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 believe would be of interest to our readers. Email to: [email protected]. We encourage our readers to become more aware of the needs of these worthy organizations as they continue to provide much-needed services with reduced resources.
The Red Coats ride out
The Players Championship volunteer leadership, the Red Coats, hit the road for what has become a Giving Back Month tradition: the Red Coat Ride Out.
This year, the Red Coats took a tour of Operation New Hope before joining the University of North Florida First Generation Scholars Luncheon. Both organizations are recipients of Red Coat grants. The Red Coat Ride Out concluded a month of events that celebrated The Players' charitable outreach and donations as a result of the 2013 tournament.
Operation New Hope received a $10,000 grant from the Red Coats this year, and an additional $10,000 donation from the tournament was presented during the Red Coats' visit.
Operation New Hope, founded in 1999, is a faith-based, nonprofit community development corporation.
The organization has maintained a business model to sustain broken urban communities: affordable housing and successful workforce reintegration of ex-offenders.
The $20,000 donation will support Operation New Hope's Ready4Work program, designed to assist in curtailing prison recidivism.
Since its inception, the program has assisted more than 2,500 participants.
From there, the Red Coats attended the UNF scholars luncheon to celebrate the recipients of the Red Coat Scholarships.
Through a $750,000 gift from the tournament over five years, The Players Red Coat Scholarships help fund opportunities for first-generation students to attend UNF.
The donation was part of a matching grant program that began in 2006 when the Florida Legislature appropriated $6.5 million statewide to be matched by private donations.
The Players generated $7.1 million for local charities during the 2013 tournament, eclipsing last year's total of $6.5 million.
$15,000 for HabiJax from Wells Fargo
Volunteers with Wells Fargo, a longtime Habitat for Humanity of Jacksonville partner, spent a Saturday painting the town in New Town. The event, part of the A Brush with Kindness program, was funded by a $15,000 donation by Wells Fargo.
During the event, HabiJax volunteers repaired windows, painted homes and fences, handled minor siding and trim repairs, landscaped, removed junk and cleaned up exteriors in the New Town neighborhood.
A Brush with Kindness program is offered to non-HabiJax homeowners who are struggling to maintain the exterior of their homes.
Wells Fargo has been a supporter of HabiJax and its program for years. The $15,000 donation assisted with the purchase of supplies and materials used for the repairs.
"We are truly grateful to Wells Fargo, one of our most dedicated partners, for the generous donation they presented us to help with the revitalization," said HabiJax President and CEO Mary Kay O'Rourke. "The residents we assisted were incredibly appreciative of the efforts of our volunteers and extremely pleased with the results. We are so blessed that many of organizations in our community feel led to send volunteers to help with this effort."
More information about HabiJax and how to volunteer is available online at habijax.org/volunteer or by calling (904) 798-4529.
Senior Life Foundation meets the challenge
When Senior Life Foundation CEO Mari Terbrueggen and Senior Vice President of Development Mary Grimm met with Ida M. Stevens Foundation trustee Doug Milne in January, they had a single purpose in mind: To ask for a $12,500 match for the challenge grant issued by the Weaver Family Foundation Fund.
They received more than they bargained for when Milne responded with a challenge to the challenge.
If the Senior Life Foundation raised $12,500 from new sources or lapsed donors, the Ida M. Stevens Foundation would also match it dollar-for-dollar.
Senior Life accomplished its mission and leveraged the original challenge to bring in $46,500.
The mission of the Senior Life Foundation is to help meet the urgent needs of low-income seniors in Duval County with a rapid response and to help them live independently.
Bank of America awards $200,000 grant
The Bank of America Charitable Foundation has selected Jewish Family & Community Services as a recipient of the 2013 Neighborhood Builders award.
The program is an investment that combines leadership training with a $200,000 unrestricted grant for high-performing nonprofits that have made a significant impact addressing needs related to community development, critical needs or workforce development and education. Nonprofit leaders gain skills and apply funding where it is most needed for maximum local impact.
Each year, Jewish Family & Community Services serves more than 15,000 clients of all backgrounds throughout Northeast Florida, providing family-centered services to address homelessness, hunger, child abuse and mental illness.
Jewish Family & Community Services will use the award to launch a "prevention hub" that will allow the nonprofit to counsel families and connect them to preventive services, like individual and family counseling, anger management, life skills training, rent and utility assistance, financial assistance case management, in-home abuse prevention, parenting, adoption and senior services.
Gate Foundation supports Making Strides campaign
The Gate Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Jacksonville-based Gate Petroleum Co., will make a $77,000 donation to the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign.
Sales of pink ribbons averaged $3,000 per day during the three-week campaign in October in Gate's 72 convenience stores in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky.
"Virtually everyone knows someone or they themselves have been personally impacted by this devastating disease. That is why we are so proud to support the American Cancer Society's Making Strides campaign," said Hill Peyton, chairman of The Gate Foundation.
In addition to the pink ribbon displays, associates showed their support by wearing pink Making Strides shirts in lieu of their traditional Gate uniform shirt each Friday in October.
Customers of Gate Store #1194 in Tallahassee and Store #229 in Douglas, Ga., recorded the highest percentage of ribbon sales. Gate Store #1203 at 1001 Monument Road in Jacksonville received an honorable mention with the second-highest number of ribbons sold overall.
Over the past eight years, The Gate Foundation has raised more than $437,000 in support of the fight against breast cancer.