$1,000 and a Whole Lotta Inspiration

Thursday night, 75 plus people, a coaches dream, a former Tar Heel Footbal Player's philanthropy, a little dose of Durham Mayor Bill Bell's words for political importance, and a framed certificate.. with a promise, a guarantee, for a bright future, and a thousand dollars.

A Thousand Dollars. For College Tuition. Not Now. Not Next Year. Perhaps not even the year after that. Some of the Kids who were the recipients of this award may not see the funding come to fruition for years. They are only tweens. But what they got on Thursday is priceless.

The Durham Eagles. http://www.durhameagles.com/

A focused and intense football team like no other. Parents, coaches, mentors- all there to make sure the kids succeed.

Scott Stankavage, a believer of this effort and a donor who has a family fund with us at the Foundation, gave over 25, $ 1,000 scholarships to Durham Eagles players- to be cashed when they get into college: " I'm Fired Up," he said, " You're going to College. Your Coaches Believe In You."

I don't know about you, but next time you're needing some inspiration, just take a look at the first picture on this posting- Young Romelle and his certificate. I think Scott is making the right investment.

Celebrating Earth Day, Promoting Triangle Gives Back

The Moore Power team hawked Triangle Gives Back marketing materials at the Earth Day Celebration at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh this past Saturday, sponsored by Burts' Bees, our great partner. Even with their great ability, they couldn't compete with the 80% off sale at the Burts Bees tent!

We decided that Kadie, the Bazan rescue dog, will become the TGB mascot. Did she get more attention than the philanthropy message ??

But seriously, what a great day it was.

Weather: perfect score.

People: no complainers.

Interest in the Triangle Gives Back message: Top Notch.

We feel good to see so many intrigued by what we are trying to build here with this effort. It's not an easy one to explain- as Robyn puts it: "getting involved in causes that you care about."

As some of you know who read this blog, I am big on not speaking philanthrospeak- but people GOT what she said. Not sure if it was the crowd that attended this event (a large crowd, I must say), but there was genuine interest from folks to learn about the TGB initiative, how to get engaged, involved in the community.

It's also apparent that we need more funding for Triangle Gives Back. And that's where the frustration sometimes comes. We only have limited $$. Very generous funding allocated by the Board of the Foundation, but it's still limited. The potential of the TriangleGivesBack.org message is limited because we can only spread the message so far with events...

But as we ended the day, we realized: cute kids and dogs can only help (also a plus: cheap Burts' Bees products). We also felt energized by the positive reception of this first public festival as a TGB community.

Thank you Dan for your creativity and ideas...

John Replogle- did I give you enough of a plug?

Thank you to my girls for their time and talent..(?)

And to all who stopped by the learn, please sign up!

www.trianglegivesback.org

Addressing Poverty Head on..

Gene Nichol is one a shining star at Carolina. We’re lucky to have him back after his tenure at William & Mary. I’ve always admired his passion, tenacity, laser-sharp focus on policy issues that matter…

So I was happy to be part of a conference that he and his colleague Heather Hunt organized on Friday- as part of their roles at the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. Great speakers. Good thinking. I got to visit with Congressman Brad Miller, who represents NC’s 13th district. I’ve known Brad for many years- and his remarks on Friday were one of the best I’ve heard him deliver. He was, for many years, a state legislative leader and won a seat in Congress after the 2000 Census created a new district for our state. He and I have at times said it was because the Latino population made our community numbers swell (the Mormons in Utah had a different story..). In any case, during his speech, Rep. Miller focused on the housing crisis and talked about some of the work he’s trying to lead and be part up in DC.
“A family’s home must be its most, not its least, protected asset. The middle class is still trapped in debt.”
I haven’t seen Brad as passionate about an issue and as fired up about something so important in a while- and with good reason. It’s good to see a NC congressman who is now serving on some important committees, quote the Dixie Chicks and say

“I’m not ready to make nice”

when it comes to this.. much more needs to happen if we are going to help the families who are being affected.

I appreciate the hard work he’s doing- not an easy job these days, especially for someone who is representing a district where a lot of these jobs have been lost and a lot of families are the ones who he’s fighting for. We ended the conference trying to come up with SOLUTIONS- that was my panel, though not sure we fully succeeded. Gene took the charge, saying the center will follow up. I think this is just the beginning.

I do believe the recession is giving us all a unique opportunity to pull together and do things differently. But it must be more than talk. It must be in the form of specific, direct legislation affecting people- much like what Congressman Miller is trying to do.

Send a Kid to Camp gets a Boost

Send a Kid to Camp- one of our favorite programs- has been around since the start of the Foundation. Supported by all kinds of loyal partners and donors from all over, 6,000 kids have been able to go to camp over that time.

Last summer, we were able to send about 230 kids to camp- it's one of those programs that we gotta keep promoting and letting people know about. Who can argue with the fact that every child needs a chance to spend at least one week at a summer camp activity? Instead of in front of a TV? Or on the couch. But, support has dwindled some over the last couple of years- and the way the program works, we can only support as many kids as we raise money for-

We rely on free media to advertise the program. This year, The News&Observer- a long time partner, has had to decline its support. Thankfully, the Herald Sun will continue to run free ads highlighting the kids. These ads bring in great donations from Triangle residents. You should see some of the notes that come with the checks. Touching. "I couldn't go to camp and wish I had, so here, I hope this helps." or "I remember my counselor, he/she made a big difference in my life."

We are working hard at TCF to grow Send a Kid to Camp. Our coordinator Libby Long could not be better! and we are getting some fans of the program. How could we not??

So, as we begin our 2009 SKC Fan list, we are including the Carolina Hurricanes.

Here we are receiving a nice grant from the Carolina Hurricanes Kids 'N Community Foundation, last night at the Playoff game. An exciting night. We are looking forward to a good partnership with the Canes. Together with the grant, they invited us to bring 125 kids/nonprofits to join us at the game. Must have been good karma. They beat the Islanders 9-0.

www.kidsToCamp.net

Go Canes!

Staff holiday party.. in April???

Yes, we finally had our Holiday Staff party- today, Monday MORNING, April 6th. It's pretty bad when: 1) you can't find a date in November, December or even January to get all the staff together to celebrate and 2) the only date you do find is on a Monday morning! So we planned a hike. Outdoors. Eno Park. Of course major thunderstorms took place. In true TCF spirit- we were not deterred (that, or the planning committee said- 'we are not gonna try to plan this thing again!'). So we made do with games and a great lunch at Niko's.

Can you guess what our dignified lawyer, Robin, is doing here? What rhymes with arugula??

Ahem. After working nonstop for what seemed like weeks and months, this was a nice break. We are lucky to have great staff to work with -- we haven't been named "Best Place to work in the Triangle" for nothin'!

And, the word philanthropy was not mentioned.. or maybe just once or twice..

25th Anniversary Benefit Gala: A Smashing Success

We did it! And Here's the Proof...Thank you Everyone

On the Eve of the BIG Celebration...

Well. Here we are. Just a few hours away from the Foundation's 25th anniversary benefit Gala. And what an event this promises to be. Happy to be working with Billy Warden and Greg Behr again. What fun, creative guys! I may not have been writing about this here, but let me tell you, it's consumed a lot of my time.. And Tracy's. And Kelly's. Notice their (beautiful) necklaces on the picture above. They got that as a small bribe today so they could make it just a few more hours... There have been some snags...Scripts, chapstick questions, the dramatic dessert!, the entertainment!, agh.

But that what it takes to mark 25 years, 130 million in grants, and so much history..

More to come...