As our community continues to face a tight economy and shrinking budgets, the Daily Record has established this feature that each week reports the efforts of local nonprofit organizations and the individuals and businesses that support them.
Bailey Publishing & Communications invites all members of the local nonprofit community to email news, announcements and success stories to: [email protected].
We also encourage our readers to become more aware of the needs of these worthy organizations as they continue to provide valuable services with reduced resources.
CBRE staff volunteers in Springfield
CBRE, a full-service real estate company, closed for a day April 20 to volunteer for Operation New Hope, a local nonprofit that works to revitalize and sustain economically and ethnically diverse communities in and around Historic Springfield.
CBRE employees spent the day mowing, weeding, delivering flowers in and around the Eastside and replanting the Eastside Community Garden, the only fresh and organic option for neighborhood residents.
As the world’s largest commercial real estate services company, CBRE is committed to fulfilling its role as a responsible corporate citizen by supporting and adding value to the communities in which its employees live and work.
“We are always excited for the opportunity to get out and in the neighborhoods we serve,” said Robert Ownby, Operation New Hope housing development manager.
“It makes more of an impact when a great community partner like CBRE lends a hand,” he said.
Established in 1999, Operation New Hope is a nonprofit, community-based organization. Its mission is to revitalize urban communities through economically sustainable programs that positively impact the lives of the traditionally underprivileged and disenfranchised. Operation New Hope created and administers two major initiatives: affordable housing (ONH Development program) and re-entry services (Ready4Work program).
For more information about Operation New Hope programs, contact Brittany Anthony, director of fund development, at 354-4673.
Sea Best supports triathletes
Sea Best Seafood, a sponsor of The First Coast Kids Triathlon, helped promote healthy living and eating for the youthful participants of the 2012 event.
Sea Best had a table at the triathlon pre-race expo and pep rally Saturday at the University of North Florida.
“Sea Best Seafood is engaging in a variety of ways to continue promoting a healthy lifestyle for kids,” said James Berger, director of national sales and marketing for Sea Best.
“Sea Best’s healthy lifestyle initiative is in line with the vision and mission of the triathlon, which makes for a logical partnership,” he said.
Sea Best is the flagship brand of Beaver Street Fisheries Inc., a family owned and operated company started 60 years ago in a storefront along West Beaver Street. More than 400 people work at the Beaver Street facility in Jacksonville and at its sister company in the Bahamas
‘Community Day at The Players’
In an effort to highlight The Players Championship’s commitment to generate $50 million for youth-related charities over the next 10 years and encourage additional community support, the tournament will host the first “Community Day at The Players” May 8.
About 71 percent of the money generated from last year’s tournament benefited children’s charities in North Florida, the first step in reaching the $50 million goal set for the next decade.
“Community Day at The Players” kicks off with a private “Champions for Education Breakfast” hosted by PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem from 8-10 a.m. in the Ponte Vedra Room at TPC Sawgrass Clubhouse.
The breakfast will bring leaders of the Jacksonville business and civic communities together for a presentation regarding the state of the Jacksonville public school system and its impact on the economic and social viability of Northeast Florida.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas Friedman will serve as the keynote speaker and Florida Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson also will speak.
Proceeds from the tournament benefit Northeast Florida charities and have totaled more than $46 million since the event moved to Ponte Vedra Beach in 1977, including a record $5.9 million donation in 2011.
For more information, visit pgatour.com/theplayers or visitpontevedra.com.
Blood drive at Sharks games
The Blood Alliance will give a free T-shirt to the first 20 people who register to donate blood at any upcoming 2012 Jacksonville Sharks Blood Drive before each home game at Veterans Memorial Arena.
All who register to donate blood also will be automatically entered into a random drawing to win a 2012 Honda Civic LX compliments of HondasForLess.net.
The Blood Alliance provides blood to more than 40 hospitals and medical facilities in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
It provides a safe and adequate blood supply to the regions it serves and is a member of America’s Blood Centers, a national network of independent community blood centers responsible for nearly half of the nation’s blood supply.
For more information, visit igiveblood.com.