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As our community continues to face a tight economy and shrinking budgets, the Daily Record has established this page that will each week chronicle the efforts of local nonprofit organizations. Bailey Publishing & Communications invites all members of the local nonprofit community to submit news, announcements, success stories and any other information they feel would be of interest to our readers. E-mail to: [email protected].
We also encourage our readers to become more aware of the needs of these worthy organizations as they try to continue to provide valuable services with reduced resources.
Shamrocks for MDA
With the approach of St. Patrick’s Day, local businesses will again be selling shamrock mobiles to support the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s quest to cure neuromuscular diseases. Businesses sell $1 green shamrocks and $5 gold shamrocks to customers and then they are prominently displayed to create a festive St. Patrick’s Day atmosphere.
The following banking centers will be participating in the program: Duval Federal Credit Union, BB&T, Jacksonville Postal & Professional Credit Union, Wachovia, and Ameris Bank. Every year thousands of businesses participate in the program all around the country.
“Our local businesses that participate in the program show they genuinely care about children and adults in our community who live with muscular dystrophy,” said Lauren Herringdine, MDA First Coast executive director.
MDA’s Shamrocks Against Dystrophy program directly helps families on the First Coast that are affected by the 43 diseases that the Association covers, including Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Shamrocks help support the Association’s worldwide research program, as well as MDA’s national network of 225 hospital-affiliated clinics, including the University of Florida, The Mayo Clinic of Jacksonville and the University of Miami. Shamrock sales also help send some 1200 children with muscular dystrophy to MDA summer camp like Camp Love held at Epworth by the Sea in St. Simons Island, Ga.
For more information about the Shamrocks Against Dystrophy program visit www.mda.org.
Home & Patio Show partners with local charity
The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation’s North Florida chapter has been selected as the featured charity for 2010 by The Jacksonville Home and Patio Show.
The Home and Patio Show is Thursday-Sunday at the Osborn Center.
As a partner, the show has donated a table for JDRF immediately outside the main entrance. The group hopes to raise awareness about Type 1 diabetes, inform others about the upcoming Walk to Cure Diabetes and will also provide an opportunity for show patrons to make a donation.
“It is because of wonderful partners like The Jacksonville Home and Patio Show that JDRF is able to continue research and will ultimately find a cure for Type 1 diabetes and its complications,” said Fran Chinnici, president of the JDRF board and vice president of CSX Transportation.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which a person’s pancreas stops producing insulin, a hormone that enables people to get energy from food. Each year, more than 15,000 children are diagnosed with diabetes in the U.S. That is 40 children per day. People with type 1 diabetes must take multiple injections of insulin daily or continually infuse insulin through a pump just to survive. Contrary to what most believe, insulin is not a cure.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is an organization dedicated to finding a cure for type 1 diabetes and its complications through the support of research. To learn more about diabetes, JDRF or its appearance at The Jacksonville Home and Patio Show call 739-2101 or visit www.jdrfnorthflorida.org.
Grant brings art into classrooms
The Prudential Foundation has awarded a $10,000 grant to the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville for “The Prudential Art Makes a Difference Program.” The program will help local school teachers bring the arts into their classrooms and provide cultural opportunities to underserved students.
“Thanks to The Prudential Foundation more school students will receive enriching arts experiences and more teachers will be able to incorporate the arts into their classrooms,” said Robert Arleigh White, Cultural Council executive director. “Research shows us that the arts improve educational outcomes, and through the three-pronged approach of ‘The Prudential Art Makes a Difference Program’ we have the potential to create a greater impact.”
Funding from The Prudential Foundation will enable the Cultural Council to award five $500 regrants to Duval County public school teachers through its Arts Education Enrichment Grant Program. The grant awards encourage teachers of any subject area to develop creative arts and cultural projects to enrich their classrooms and schools. Funding may be used for field trips, in-school assemblies, school-wide festivals, materials, supplies and equipment.
Funding will provide program management for the Kennedy Center Summer Institute, a week-long professional development conference for area educators presented in partnership with the University of North Florida Fine Arts Center and the Duval County Public Schools. KCSI focuses on methods for integrating the arts across the curriculum. Not only does this provide more opportunities for students to have artistic experiences, but it addresses the differing ways in which students learn, and makes school more fun and engaging. The conference is conducted by Kennedy Center presenters, nationally recognized educators who are also artists in their own right.
Another facet of the program will provide arts education outreach to underserved students at branch libraries and Title I schools. Student outreach will be administered through a partnership with two area arts organizations. Theatre Jacksonville will offer theater improvisation workshops at 10 different branch libraries located in underserved neighborhoods during early release Wednesdays and Theatreworks will present in-school performances by nationally recognized poet Glenis Redmond at four Title I schools.
“We see arts as an important tool in education. Our grant to the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville underscores our commitment to ensure that every child has access to the arts and to quality education,” said Gabriella Morris, president of The Prudential Foundation. “Prudential has maintained a major presence in Florida since 1953 and Jacksonville is one of the cities across the country where The Prudential Foundation focuses its efforts.”
Each year, The Prudential Foundation invests more than $25 million in grants in efforts that support the revitalization of communities and support Prudential employees’ community engagement efforts. In order to promote sustainable communities and improve social outcomes for community residents the foundation focuses its strategy in the areas of education, economic development and arts and civic infrastructure.
The Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville works to advance the appreciation and expression of art and culture by increasing community awareness of cultural activities and issues; providing arts education programs; and offering funding and technical assistance to cultural organizations and individual artists.
Brewery employees building HabiJax home
Workers at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Jacksonville hold many different jobs to produce America’s best-selling beers: brewers, bottlers, quality analysts and safety specialists, to name a few. Now they will have a new title to boast about: “volunteer homebuilder.”
During the next five weeks, dozens of volunteers from the brewery will build a home for a local family through HabiJax, the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
“Anheuser-Busch has been a longtime supporter of HabiJax,”said Mary Kay O’Rourke, president & CEO of HabiJax. “We are grateful not only for their financial support, but also for the enthusiasm their employees display through volunteering, ultimately making the joy of homeownership a reality for the families they work along with on the work site.”
“Our employees have enthusiastically supported this effort throughout the last decade,” said Steve Foppe, general manager of the brewery. “This year marks the 11th home our brewery employees have helped to build. Last year Anheuser-Busch employees in Jacksonville contributed in excess of 400 hours, totally voluntary, on the home we sponsored.”
HabiJax builds and renovates affordable houses in the Jacksonville urban core, concentrating in neighborhoods targeted by the City of Jacksonville for revitalization.
Based in St. Louis, Anheuser-Busch is the leading American brewer, holding a 49.2 percent share of U.S. beer sales. The company brews the world’s largest-selling beers, Budweiser and Bud Light. Anheuser-Busch also owns a 50 percent share in Grupo Modelo, Mexico’s leading brewer. Anheuser-Busch is also a major manufacturer of aluminum cans and one of the world’s largest recyclers of aluminum cans. For more information, visit www.anheuser-busch.com.