INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — CASTLE (Child Abuse Services, Training, & Life Enrichment), the Education Foundation of Indian River County, the Ocean Research and Conservation Association (ORCA) and Sebastian Charter Junior High School were each awarded $100,000 transformational grants by members of Indian River County Impact 100 at the Fourth Annual Grant Meeting, held Thursday afternoon at the Indian River State College Richardson Center.
Representatives from six local non-profit organizations had each given impassioned five-minute entreaties to the philanthropic membership, which this year consisted of 416 women. With these latest grants, $1,185,000 has been raised and distributed to area non-profits by the generous ladies of Impact 100 in just four impactful years.
“This is the power of women – just look at the women in this room!” said Sue Tompkins, Impact 100 outgoing board president at the start of the presentation.
She credited Ellie McCabe, Lenore Ritchie and Kerry Bartlett with introducing the idea of an Impact 100 chapter in Indian River County as a way to pool resources and gift a significant, transformational $100,000 grant. The initial goal to recruit 100 women, each donating $1,000, has been surpassed with record numbers each year
Tompkins also recognized Wilmington Trust for their ongoing support as the sole sponsor of its membership and annual meetings, and thanked all the dedicated volunteers who served on the various boards and committees adding, “We have amazing talent embedded in our membership base.”
CASTLE will utilize the grant to create a home-based Safe Families Volunteers program to provide education and support to lower risk families, strengthening the families and keeping children safe.
“When it comes to child abuse, complacency is dangerous,” said Doug Borrie, CASTLE assistant executive director. “We know children raised in stable, loving homes do better.”
The Education Foundation will use its grant to fund a secure network system called ForeScout Counteract, which will allow students to have safe classroom Internet access, enriching and enhancing education.
“You are Impact 100; our project is impact 17,000,” said Cynthia Falardeau, Education Foundation executive director. “We are creating thinkers for our future with real-time learning that’s not outdated.”
ORCA’s Save the Water Babies project will give students a real-world science and education experience as the basis of an initiative to understand how community actions and inactions contribute to the health of the Indian River Lagoon.
Dr. Edie Widder, ORCA president and senior scientist spoke of the Lagoon’s progressive decline and said, “We want to show the next generation that they can make a difference. Make these students understand the challenges they face and the solutions they can institute.”
Sebastian Charter Junior High School, which is building a new school to replace its modular units, will use the grant to purchase furnishings and equipment including computers, interactive white boards, science lab desks and clinic equipment for a project they call Fully Equipped and Ready to Learn.
“We are doing more with less,” said Amy Banov, who serves on the school’s volunteer board. “There is no more important resource than our children.”
The remaining $16,000 was split evenly between the other two finalists – the Environmental Learning Center, for interactive exhibits and a high school docent program, and the Humane Society of Vero Beach and Indian River County to expand upon its low-cost Animal Wellness Clinic as a way to keep animals from being surrendered due to economic hardship.
“We’re really excited about next year,” said Jane Coyle, who assumed the role of president at the conclusion of the meeting. “We’ve focused in the past on increasing the membership. We’re one of the largest and fastest growing Impact 100s in the country. We now want to look at broadening and deepening our grants process and our relationship with the 501 (c) 3 agencies. The transformational idea is a hard one, and we want to help them to think outside the box; to work with them to come up with and develop their program ideas.”