Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation

Fellow Members,
I am pleased to report the Music of the Night Gala held on October 11 was a big success. We had over 160 people attend and raised about $18,000 to benefit the new Venice Performing Arts Center (VPAC). Special thanks to Karen Hall for chairing the party and to Melinda Short for keeping track of all the numbers. We are creating a VPAC Fund for Excellence. The $18,000 will be used for grants to promote, support, and enhance the artists and programs at VPAC. The Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation will approve the grants from this fund.

In addition to the $18,000 for VPAC, our regular grant cycle ended on October 31. At the time of this writing, we anticipate having about $11,000 to award at our November 18 meeting to review the grant requests and make awards.

The Foundation policy is to set aside 20% of all unrestricted donations to add to our endowment fund at Gulf Coast Community Foundation. We currently have about $55,000 in the endowment fund. We are considering the future plans for the endowment and whether to start funding a scholarship program next year.

I want to welcome Judy Wilcox to our Foundation Committee. The other committee members are Melinda Short, John Moore, Jack Murphy, and Merle Graser. Warren Major will join us after the University of Michigan football season is over. We need more committee members. Please let me or Commodore Dowling know if you are interested.

Respectfully submitted,
Wayne Hall, Chairperson

VYCCF Committee:
Wayne Hall - Chair, Bill Dowling, Merle Graser, John Moore, Jack Murphy, Melinda Short and Judith Wilcox