves. In addition, the daily interaction between the drivers and recipients allows for ongoing evaluation of each client’s changing needs.
In Duval County alone, Meals on Wheels staff and volunteers travel nearly 300 miles per day, delivering nearly 270,000 hot and frozen meals annually.
Advanced Disposal employees help ‘Breaking the Cycle’
Advanced Disposal, an integrated environmental services company, encourages its staff to get involved in the community and volunteer to assist non-profit organizations.
One such six-member department partnered with Operation New Hope to provide five children with gifts this holiday season.
The children are part of Operation New Hope’s Breaking the Cycle program, which is dedicated to reuniting families and providing financial and emotional stability for the children of ex-offenders.
Operation New Hope provides 119 Jacksonville youth the opportunity to choose their direction in life and not follow in their parent’s footsteps.
“Advanced Disposal is always looking for ways to give back to the community,” said Mary O’Brien, Advanced Disposal chief marketing officer.
“To have individual team members identify, organize and contribute to such a worthy cause and bring smiles to the faces of these children is a true joy. Giving and sharing is one of the most rewarding feelings possible,” O’Brien said.