from staff
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 be-
lieve 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.
Going green at 26.6 with Donna
Advanced Disposal Services Inc. collected and recycled 10,000 plastic bottles and aluminum cans Feb. 12 during the 26.2 with Donna Marathon in Jacksonville and at area Beaches.
For the third year, Advanced Disposal sponsored the marathon and half-marathon by providing garbage collection and recycling services.
Advanced Disposal partnered with the Theta Iota Chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha at the University of North Florida to be “Beautiful Bag Ladies.”
The students were on hand to promote recycling and support their own ongoing philanthropic cause to beat breast cancer. The women were at the post-race celebration area to help runners and spectators do their part in “going green” by collecting their recyclables and teaching them about the importance of recycling.
“We joined efforts with the sisters of ZTA because their philanthropic efforts are focused on breast cancer awareness. We soon learned that many of the ladies are also dedicated to preserving the environment, so it was a perfect partnership,” said Mary O’Brien, chief marketing officer for Advanced Disposal.
The plastic bottles will be turned into carpet and fleece jackets like the ones many of the runners and spectators were wearing to keep warm before the race.
$200,000 grant to spay and neuter
The City of Jacksonville Animal Care and Protective Services Division, in partnership with First Coast No More Homeless Pets, has been awarded nearly $200,000 through a PetSmart Charities grant.
The funds will provide additional support for the City’s effort to offer low- or no-cost spay or neuter services to pets of Jacksonville residents.
Currently, the animal care division provides free spay and/or neuter services through its SpayJax program for those who meet income requirements.
Through the PetSmart Charities grant, anyone living in the 32210 ZIP code will be able to receive sterilization services for their pet for free, regardless of income. This zone is targeted specifically because animal care division intake numbers are higher in this area than in any other part of the city.
“We were of course very excited to receive the news about the grant,” said Scott Trebatoski, chief of Animal Care and Protective Services.
“The money will help to bolster our efforts to control the pet and animal population in our city and particularly in the 32210 area,” he said.
The grant will be administered over a two-year period with the goal of completing 4,660 spay/neuter surgeries in the targeted area. First Coast No More Homeless Pets is a partner in the two-year program and has also committed to providing $255,000 in matching funds and services to accompany the grant funds.
“This generous grant from Pet-Smart Charities continues a long-term relationship with PetSmart Charities and local efforts and allows us to take one more step toward no more homeless pets,” said Rick DuCharme, executive director of First Coast No More Homeless Pets.
Anyone living in the 32210 area who would like to participate in the free program should contact First Coast No More Homeless Pets at 425-0005 or visit www.fcnmhp.org for additional information.
‘Project Prepare’ at Daniel
It was close, but in the end, Joseph Padgett’s tilapia Milanese with spinach salad and honey garlic vinaigrette won out over Matthew Rosario’s king steak and bacon Alfredo in the “Project Prepare Top Chef” finals Feb. 16.
The competition was designed to teach culinary skills as a part of Project Prepare’s independent living skills instruction. Project Prepare is a Daniel program designed to help homeless youth become socially and economically independent.
The dishes by Padgett and Rosario were judged by Erika Davis, a contestant on Bravo’s “Top Chef Just Desserts” and executive pastry chef at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club; Richard Nunn, WJXT meteorologist; Kenneth Darity, Jacksonville Children’s Commission contract manager; Judy Hicks, president of Womenade; and Cheryl Clark, owner of Heirlooms Catering.
“The teenagers who participated in this event learned so much,” said Project Prepare Director Cathy Turner.
“Not only did this give them a chance to engage in some friendly competition, but it expanded their knowledge of cooking and serving food, which are essential skills to being independent,” she said.
As a part of his prize package, Padgett will shadow the executive chef at the Hyatt Downtown for a day.
Daniel is Florida’s oldest nonprofit child-service agency. Originally established as an orphanage in 1884, Daniel has evolved into a multiservice agency that assists more than 1,000 children, adolescents and families each day.
Backpacks for students
Over the past three months, CSX, in partnership with the United Way of Northeast Florida, has donated more than 5,000 backpacks to students in six middle schools, including those students who participate in the Achievers for Life program.
In addition, nine teachers in the schools received chests filled with classroom supplies. Gym bags full of equipment also were donated to the physical education departments.
This initiative, which came from a CSX management meeting, has affected more than 5,000 sixth-graders at Fort Caroline, Arlington, Northwestern, Matthew Gilbert, Jefferson Davis and Jeb Stuart middle schools. CSX filled the 5,000 backpacks for the students as part of a team-building exercise.
CSX employees were also given the opportunity to become mentors to the Achievers for Life students. More than 50 CSX employees have taken mentor training and are being placed with a mentee.
Advertising agency supports nonprofits
Brunet-García Advertising congratulated PACE Center for Girls, The Bridge of Northeast Florida, Cathedral Arts Project and Family Promise, the winners of the ad agency’s first annual “re:solve?” creative services grants.
“At Brunet-García, we have been privileged to witness the positive impact made by not-for-profit organizations in our community,” said Lindsay Shilling, account executive at Brunet-García.
“Unfortunately, the struggles they face to fund efforts and better inform the community about their services are also evident,” she said.
The program was launched this year by Brunet-García to assist the nonprofit community with those struggles. More than 60 applications were submitted from charities.
PACE Center for Girls will be awarded $50,000 in creative services support. Additionally, The Bridge of Northeast Florida, Cathedral Arts Project and Family Promise each will receive a $10,000 creative services grant.
At a celebration luncheon for grant recipients Feb. 8 at Brunet-García’s San Marco office, Rena Coughlin, CEO of the Nonprofit Center, helped to unveil the new creative services grants program.
“What Brunet-Garcia is doing is providing a meaningful contribution to the nonprofit sector, which will help advance each organization’s mission and work in the greater Jacksonville community,” she said.
Report on Alzheimer’s disease
Starting this year, more than 10,000 baby boomers a day will turn 65. As these baby boomers age, one in eight will develop Alzheimer’s, a devastating and costly disease.
“Even though this disease kills more Americans than diabetes and more than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined, there are still too few people who understand the anguish caused by Alzheimer’s,” said Kay Redington, CEO, Central and North Florida chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.
According to the report, an estimated 10 million baby boomers will develop Alzheimer’s and one in eight will either die with or from the disease.
While Alzheimer’s is not normal aging, age is the greatest risk factor for the disease.
“The anguish of Alzheimer’s is not just experienced by individuals with the disease. Their friends, families and communities suffer right along with them,” said Redington.
“Today there are 11 million friends and families, including 1.5 million people in Florida, who are looking after a loved one with Alzheimer’s and grappling with the enormous challenges this disease places on their well-being, health and jobs,” she said.
Beyond the significant toll on families, the financial burden on families is significant and can quickly escalate beyond what is affordable.
Over the next 40 years, Alzheimer’s will cost $20 trillion, enough to pay off the national debt and still send a $20,000 check to every man, woman and child in America, said the association.
The full text of the Alzheim-
er’s Association’s Generation Alzheimer’s report can be viewed at www.alz.org/boomers.