Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation

We are moving forward! We are pleased to announce that our endowment fund has reached almost $100,000 and that now more of your donations will flow sooner into the community to make a greater impact. Going forward, 80% of your donations will be granted each year, with a minimum annual grant of 10% of our endowment fund. Also, to better serve the community and the charitable giving wishes of our VYC members, we have added a new category of grants, Civic. The next grant cycle closes on May 1. You are encouraged to submit grant applications on behalf of your favorite local charities that support youth boating, health and education, veterans and active military, the environment and Civic. Applications are simple and can be found under the Charitable Foundation tab on the VYC web site. A list of all grants made by the VYCCF can be found on the web site. Please look to see how your Foundation is making a difference in our community with over $60,000 in grants to date. Please help us make a difference by donating to your Foundation.

This month, we highlight our grant to Our Mother’s House to purchase cribs and mattresses. Dewey and Michael met Program Director Joyce Scott to tour the facilities. Our Mother’s House, a program of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Venice, is focused on helping mothers help themselves. They provide individual apartments to 17 single mothers, each with up to two children from two weeks to three years old at entry. Mothers stay with the program for up to two years while enrolled in school or employed. The youngest children attend an on-site Early Head Start program which develops the skills and abilities needed to enter public school. Mothers participate in weekly training on self-esteem, nutrition, parenting, budgeting, etc. to develop life skills for independence and self-sufficiency. The 17 mothers receive guidance from two full time social workers, a very high level of support. Joyce Scott says the program is all about choices the mothers can choose to make: choices to reinvent themselves, choices to rebuild their lives, choices to do better. The VYCCF is proud to have made the choice to support the very good work of Our Mother’s House.

Our appreciation goes to Jack Murphy, who has become our Foundation’s official photographer, and to Mike Frank, who has donated his time to make many enhancements to our web page. We thank you both for your support.

We have updated our web page to recognize those VYC members who have so far donated almost $26,000 to our 2013 annual fund drive. Please donate to add your name to the list. We have added a one-step “Donate Now” button to our web page that will take you directly to our page at Gulf Coast Community Foundation to make a contribution by credit card. We thank P/C Bob and Beth Piel for making a donation to the Foundation in honor of the 2012 VYC volunteers. A donation to your Foundation is a nice way to honor or remember someone and is recognized separately in our published Donor List.

Michael F. Nemser, Chairperson
Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation

DuPont Snowden, Vice-Chairperson
Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation