Each year, SRQ Media invites the community to nominate individuals with hearts of giving who have made a significant impact with local nonprofit organizations — from volunteers and board members to individual staff members and donors. This year, attendees were thrilled to be together as we recognized our annual Good Hero Philanthropic Award recipients at the SB2: Philanthropic Agenda Luncheon and Good Hero Philanthropic Awards Luncheon on Thursday, December 9, 2021 at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota. In the coming weeks, we are happy to feature each of the twelve honorees in our Wednesday Philanthropic edition of SRQ Daily.

Today we are honoring Erin Minor, Executive Director of Harvest House. Erin has worked tirelessly to help families and children with housing support, addiction recovery, and workforce development. The word “no” doesn’t exist in her lexicon. When the pandemic struck, she doubled down on her efforts to secure new resources, collaborate with others and ensure that no one was turned away from her door. Erin and her team kept the shelves of the Harvest House Food Pantry stocked for anyone in the community who needed a helping hand. Despite the challenges of her work, she performs it with grace—always with love and without judgment. Thank you, Erin for your commitment to finding your way through the storm.

Pictured: Erin Minor (center) with Wes Roberts, SRQ Media Vice President and Executive Publisher (left) and Arthur Lerman of JFCS. Photo taken by Wyatt Kostygan.

Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation recently awarded four grants totaling more than $4 million. Two of the grants will support SMH in the expansion of its Rehabilitation Pavilion and the purchase of high-tech ultrasound systems at SMH-Sarasota.

$3,910,000 was granted to add six new inpatient rehabilitation rooms at SMH-Sarasota. The grant will help fund construction, information technology and furnishings. The expansion will allow more patients recovering from an illness or injury to receive medical, rehabilitation and mobility care in the state-of-the-art pavilion. $120,032 was provided to help purchase two Sonosite PX Ultrasound systems for the Emergency Care Center at SMH-Sarasota. The new point-of-care visualization tools will enhance patient care by providing advanced image clarity when treating and diagnosing patients. $44,000 was awarded to Good Samaritan Pharmacy & Health Services to fund prescription medications for indigent patients supplied by the all-volunteer community pharmacy for a two-year period. $21,000 was granted to the USF Foundation and USF College of Nursing for partial funding of a collaborative nursing program with SMH, “Excellence in Nursing During COVID and Beyond.” The pilot program will provide SMH nurses and USF nursing students mentoring and preceptorships designed to improve their health and wellness and promote resiliency during critical nursing shortages now and in the future.

“The ability to award grants to help provide state-of-the-art medical facilities, technology, enhanced patient care and clinical staff wellness programs speaks to our mission at the Healthcare Foundation,” said Mason Ayres, president of the Healthcare Foundation. “We are grateful to our supporters who are helping strengthen healthcare for our community.” 

SRQ MEDIA recognizes nonprofits who have the ability to lean into change in the face of either challenge or opportunity. The Change Agents in Philanthropy Awards focus on the capacity of the independent sector to be innovative in the face of change in fundraising, donor cultivation and development, mission, programming, branding and visibility and operations. We invite the community to nominate local nonprofits, local nonprofit programs and individuals who have embraced change and leveraged innovative thinking, strategies and practices in engaging their organization to more powerfully realize its mission.

The Change Agent Catalyst organizations who will be represented in the panel discussion at the SB2 | Transformation in Philanthropy Luncheon on Thursday, March 10, 2022 are: All Faiths Food Bank; Children First; Neuro Challenge Foundation for Parkinson’s; Resilient Retreat; Education Foundation of Sarasota County. Every week leading up to the event, we will highlight one of our incredible panelists and his/her organization.

Today, we are pleased to highlight Sara Grivetti, Chief Executive Officerfor Neuro Challenge Foundation for Parkinson’s. Sara brings to the organization nearly 30 years of experience in healthcare and disability services. She holds a master’s degree and doctorate in Rehabilitation Counseling from Michigan State University. Her research includes adjustment to disability and chronic health issues. Throughout the pandemic, Sara and her team had to change all of their programs to be virtual. This led to an opportunity to connect with entire families spread throughout the country to discuss patients' disease and care. 

Houseplants are known to have a lot of mental and physical health benefits, such as, improving your mood, lowering stress and improving work performance and focus. With Google searches for ‘houseplants’ increasing by 200% over the last year, experts at Clear It Waste Collection decided to conduct a Reddit study to see which houseplants are the most talked about online. In first place is the Pothos plant, with 10,205 Reddit posts. The Pothos plant ranks the highest overall, with over 5000 post mentions in the r/houseplant and r/plantclinic subreddits. It is known as one of the easiest to care for houseplants as it requires minimal watering. This plant is particularly great for darker offices and workspaces as it requires little sunlight and attention. The second most talked about plant on Reddit is the Philodendron, with 10,136 Reddit posts. The Philodendron grows well as an indoor plant, and doesn’t need direct sunlight in order to grow - perfect for the winter season! In third place is the Snake Plant, with 10,123 Reddit posts. Snake plants are known to have a lot of health benefits, including filtering indoor air and boosting mental health. This plant was particularly popular in the r/houseplant subreddit. In fourth and fifth place, respectively, are Spider Plants(10,098) and Peperomia(9,666). 

Link to the full dataset available here.

The Manatee County Library System is seeking community input through an online survey to name a new library branch, currently under construction at 16410 Rangeland Parkway in Lakewood Ranch on the Premier Campus. The brief, three-question online survey asks participants to rate three names in order of preference: Lakewood Ranch Library, Manatee County Library at Lakewood Ranch and Manatee County Library East County Branch. The second question is an option to enter a suggested name. The survey can be accessed at bit.ly/LibraryNameSurvey until end of day on March 8, 2022. Manatee County’s six other library branches are named for their location: Downtown (which was originally “Central” because that’s where the Administrative Offices are housed), Braden River, Rocky Bluff, Island, South Manatee and Palmetto. With the exception of the Rocky Bluff Branch Library in Ellenton, all location names help indicate approximately what city or region of the county each is located. Rocky Bluff was named after a three-foot ledge (consisting of fuller’s earth and limestone) that hung above the Manatee River about a mile from the library. Geologist Angelo Heilprin reported his findings during an expedition of Florida’s West Coast in 1886. 

Asolo Repertory Theatre’s Education & Engagement team announces an exciting lineup of creative camps for young artists ages 6 to 14 this summer. The weeklong sessions run July 5 through Aug. 5, and each week of camp brings a new and exciting theme, so campers can choose to attend more than one session. Participants of all experience levels will have the opportunity to blossom and hone their theatrical skills in a creative, playful and welcoming environment.

The adventure kicks off July 5-8 with a compact Drama Days Mini-camp, which invites campers to choose as many camp days during the week as they’d like. Each day is themed for a new adventure to ignite the imagination and spark creativity. Artistic Adventurers Summer Camp, for ages 6 to 7, encourages students to dream big and experience bold new stories as they build teamwork and creative problem-solving skills through theatre. Camp runs July 11 – Aug. 5, and weekly themes include Quest!, Miniature Worlds, Go Wild! and Enchantment. Courageous Creating Summer Camp is for 8 to 10-year olds who are eager to create, collaborate and discover. This camp introduces students to storytelling structures and drama skills as they bring stories and characters to life. Weekly themes for July 11 – Aug. 5 are Quest!, Miniature Worlds, Do Different! and Campamento Encanto. The TheatreMakers Lab Summer Camp engages young artists ages 11 to 14 as they learn about the methods of theatrical storytelling, ignite a creative fire and see the world through new eyes. Students are invited to “explode stories,” looking at every aspect of the theatre development process, including performance, design, writing, building and more. Themes for the July 11 – Aug. 5 weekly camps include Quest!, Miniature Worlds, Be Bold! and Theatre Magic.

For more information click here