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School supplies donated by Main Street America Group
For the seventh consecutive year, The Main Street America Group is continuing its partnership with Woodland Acres Elementary School in Arlington.
Main Street America’s annual Back-to-School Supply Drive is one of the highlights of the Jacksonville-based property/casualty insurance carrier’s year-round support of the elementary school. The company’s Jacksonville employees donated thousands of school supplies, including notebook paper, pencils, copy paper, and washable markers.
More than 50 large boxes of supplies — the most ever donated by employees — were packaged and delivered in time for teachers to set up their classrooms for the first day of school Aug. 24.
“Many of our students cannot afford the supplies needed to complete their assignments. Teachers personally spend a lot for their classrooms and these supplies greatly alleviate costs and are very much appreciated,” said Christie Stevenson, the school’s resident clinical faculty member from the University of North Florida.
In addition to the supply drive and a student book fair last spring, a team of Main Street America employees tutors students on-site each month throughout the school year. Employees spend one-on-one time with assigned students on campus, focusing on literacy learning.
Main Street America’s partnership with Woodland Acres began in 2009 through UNF’s College of Education and Human Services Urban Professional Development Schools program.
What started small has grown into hands-on involvement with the elementary school, considered the “flagship” for the UNF’s development program.
Main Street America’s partnership also includes hosting an interactive field trip at its corporate headquarters. Each spring, Main Street America welcomes Woodland Acres’ entire fifth grade class to its Southside offices.
Main Street America has funded the purchase of 25 tablet devices that are being used to tutor struggling readers at Woodland Acres.
$1.5 million for independent living center
The Independent Living Resource Center was awarded the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance cooperative agreement from the Social Security Administration.
The program enables Social Security benefit recipients with disabilities to make informed choices about work and supports working beneficiaries to make a successful transition to self-sufficiency.
The grant, disbursed over five years, provides the center with $1.5 million in federal funding.
The award expands the nonprofit’s services into 37 Florida counties.
The WIPA project, one of 25 programs at the center, employs three certified work incentives coordinators who provide work incentives advisement to beneficiaries.
Two new positions will be created for the satellite office in Clay County along with a contractual position in the Panhandle.
For more information on the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance program or to apply, contact Ivy Summey, WIPA Program Manager, at (904) 399-8484 or email [email protected].
The Independent Living Resource Center is Jacksonville’s Center for Independent Living which has served the Northeast Florida disability community since 1978.
The organization empowers all individuals with a disability to live independent, self-empowered lives.
Duke it out Sept. 12 with Police Athletic League
The Police Athletic League of Jacksonville is hosting its Jacksonville PAL Amateur Boxing Championship on Sept. 12 at PAL’s Monument Road location in the Ed Austin Regional Park.
Adults and children, some as young as 8, will participate in the amateur boxing tournament that will have up to 20 bouts.
Competing boxers are registered from Florida, Georgia and other areas of the East Coast that are affiliated with PAL or various boxing organizations. Non-competing guests are welcomed and tickets will be available for purchase at the door.
Tickets range from $10-$20 and concessions and event merchandise will be available for purchase.
All net proceeds from the event will support the PAL boxing program that provides more than 40 children living in low-income neighborhoods the opportunity to learn and train in the sport.
For more information, sponsorship opportunities or tickets to the event, contact Tom Waarum at (904) 854-6555 ext. 328, or email [email protected].
Have a meal, help humane society
Let your appetite do the giving while you support the St. Augustine Humane Society by dining at the Columbia Restaurant during September.
When the society is selected as a recipient, the restaurant will donate 5 percent of a guest’s lunch or dinner check to the organization in the form of gift certificates. The promotion is available at any of the Columbia Restaurant locations in Florida, including the one in St. Augustine at 98 St. George St.
Visit ColumbiaRestaurant.com for details.
According to Carolyn Smith, St. Augustine Humane Society’s executive director, the gift certificate program helps the society recognize supporters, including the top fundraisers who participated in the Pin Up Paws Photo Contest at pinuppaws.com.
The Columbia served as a major sponsor of the calendar effort along with Clear Channel Outdoor which donated a billboard campaign to promote the photo contest fundraiser.
The Community Harvest program began in 1998 as a way to help nonprofit groups in all of the Columbia Restaurant locations including St. Augustine, Tampa, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Clearwater Beach, and Celebration.
To date, the Columbia Restaurant Group has given a total of more than $1.6 million to worthy charities.
For information, contact Carolyn Smith, St. Augustine Humane Society’s executive director at (904) 829-2737.
Visit the website at staugustinehumanesociety.org.
North Florida Land Trust to develop historic archeological site
North Florida Land Trust has issued a request for proposals for the design and planning for the development and management of an ancient archeological site on Big Talbot Island known as the Grand Site.
The trust is working with Big Talbot Island State Park on a proposed interpretive trail system which will include a parking area, trail, wooden boardwalk and viewing platform.
The Grand Site dates back to the Saint Johns II period (A.D. 950-1200) in the Mississippian period.
It consists of a shell ring and sand burial mound and is architecturally unique because it is the only ring mound built in the Southeast during the Mississippian period.
The construction of this one-of-a-kind piece of architecture is believed to be an attempt by the local St. Johns II groups to connect to an ancestral tradition that had not been practiced along the Atlantic coast for at least 2,000 years.
Archeological testing at the site was conducted by the University of North Florida’s Archeology Field School under the direction of Keith Ashley.
During the dig, the bones of two extinct birds, the passenger pigeon and the greater auk, were found in the mound. The archeological information will be used to guide the placement of the features associated with the proposed project.
The request for proposal is for the first two of three phases of the project. Phase I is the conceptual design plan and draft site management plan.
The second phase entails the design development and production of the final design site management plan.
Proposals for the first two phases are due by Oct. 9 and the selected candidate will be announced on Nov. 13. Phase I of the project should be completed by April and Phase II should be completed by September 2016.
For more information, visit northfloridalandtrust.org.