Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation

In The News

Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation Presents Grants at 2023 Jazz Event

On April 20th at their annual "Jazz Under the Stars" event, the Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation presented two $5,000 Grants. Both "The Twig" and "Family Promise", were recipients in the latest list of grants from the VYCCF for 2023. These special programs demonstrate the essence of caring for families and children at a time when they most need it. Sponsors and donors at the event enjoyed outstanding music from the Venice High School Jazz Band! "The Twig" insures that foster children can shop monthly for clothing and school supplies at no cost to the children nor to the foster family. Through two "Twig Stores" they provide a safe place for them to shop for clothing in a space that brings them dignity, encouragement, and inspiration. Too often, children are placed into foster care when protective services must step in to rescue them from unsafe or unwholesome environments, without any time to bring their own possessions. Since 2017, "The Twig" has served thousands of children and the caring foster parents who provide that safe and supportive environment. "Family Promise of South Sarasota County", provides multiple services: 1) Bridge Housing; 2) Open Doors; and 3) Pathways Home. Depending on the specific needs of the families and their children, they may receive emergency or transitional housing, they may receive assistance to maintain current housing despite employment uncertainties of other crises. Additional services will include Case Management, continuing education, employment counseling and family stability in the face of uncertainty. And now Family Promise is driving programs to establish affordable housing. The VYC Charitable Foundation focuses on fighting homelessness and hunger, protecting the vulnerable, and enabling new dreams for those neighbors amongst us who find themselves needing a hand up and a new opportunity. The Foundation has already presented grants totaling $53,000 since January, with a giving goal for 2023 of $130,000. Our 12-year legacy of grants (cumulatively at $1.1M) is just one more of way caring, to find it in our hearts to give and to lift all our spirits whether we are giving or receiving. The VYC Charitable Foundation is committed to "Charting a Course to a Better Community." To learn more about the VYCCF, go to: http://www.vyccf.com.


(from left to right) Check Presentation to Family Promise (from left to right): Susan Hyland, Beth Piel, Jennifer Fagenbaum, Michael Bacon and Sylvia Hollister

Don Healy
Director, VYCCF, Inc
Media Relations Lead for the VYCCF

Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation Presents $5,000 to Venice Police Department

(from left to right) Don Healy, Chief Charlie Thorpe, Noni Lavelle, Beth Piel, Kevin Collins, Sylvia Hollister, Patrol Captain Leisenring, Ann Van Cott, Dave Slaman share in Grant Presentation

On October 5th the Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation presented a $5,000 Grant to the Venice PD in support of two special programs demonstrating the essence of their motto: "Our Citizens, Our Community, Our Commitment". These two programs are "Shop with a Cop" and "Blue Santa Program."

In the first program, students in need are selected to shop locally with a police officer to purchase back-to-school items such as supplies, clothing, and shoes to facilitate a positive start to the school year. The Blue Santa Program provides toys and gifts to ensure that 60-80 local families have a memorable Christmas. In addition to gifts, families are provided a food basket containing all the ingredients to have a Christmas breakfast and dinner. The VYC Charitable Foundation is proud to join other local organization and individual donors in support of theses outstanding programs. The Foundation focuses on fighting homelessness and hunger, protecting the vulnerable, and enabling new dreams for those neighbors amongst us who find themselves needing a hand up and a new opportunity.

Given that our community has weathered Covid, uncertain economic times and now the impact of a historic hurricane, we must understand that the local needs will be more critical. We are committed to do our part, with a goal of local giving for 2022 of $125,000, a goal which is more than money. It is a goal to demonstrate caring, to find it in our hearts to give and to lift all our spirits whether we are giving or receiving. The VYC Charitable Foundation is committed to "Charting a Course to a Better Community."

Don Healy

Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation Awards Grant to the Venice Urban Forest

Sylvia Hollister 2022 VYCCF Chair, Kevin Collins and Cheryl Hall present grant to Greg Vine, Nancy Woodley, and Phil Ellis of the Urban Forest Team

In early March, the VYC Charitable Foundation awarded a $8,000 grant to the Venice Urban Forest. As part of our mission, the VYCCF has committed to help environmental programs, and this year we have made a significant contribution to this project that will be matched by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation! The Urban Forest was begun in 2018 and in four years has become a 2+ mile long habitat for wildlife, migratory birds, and butterflies along the Intracoastal Waterway running from the Venice Avenue Bridge, all the way to Center Avenue. Of specific concern was establishing a scrub jay habitat as well as planting trees and vegetation that attracts migratory birds on their long flights. These concerns have become critical as many natural green areas have been lost to the explosion of development in Sarasota County. The Urban Forest also creates a quiet outdoor environment for walking, biking or strolling the corridor for personal physical and mental health. The preservation and enhanced vegetation of this stretch of green scape also adds to the Venice Area's Coastal Resiliency. Working with members of the Audubon Society they have been able to confirm a significant increase in species visiting and residing in this habitat. This grant will help purchase additional Scrub Oak Trees, Cedars and Florida natural vegetation for a copious understory, necessary to hold the soil and support the wildlife. Most of the installation effort is provided by local volunteers, with the Sarasota County assisting if heavy equipment is needed.

This environmental project will serve the Venice/South County Community for decades and hopefully will encourage us all to find and preserve green spaces for the future health of our air and the beauty of our bio diversity! As always, the VYC Charitable Foundation is committed to "Charting a Course to a Better Community".

Don Healy,
Past Chair and Media Relations Lead for the VYCCF

Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation Awards $71,800 in 2022
VYCCF committee members, Sylvia Hollister, Barbara Isaacson, Anne Van Cott, and Fran Jeffrey present a grant to Colleen Thayer, NAMI Executive Director, and Rick Thurman, board member.

Since January 2022 the VYCCF has been very busy and focused on awarding grants to the local charities that address issues for our youth, homelessness, Senior Care, mental illness, youth boating, Veteran Services and the environment. These grants supported emergency and transitional housing, meals and medications for Seniors, intervention and therapy for the rising impact of mental illness, and of course service dogs for our returning veterans! This year the Foundation was also able to add a significant gift to the Venice Urban Forest (along the Venice IntraCoastal) that will enhance our local environment and provide shelter for many migratory birds for decades. That grant was matched by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

We would like to highlight three recent grants. On May 23rd the Foundation presented a grant to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) at its Venice Center. A key service includes a “You Are Not Alone” drop-in center for urgent and immediate support located on Tamiami Trail. And on June 2nd the Foundation presented two grants, one to Child Protection Services of Venice, to insure safe and successful family counseling sessions so that we help save and rebuild the most important of all safe havens: the family! The second grant was presented to Family Haven for the work they do in providing emergency and transitional housing to families in need. All three grants were for $5,000.

With these three grants, the VYCCF has now gifted approximately $71,800 to Venice area charities at the halfway mark of 2022.

Don Healy,
Past Chair and Media Relations Lead for the VYCCF

Check presentation on Nov. 4, 2021 for Special Operation Warrior Foundation.

Sandy Welch and Sylvia Hollister from VYCCF, in the center Sean Corrigan COL (retired) Executive Vice President of Special Operations Warrior Foundation.
Key Presentation to Owner of 7th Habitat for Humanity House Sponsored by VYC.



$5000 Grant Presentation to Child Protection Center at Comedy Club Event

$5000 Family Haven Grant Presentation: Philomena Pereira, CEO Catholic Charities Accepting

VYCCF April Visit to Southeastern Guide Dogs ... $5,000 Grant to Help Veterans and Sight Impaired!

Our Mothers House - $5000 Grant at 4th Annual Ride for a Better Community

Big Brothers and Big Sisters - $5000.00 Grant to Support Reading BIGS Program

Family Promise - $5000.00 Grant in April to Assist Area Homeless Families

Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation Advances Grants Due to the COVID-19 Crisis!

In Early March (Pre COVID) the VYC Charitable Foundation presented a $2,500 Grant to Twig of Venice

This is a time for action! The unprecedented COVID-19 Virus has upended our lives! The Venice Yacht Club Charitable Foundation traditionally supports local charities that focus on fighting hunger, homelessness, abuse, and fostering child literacy and programs for returning veterans. We have done so since the VYCCF’s inception in 2010, granting over $750,000. to that mission! Ordinarily we pace our grants with four to five annual fund raising events throughout the year, but this is not just any year.

Our community of need is under siege like never before. Single moms and hourly workers are losing their income. Children who receive their nutritious lunch program are out of school. Daycare centers and all our schools are closing, causing havoc for working families , especially for our first responders and medical personnel whom we need on the front lines!. Organizations focused on housing homeless families and children are losing sources of traditional support, volunteers, and contributions...as our world is warned to shutter in place.

This is not just any year, this is not just any fight, this is a defining moment that tests our spirit of "caring for all as we would want to be cared for". In this spirit, our Foundation, even as we are postponing fund raising events, has decided to advance our grant schedule; we are announcing five $5,000 grants to be issued immediately to assist the following charities who are already feeling the impact and increasing needs due to this viral pandemic. We are also researching the impacts on other charities we traditionally support, preparing to assist with the necessary and appropriate actions.

Those immediate grants are for:

  • All Faiths Food Bank; which has swung into action with its "summer" lunch program at remote locations and distribution points, as schools have closed ending our children's reliance on the school lunch program.
  • Family Promise of South Sarasota County; who has lost its housing sources due to closures, and must rent motel/hotel space for a growing population of homeless families.
  • Family Haven of Catholic Charities; who is battling to sustain or rescue families caught in the immediate cycle of loss of wages, sudden homelessness, and illness without medical insurance.
  • Our Mothers House in Venice; who had to close its daycare staffed by volunteers, had to close its early learning program for the children of the single mothers housed there, and whose traditional sources of paper and baby products are dwindling.
  • Sky Family YMCA of Venice; which had to close many of its services, is courageously maintaining the services of its Camp and Early Learning services to care for children of working families, and have expanded to include the children of first responders and medical personnel, who need to know their children are safe as they are pressed to care for us.

We hope those of you who have the health and resources to care for others will join us. Please find ways to contribute directly to working charities or Foundations (like the Gulf Coast Community Foundation) who are directing funds to the most dire community needs! We will get through this together; let’s look back on this as a time of courage and caring!

Submitted by Don Healy, Media Relations Lead for the VYCCF