Participants at the Charlotte Community Foundation awards breakfast. COURTESY PHOTO
The Charlotte Community Foundation is pleased to celebrate the generosity and foresight of donors who contributed to our mission of “Connecting People who Care with Causes that Matter” by empowering the Community Foundation to administer and distribute grants to local nonprofit organizations to help enrich the lives in Charlotte County.
The Charlotte Community Foundation hosted an awards breakfast — which was sponsored by Fawcett Memorial Hospital on Oct. 3 at Kingsway Country Club — to acknowledge the recipients of the 2019-20 community investment grants.
“Community investment is a central mission of the Charlotte Community Foundation, and we strive each year to enhance the breadth and depth of our nonprofit assistance,” says our executive director, Ashley Maher.
Grants were awarded to the following nonprofits:
¦ Boys and Girls Clubs of Charlotte County. Funds will be used for a new outreach expansion program at Gulf Breeze apartments in Punta Gorda. Scholarships will be provided for up to 60 children who are at risk and/or in low-income households to participate in the after-school program.
¦ Charlotte County Habitat for Humanity. The Housing Improvement Project is a collaboration between Charlotte County Habitat for Humanity and Team Punta Gorda to provide a “hand up” to low-income Punta Gorda homeowners by providing necessary exterior repairs to fragile homes prior to enrolling them in Paint Your Heart Out for exterior painting.
¦ Charlotte HIV/AIDS People Support. Funds will be used to purchase a dedicated vehicle for the transportation of food from the Harry Chapin Food Bank on a regular basis, to provide the needs for its food pantry and direct client services.
¦ Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. Students will be taught throughout the year by their music teachers and Maestro Raffaele Ponti how to use musical instruments and about the interworking of a symphony, to be complemented by participating in an interactive concert in March with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. This program is for all third grade students in Charlotte County.
¦ Girl Scouts of America, Gulfcoast. Funds will be used to support local Charlotte County chapters in order to provide scholarship opportunities for local youth girls.
¦ Guardian ad Litem Foundation, 20th Judicial Circuit. Children’s Needs Program to meet basic needs to stabilize and provide normalcy to children who have been removed from their home and placed in a temporary or foster care home and are assigned to a Guardian ad Litem volunteer child advocate.
¦ Gulf Coast Partnership. Funds will support the need to identify, recruit and retain landlords, manage available rental housing inventory, create a roommate matching program, educate tenants and landlords on legal rights and responsibilities, and support both agencies and landlords throughout the county working to house those who are experiencing homelessness.
¦ Military Heritage Museum. Funds will be used to provide educational opportunities to Charlotte County students by engaging and getting them to participate interactively while learning and preserving our nation’s history.
¦ Punta Gorda History Center. Funds will be used to purchase physical equipment, software and the technical support for an onsite history kiosk, a traveling exhibition framework and software to provide online exhibits.
¦ Suncoast Humane Society. Funds will be used to purchase medical equipment to be used for the mobile “Fido- Fixer” unit, offering spaying and neutering services to the low-income areas within Charlotte County.
¦ Virginia B Andes Volunteer Community
Clinic Inc. Funds will be used to assist with the daily needs of the clinic by providing new equipment (such as physio-control defibrillator, Dragon Medical One dictation software and software to provide automated scheduling services). ¦
— The Charlotte Community Foundation Inc. — whose mission is “Connecting people who care with causes that matter” — is a center for philanthropy focusing exclusively on the needs of Charlotte County by providing personalized donor services to assist individuals in establishing tax advantageous charitable funds, which provide distributions, grants and other resources to support local nonprofits. For more info: www.charlottecf.org or call 941-637-0077.