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Party in the Park focuses on water safety
Nancy Hogshead, Olympic swimmer and three-time gold medalist, will speak about water safety and drowning prevention at 6 p.m. Friday during the Family Support Services of North Florida’s Party in the Park for Prevention.
Hogshead is supporting Jacksonville’s Waterproof Florida awareness initiative to help prevent child drowning. In Duval County, drowning is the No. 2 cause of child deaths and the No. 1 cause in Nassau County.
The free family event includes water-taxi rides, games, giveaways, face painting, a cooking demonstration and free books about safety for children, while supplies last.
Complimentary sandwiches will be provided by Chartwells Dining services to the first 300 attendees. Free children’s passes to the Museum of Science and History will be given to the first 50 children.
Free parking will be provided beneath the Acosta Bridge, west of River City Brewing Co. and the public marina.
Family Support Services is the lead agency for foster care, adoption and family preservation in Duval and Nassau counties. For more information, visit fssjax.org.
Engineering improvements for Daniel Kids
More than 20 engineers from General Electric put their training into action to offer the children living on campus at Daniel Kids a shaded play area. It is the third year the company has helped improve on-campus facilities for the abused, neglected and emotional troubled children Daniel Kids serves.
Comcast partners with Saint Clair Evans Academy
The grounds and halls of a Duval County elementary school are looking brighter thanks to a partnership with Comcast for the 14th annual Comcast Cares Day.
Local Comcast employees, their friends and families and community volunteers worked together Saturday to give Saint Clair Evans Academy a makeover. Volunteers cleaned, washed windows, painted and installed landscaping.
Comcast Cares Day is the cable television company’s signature day of service and the nation’s largest single-day corporate volunteer effort. Across Florida this year, more than 7,000 volunteers worked together on over 120 Comcast Cares Day projects from the Panhandle to the Florida Keys.
Publix customers help to feed hungry people
Publix Super Markets presented to The Salvation Army of Northeast Florida a check for $120,828 from the grocery’s Food for All initiative, in which customers donated at the cash register to provide food for families.
It is the largest donation the local Salvation Army has received from the program.
The Salvation Army provides a hot dinner for the homeless and the working poor in Jacksonville seven nights a week. It also provides three meals a day for residents of the Red Shield Lodge women’s and family shelter and the Towers Center of Hope transitional housing for men
The organization distributes supplemental groceries though its food pantry, serving 250 income eligible households per week.
‘Birthday in a bag’ from Guardian ad Litem
The Guardian ad Litem Foundation of Florida’s First Coast collected more than 300 individual “Birthday in a Bag” gifts for foster children assigned to the Guardian ad Litem Program in Duval, Clay and Nassau counties.
Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority’s Jacksonville alumnae and employees of Bank of America and EverBank filled bags and backpacks with gifts, dinners, cake mixes and candles for a foster child’s birthday.
This year, the 4th Circuit Guardian ad Litem Program celebrates 35 years of representing the best interest of children in foster care who have been removed from their homes for abuse, abandonment or neglect.
More than 600 trained volunteer advocates represent foster children in court to ensure they find a safe, stable and loving home as quickly as possible.
To volunteer, donate or participate in Guardian ad Litem, visit GALFirstCoast.org or call (904) 255-8440.
‘Healthy Kids Day’ on Saturday at EverBank
The YMCA of Florida’s First Coast will celebrate Healthy Kids Day presented by Gator Bowl Charities 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at EverBank Field.
The free community event is intended to inspire children to keep their minds and bodies active and give them activities and resources to achieve their potential all year long.
Healthy Kids Day is part of the Y’s national initiative to address the issue of physical and cognitive inactivity among young people during summer months, especially for those without access to out-of-school learning programs.
The event coincides with the seventh annual First Coast Kids Triathlon, taking place at 7:30 a.m. Saturday for ages 6-10 and 7:30 a.m. Sunday for ages 11-15. Finishing inside EverBank Field, it will be the first triathlon to conclude inside an NFL stadium.
The goal is to attract more than 3,000 children to race.
That would make Jacksonville home to the largest children’s triathlon in the world.
Every finisher will be featured on the stadium’s video boards and join in the Healthy Kids Day festivities.
All children who attend Healthy Kids Day will leave with a Gator Bowl Charities Healthy Kids Passport, part of the Gator Bowl Charities’ Send a Child to the Game program. With the Healthy Kids Passport, all children in the community have the opportunity to earn a ticket to the 2016 TaxSlayer Bowl.
“A ticket to the TaxSlayer Bowl is just a small portion of the reward kids are getting by participating in the passport,” said Rick Catlett, president and CEO of Gator Bowl Charities. “Our focus has always been on advancing the youth in Northeast Florida and we are hopeful that after this challenge, kids will have adopted healthy habits they will carry with them for years.”