Good News Friday: Good Deeds - Sept. 4, 2015
CS&L CPAs held a school supply drive in August to benefit the Lily School, a preschool program of Easter Seals of Southwest Florida. Employees brought in notebooks, pencils, crayons, paint, construction paper and other school essentials and art supplies for the students as part of the CS&L CAREs program.
Re/Max Alliance Group agents and staff helped raise $1,370 for Goodwill Manasota and Meals on Wheels PLUS of Manatee during the Good Wheels Challenge. Employees took turns riding stationary bikes set up at two Re/Max Alliance Group offices in Bradenton and Sarasota; their coworkers donated money for the amount of time or mileage each rider spent.
Coastal Orthopedics Sports Medicine and Pain Management staff collected approximately 10 pounds of garbage and one pound of recyclables during a coastal cleanup is hosted along the Bradenton Riverwalk. The 30-minute walk and cleanup was attended by 183 people.
Gateway Bank has partnered with Sport Clips of Bradenton and South Sarasota to raise funds for the American Heart Association’s Sarasota-Manatee 2015 Heart Walk that takes place Sept. 12 at Nathan Benderson Park. Shaun P. Merriman, president and CEO of Gateway and chairman of the Heart Walk, has set an area fund-raising goal of $195,000 Nick Choat, a Gateway Bank client and owner of Sports Clips franchises, has offered to donate proceeds from sales Sept. 5-12 to the Gateway Bank walking team.
CareerEdge Funders Collaborative received $170,000 from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, and awarded $50,000 of those funds to the Charlotte County Public Schools to be used at Charlotte Technical and the Adult Center for a Bridges to Careers Program. The program begins this fall and will run through January 2017. JP Morgan Chase Foundation also awarded $150,000 to support Bridges to Careers trainings in Sarasota and Bradenton and for further expansion of the TDL Tampa Bay employer partnership model in the Pinellas and Tampa Bay areas.
Suncoast Charities for Children partnered with Friends of Sarasota County Parks and the Surfrider Foundation for a weekend cleanup on Lido Beach. More than 30 volunteers turned out to show support for keeping area beaches clean.
AMI Outfitters Coastal Gear and Apparel on Anna Maria Island donated boxes of new clothing and shoes with a total retail value of $6,500 to Learn to Fish, the nonprofit residential facility in Manatee County helping abused women learn recovery skills.
Embracing Our Differences received a $4,000 grant from the Our Sarasota Fund and the McCauley-Brown Fund of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County for its work in promoting gender and LGBT equality. The funds will be used to develop and present a three-day Diversity Institute workshop for area educators in June 2016.