Dance Marathon at the University of North Florida will conduct its eighth annual event from 10 a.m.-10:08 p.m. Saturday at the UNF Arena. Proceeds benefit the two local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals: Wolfson Children’s Hospital and the pediatric programs at UF Health Jacksonville.
In honor of children being treated at the local CMN Hospitals, students will stay on their feet for 12 hours and 8 minutes.
The 12 hours signifies the typical shift of hospital staff while the 8 minutes corresponds to the event’s eighth year in Jacksonville.
Opening ceremonies begin at 10 a.m. and are free and open to the public. After 11 a.m., visitors are asked to donate $10 at the door to CMN Hospitals.
The event concludes in a symbolic closing ceremony with miracle children cutting off the dancers’ ID bands.
Dance Marathon is a national program involving college and high school students at more than 300 schools. The students spend a year learning leadership and life skills while raising money and interacting with children’s hospital patients and families.
Since its founding in 1991, the program has raised more than $80 million for CMN Hospitals.
Since 2008, UNF Dance Marathon teams and students have raised more than $160,000 for CMN Hospitals.
All of the money raised by the students supports programs at Wolfson Children’s Hospital and the pediatric programs at UF Health Jacksonville.
For more information on how to get involved or donate, go to unfdm.com.
Weaver creates $20M Legacy Fund
Delores Barr Weaver has established a $20 million endowed fund at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida.
The Delores Barr Weaver Legacy Fund will take on challenges and make gifts to nonprofits that are transformative in nature.
Weaver already has directed more than $100 million to local causes and organizations in North Florida, said Nina Waters, president of the foundation.
An original co-owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars with her husband, Wayne Weaver led the Jaguars Foundation, which granted more than $15 million from its inception in 1994 until the team was sold in 2012.
That year, she established the Delores Barr Weaver Fund at the foundation with an initial value of $50 million, the nonprofit’s largest gift to date.
She and her husband, Wayne, were partners in the Weaver Family Foundation, which was converted to a fund at the foundation in 2012.
Over the years, the couple established dedicated endowments for 33 local nonprofits and introduced numerous charitable giving challenges that multiplied the benefit to organizations.
Weaver’s charitable focus includes helping young people, and invests in initiatives that support their success, such as education, behavioral health and prevention of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
She also has donated to senior citizen and military-related causes.
The Delores Barr Weaver Legacy Fund will reside at the foundation in perpetuity.
Nazworth selected for national advisory group
The National Low Income Housing Coalition appointed Ability Housing Executive Director Shannon Nazworth to an advisory group of affordable housing developers that will serve as a resource for potential recipients of National Housing Trust Fund grants.
The National Housing Trust Fund is an estimated $174 million block grant administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Community Development and Planning.
The fund was established to rehabilitate and operate rental housing affordable to extremely low-income households, defined as those with incomes at or below 30 percent of the area median income.
The 17 members of the advisory group were chosen for their expertise as nonprofit executives with experience in developing and operating rental housing for low-income households.
Nazworth is the only member from Florida.
Ability Housing is a Jacksonville-based nonprofit dedicated to ending homelessness in Northeast and Central Florida and fostering the independence of adults with a disability.
For more information, visit abilityhousing.org,
$25,000 grant for BairFind Foundation
The BairFind Foundation has been awarded a $25,000 grant from the Jay and Deanie Stein Unrestricted Fund at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida.
The grant will fund the initial phase of the organization’s concourse sign project.
BairFind entered a partnership with Minor League Baseball and Minor League Baseball Charities to place their “BairFind Signs” in every minor league baseball stadium in the U.S.
As the newest Homegrown Charity Partner, BairFind is expanding the search for missing children through sports-based marketing.
The Jacksonville-based foundation’s goal is to place a “BairFind Sign” in the concourse of every minor league ballpark this season with photos of missing children specific to each team’s region.
To date, BairFind has featured at 40 ballparks 278 missing children, 69 of whom were safely located.
Rotary grants for housing and nutrition
Rotary Charity Foundation Inc., the local philanthropic initiative of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville, awarded its annual grants March 21.
L’Arche Harbor House received $22,000 to replace the plumbing in three of the five houses the nonprofit provides for disabled residents.
Glodev Inc. received a $20,000 grant, which will be used to establish a 13-acre micro-farm and community food park in Northwest Jacksonville. Construction will begin in August and the project eventually will have the capacity to feed 1,000 people per day.
In addition, the club’s Willis Page Music Teacher of the Year award and a $1,500 grant were presented to Dale Choate, music specialist for the Duval County Public Schools. For 27 years, he was choral director at Terry Parker High School.
Choate said the award had particular resonance for him since, as a young student, he participated in “Messiah” performances during the holidays organized by the late Page, a former club member and music director of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra.
Celebrating Children’s Advocacy Week
Mayor Lenny Curry, City Council member Tommy Hazouri and YMCA of Florida’s First Coast CEO Eric Mann joined youth-focused Northeast Florida nonprofits last week to celebrate Children’s Advocacy Week at the Spring Break Bash.
The event served to strengthen the connections between Northeast Florida nonprofits in shaping Jacksonville into a child-friendly city, as well as to centralize local resources and organizations.