The William G. and Marie Selby Foundation has awarded more than $656,000 in need-based scholarships to 154 new and returning scholars from Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee, and Sarasota county high schools. Additionally, the foundation has made institutional awards totaling $231,000 that will benefit students attending University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, Charlotte Technical College, Suncoast Technical College, Manatee Technical College and State College of Florida. Awards are made by those institutions to students based on financial need. 

The Selby Foundation also awarded its second quarter “Small and Mighty” grants totaling $24,155 to four area nonprofits. These awards will be used for capital purchases and technology upgrades that allow the organizations to more effectively expand on delivering their mission to the community. The recipients are Creative Arts Academy, Making an Impact Inc., The Fine Arts Society of Sarasota Inc. and We Care Manatee.

Second Heart Homes purchased a property in Bradenton on June 9 to expand its program capacity to serve 43 men and women. The purchase of the new property was enabled by a $300,000 grant from the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation.

The Child Protection Center has been awarded $10,000 from the William and Harriet Sturdevant Memorial Charitable Trust for ongoing support of its Personal Safety and Community Awareness (PSCA) program.

The Education Foundation of Sarasota County has announced two Suncoast Credit Union Scholars Scholarship recipients. The $2,000 one-time scholarships are awarded each year to high school seniors planning to attend a four-year or two-year college, university, or technical school in Florida. The scholarship recipients are Abigail Koester and Diana “Nicole” Valero

The Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation has granted $5,000 to the Library Foundation for Sarasota County to fund an educational music garden at the Frances T. Bourne Jacaranda Public Library in Venice. This outdoor interactive music installation will include life-sized instruments designed for sensory engagement and music exploration. It will foster spontaneous music-making for library patrons of all ages and provide a year-round venue for early literacy programming. Music gardens are shown to enhance motor skills, support social development, and increase language acquisition in young children.

Gulf Coast Community Foundation’s board of directors recently approved more than $3.3 million in grants. Grant recipients include The Bay Park, The Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce’s CareerEdge program, and the Education Foundation of Sarasota County.

CareerEdge also received a $25,000 grant from Bank of America to expand the organization’s Bridges to Careers training programs and on-the-job training. 

Booker High School was recently the beneficiary of a $30,000 donation from Personalized Estate Liquidation Benefiting Youth, Inc. (PEL).  These funds will be used for scholarships to help Booker High graduates continue their education in college or technical schools.

Halfacre Construction Company recently donated $1,000 to a new construction technology program launching at Riverview High School. The high school is the first in the area to develop its own program and will utilize hands-on experiences in the construction and trades industry alongside the National Center for Construction Education & Research (NCCER) curriculum to meet industry standards.

Goodwill Manasota recently received a grant of $10,000 from the Manatee Community Foundation to provide upskilling opportunities for area veterans and military spouses. The funding will be used to place eligible individuals into a training program that results in a post-secondary credential, with the goal of helping participants to be placed into employment, or receive a raise or promotion, within 12 months of training.