As our community continues to face a tight economy and shrinking budgets, the Daily Record has established this feature that each week reports the efforts of local nonprofit organizations and the individuals and businesses that support them.
Bailey Publishing & Communications invites all members of the local nonprofit community to email news, announcements and success stories to: [email protected].
We also encourage our readers to become more aware of the needs of these worthy organizations as they continue to provide valuable services with reduced resources.
2 grants for Daniel
The Neviaser Charitable Foundation has pledged $250,000 to Daniel, Florida’s oldest child-service agency, to support the organization’s new education center.
It will open in November on the Belfort Road campus.
Daniel Executive Director Kellie Ann Kelleher and CFO Darryl Ott accepted the first $125,000 of the pledge Oct. 4. The second $125,000 grant will be disbursed to Daniel next year. In addition to the pledge, the foundation also contributed $15,000 to Daniel’s unrestricted fund to support the current greatest needs of children in Daniel’s care.
“The generosity displayed by The Neviaser Charitable Foundation is overwhelming. This contribution will help provide a stable learning environment for our children who are all too familiar with instability,” said Kelleher.
The foundation has joined other major donors to provide the most recent six-figure gift made to Daniel. J.F. Bryan facilitated a $150,000 gift from the Gooding Foundation for a classroom in the education center in honor of Beth Sumner Wiggins. The Newton and Stein families sponsored a computer lab with their $250,000 donation.
The center’s second computer lab will be named in honor of the foundation.
Gala for Elder Source
Friends of Elder Source will present “A Night with the Stars” Nov. 29 at the University of North Florida University Center.
The reception and silent auction begin at 5:30 p.m. followed by the dinner and program from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Audrey Moran, Baptist Health senior vice president of social responsibility and community advocacy, will present the keynote address.
Awards will be made to the family caregiver, professional caregiver and media advocate of the year. Special recognition will be made for Anne Knight, winner of the Delores Barr Weaver Elder Advocate Award, and The Community Foundation, which will be presented the Community Service Leadership Award. For ticket information, visit myeldersource.com.
‘Champions for Justice’
The Justice Coalition has named the recipients for the 2012 Champions for Justice Awards.
The awards dinner, formerly known as the Ted Hires Legacy Dinner, is scheduled Thursday at the Morocco Shrine Center.
This year, there are two categories for the Extraordinary Heroes awards: the Extraordinary Citizen Award and the Extraordinary Business Leader Award. The citizen award will be posthumously given to Richard Braendle, who died in August at the age of 89. He served as the Justice Coalition’s chief court-watcher from 1995 until recent years, when his health declined. Braendle spent hours each week observing trials and doing his part to make the judicial process better.
The business award will be given to Randell Alexander, professor of pediatrics at the University of Florida, Chief of the Division of Child Protection and Forensic Pediatrics and statewide medical director for the Florida Child Protection Teams. He serves on several international and national boards and frequently testifies on major child-abuse cases throughout the country.
The sheriffs of several area counties also have named individuals in their counties to receive the Sheriff’s Choice Extraordinary Citizen Award. They are:
• Pete Quinley of Baker County
• Elizabeth Sheppard of Bradford County
• Earnestine Burkes of Clay County
• Don Butler of Duval County
• Cecil Hodges of Nassau County
The Champions for Justice Dinner was established in 2009 by the Justice Coalition and community leaders to recognize those who work for victims’ rights, crime prevention and crime fighting. The event helps the Justice Coalition raise funds to carry on its mission of assisting victims of crime and their families in Northeast Florida.
The Jacksonville Fraternal Order of Police Foundation is the presenting sponsor of the event.
The event is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Morocco Shrine Center, 3800 St. Johns Bluff Road.
For more information, visit justicecoalition.org.
McKenzie’s Run with the Jaguars
Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blaine Gabbert has been invited to lead runners and walkers in the 3rd annual McKenzie’s Run at 9 a.m. Nov. 10 at EverBank Field.
“I’m very excited and honored to serve as captain of this year’s McKenzie’s Run. The foundation is doing such important work as they bring together and mobilize young people to care for others. As a quarterback, I know and value the importance of teamwork and it’s that spirit of working together to support each other that makes me so proud to be part of this event and The McKenzie Noelle Wilson Foundation,” Gabbert said.
The annual all-ages event benefits The McKenzie Noelle Wilson Foundation, a nonprofit that unites young people to care for others and give to those in need, both locally and globally.
Locally, the foundation operates two McKenzie’s Academic Resource Centers with the help of teen and teacher volunteers. The resource centers provide free mentoring and academic programs to more than 250 elementary, middle and high school students living in two Jacksonville communities.
Globally, the foundation has built two orphanages in Uganda. The orphanages care for 40 boys and girls. Construction is under way to build a new orphanage for 35 abandoned babies in Uganda.
The run is a 5K run and walk with a 1-mile fun run through Downtown that finishes inside EverBank Field. Immediately after the run there will be live music, games, face painting, awards, an appearance by Jaguars mascot Jaxson de Ville and an autograph signing session by Jaguars ROAR Cheerleaders.
To register and for more information, visit mckenziesrun.org.
The 2012 McKenzie’s Run is sponsored by EverBank, The Players Championship, Lender Processing Services, Acosta, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Akerman law firm.
The McKenzie Noelle Wilson Foundation is a nonprofit established in memory of McKenzie Wilson, who died in 2010. Its mission is to help young people recognize their full potential by providing programs that encourage caring for others, giving to those in need and growing in their own spirituality.
For more information, visit caregivegrow.org.
Regency Centers employees volunteer for United Way
Sorting thrift-store donations, serving breakfast at a homeless shelter and reading books to preschoolers is part of the workday for employees in the Jacksonville-based headquarters of Regency Centers Corp., a national owner, operator and developer of grocery-anchored shopping centers.
A supporter of United Way, Regency personalized this year’s fundraising campaign by loaning 90 employees — nearly half of its Jacksonville workforce — to volunteer at local United Way agencies.
Regency’s employees will volunteer 165 hours total at Clara White Mission, Hubbard House, Episcopal Children’s Services, All Saints Early Learning and Community Care Center, Pine Castle and Second Harvest North Florida.
“Regency employees have always generously given to the United Way with annual participation levels up to 95 percent. We wanted to provide an opportunity where employees could see firsthand the impact of their gifts while expanding our support for the United Way of Northeast Florida,” said Dawnelle Bass, Regency’s senior tax manager and United Way fundraising captain for the company’s Jacksonville office.
Regency corporately supports United Way, Habitat for Humanity and other charities through a matching gifts program. Locally, through the United Way of Northeast Florida, Regency has committed $300,000 over the next three years to the early education grant program Success By 6. It also provides volunteers for the 29-week preschool reading program ReadingPals.
Regency employs 371 people in the company’s 17 offices nationwide, including 192 employees in Jacksonville.