by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
To the casual observer, the Downtown Rotary Club is a weekly gathering of Downtown businessmen and businesswomen. They meet at the Omni or Wyndham, sing a little, eat well and hear from a guest speaker that can range from the mayor to a cave diver.
Underneath the suits and ties is a group dedicated to making the lives of others better. Never is that more apparent than at the Rotary’s annual Rotary Charity Foundation Grant Awards luncheon. Monday, Rotary President Dr. Jerry Knauer had the pleasure of handing over $62,000 worth of checks to four local grant recipients.
“The money is raised through individual donations from members,” said Knauer. “We donate, as a club, $50,000 to $60,000 a year on top of our international donations. Counting matching grants, we raise close to half a million dollars a year.”
This year’s fundraising drive netted $37,500 for Pine Castle, $10,354 for DLC Nurse and Learn, $8,710 for The Inn Ministry and $6,000 for the Police Athletic League.
Tom Bryan chaired this year’s Project and Screening Committee. Knauer said Bryan’s group got 50-60 applications for grants.
“They work through the process to determine who and how much based on what we have to give,” he said. “Sometimes, we give them everything they ask for. Sometimes, we give them what we can. We have touched most of the major charities in Jacksonville over the years.”
Bryan is a 16-year member of Rotary and said serving as chair of the committee was as rewarding an experience as he’s had as a Rotarian. Bryan said Rotary started the grant awards in 1952 and Pine Castle was the very first recipient.
“We received applications from 45 incredible charities this year and whittled them down,” said Bryan. “Our goal was to make an impact.”
Paula Suhey, the special events coordinator at Pine Castle, said the grant money will go towards Pine Castle’s new Life Enrichment Center, a state-of-the-art facility designed to help adults with special needs lead full lives. Pine Castle serves as a home for special needs adults who are taught all of life’s skills. Those at Pine Castle also work, doing tasks that prove beneficial to many area businesses.
Amy Buggle is the executive director of DLC Nurse and Learn, a facility dedicated to offering preschool and after school programs for kids with special needs.
“We started 18 years ago and we serve 80 kids at a time,” said Buggle. “We have helped over 800 kids to date.”
Buggle said one of the biggest things her organization provides is peace of mind for the parents of the children.
“The parents can go on with their lives knowing their children are having a productive day,” said Buggle, adding the money will be used to buy new equipment.
The Inn Ministry is an emergency home for pregnant women or women with small children who have nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to.
“We started 20 years ago in October,” said Judith Newburg, explaining that her group teaches individual living skills to the young women.
In 2000, The Inn Ministry relocated the building they were in and Rotary helped with funding for a new air conditioning and heating unit.
The final grant recipient was the Police Athletic League. Lt. Bobby Deal of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office represented PAL and said he’ll use the grant to help establish a teen center. With PAL geared towards kids 6-14 years old, Deal said JSO realized the kids that are 15 and 16 years old were left without a safe place to go after school to play and do homework, especially in Jacksonville’s rougher neighborhoods. He said the facility will be at West 33rd and Canal streets.
“That area has the highest crime rate in the city,” said Deal. “This will be a safe place for those kids to study and we will have workforce planning. We are partnering with FCCJ to teach the kids how to write a resume, dress for an interview and prepare for a work interview. Instead of having a failing attitude, we want to teach these kids a trade so they can earn a living.”