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Grantee Stories:
      Boys & Girls Club of Martin County
      Demetrius Klein Dance Company: Urban/Land/Scapes Project 
      Florida Stage 
      Habitat for Humanity of Martin County
      Horses and the Handicapped of South Florida
      Martin County Grade Project
      Pine Jog Environmental Education Center at Florida Atlantic University
       
   
Boys & Girls Club of Martin County
In a tight economy that makes grants and governmental aid for the non-profit community even more difficult to secure, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Martin County proved on June 16 that funds can go far. On that day, Club officials – with the help of Club members who took a break from the fun of the first day of summer camp – were proud to unveil a new computer laboratory at the East Tenth Street Recreation Center, made possible with a small grant. Ten Dell monitors and computers, running Windows XP with Pentium 4 processors, were purchased with just $2,500 contributed by the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties. Previously, Club members were frustrated with a handful of extremely out-of-date, slow computers that were donated years ago. “This really means a lot to the children of East Stuart,” said Ayana Gary, the site coordinator for the Boys & Girls Clubs. “Now they can finally have the opportunity to explore the digital arts and the Internet as part of our comprehensive youth development program.”

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Martin County, in existence since 1992, strives to enable and inspire all young people, especially those who need us the most, to reach their full potential as responsible, caring and productive citizens. With this mission, trained professionals organize a curriculum that includes the creative arts, community service learning, health classes, reading clubs and sports. With the modern advances of today’s society, technology often can play a big role in all initiatives. The large laboratory was a result of a collaboration with the Florida LEAP Program, which connects non-profit agencies like the Boys & Girls Clubs of Martin County with refurbished, state-of-the-art computers. Such collaborations are crucial in today’s economy; the Boys & Girls Clubs partner with the city of Stuart Parks & Recreation Department, the city of Stuart’s police department and Tykes & Teens, a youth mental health non-profit agency, for the East Stuart program, which is funded generously by the Children’s Services Council of Martin County.

The new computer laboratory also benefits from a free software package from Microsoft, which donated the Magic School Bus Suite and Microsoft Student, desktop software that includes in-depth tips for writing essays, an encyclopedia and graphing calculators for algebra and calculus studies. Club officials also added programs for music making, photo editing, Web design and digital art production, as well as Google Earth and a program from the World Food Program, which teaches the importance of hunger issues throughout the globe. On Monday, children from the Club’s culinary program catered the event with delicious treats, while other Club members provided tours of the freshly painted facility. Many children also got their first experience of working and playing with a state-of-the-art computer. Still, Club officials hope to expand the technological offerings at the East Tenth Street facility. A digital projector, video camera, digital camera, laser printers and a computer outfitted with the ability to edit digital video projects are still needed. “Funding is harder and harder to come by, and collaborations such as these make every dollar count,” said Anne McCormick, the executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Martin County. “We’re doing what we can to stretch every penny, and that results in a bigger benefit for our community’s children!”

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Demetrius Klein Dance Company: Urban/Land/Scapes Project
The Urban/Land/Scapes Project is a series of site-specific dance art and music installations. The Urban/Land/Scapes Project was performed during the 2007-2008 season, and will be continued further into the 2008-2009 season. The Urban/Land/Scapes project was performed at: the Old School Square Gymnasium in Delray Beach, at 711 North Dixie Highway in downtown West Palm Beach, in the courtyard at Palm Beach Community College, at the Riviera Beach Marina, and in front of the old Pahokee High School. Five more venues will be selected for continuing performances for the 2008 2009 season. These venues will be dispersed geographically throughout Palm Beach County. The Urban/Land/Scapes project is designed to bring live dance performance to audiences and communities where this work would not normally happen. Each of the performances of the Urban/Land/Scapes project are mixed to be different from one another with the new choreographic, musical and visual
compositions included for each site and each community.
 

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Florida Stage: Children of Conflict                                                                  

Children of Conflict, an educational initiative developed by Florida Stage and implemented during the 2007-2008 season, is bringing together groups of people in three countries in a unique and important way. Students, teachers, and adult theatre artists in Kosovo, Rwanda, and West Palm Beach, Florida, are exploring what it means to be part of a culture that has recently suffered conflict or war. 

The project began with Theatre for Young Audiences/USA facilitating “internet introductions” for Florida Stage with several international theatre companies whose mission and work often deals with issues of conflict and social transformation. Mashirika Creative and Performing Arts Group in Kigali, Rwanda and the Center for Children’s Theatre Development in Pristina, Kosovo responded enthusiastically to the idea of this project.  Here in West Palm Beach, the project was offered as an elective class for seniors at G-STAR School of the Arts.  The class has been team-taught by drama teacher Jeff Bower and playwright/filmmaker Robert Goodrich; the project is being developed and coordinated by Susan Hyatt, Florida Stage’s Director of Education.

Children of Conflict connects the students at these three sites primarily through a website on which all the students post discussion threads, photos, video, monologues, stories, and visual art in order to share their own culture and explore those of their international counterparts. Because the cost of technology was prohibitive for the Rwandan students, Florida Stage sent a laptop computer to Mashirika; this enabled the students there to participate fully in the project.  The theatre also sent a video camera to CCTD in Kosovo, as the students there were much more comfortable speaking English rather than writing it.  The three groups of students also assembled “culture boxes” containing local newspapers, t-shirts, candy, and other small items and sent them to their counterparts in the other nations. 

From these interactions, the US students created an artistic response in the form of theatre, film, written word, song, and other media.  The developing work was posted to the website for the Kosovan and Rwandan students to view and respond to. The project’s first year culminated in April 2008 with a performance of the piece at Florida Stage.  The event was professionally taped and posted to the project’s website so that the international partners could enjoy and discuss it, as well.

As Mr. Neziraj said when discussing the project with a reporter from the Palm Beach Post, “[U]unfortunately, war does not end when the war ends…this is the process of the project: to make people change...to make children aware of some issues they had not thought of before.”  The grant from the Community Foundation has enabled Florida Stage’s Children of Conflict project to contribute to the fostering of that awareness.
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Habitat for Humanity  of Martin County: Act! Give! Share!

Habitat Martin is a non-profit, volunteer-driven organization that extends the opportunity to purchase simple, decent, affordable homes to local families who would not otherwise have that chance. Three key resources are necessary in order to make homeownership a reality for Habitat partner families: funds, volunteers and advocacy.

Habitat for Humanity will build 58 affordable homes in Martin County.  Each home will require a commitment of 2000 volunteer hours, financial contributions averaging $861 per day for 108 days and the dedication of innumerable individuals speaking on behalf of the program.  Habitat relies strictly on the generosity and commitment of our neighbors and partner families to provide these resources, and to make safe, affordable housing a matter of conscience and action in our community.    

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Horses and the Handicapped of South Florida, Molly's Story  

Molly Murphy was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at just nine months old.  For most with this debilitating birth defect, walking would be nothing short of a miracle. But Molly Murphy can do more than just walk, she can dance. But to really understand what makes Molly Murphy dance, you simply need to understand her positive attitude and the optimism that defies the debilitating effects of the disease.  “Everyone has issues of confidence but for a person with a disability, it’s different,” says Molly, a 19-year-old student at the University of Tampa who still walks with a gait that telegraphs the disease. “Now I know I can do whatever I really want to do.”

Molly says her 12 years as a Horses and the Handicapped student not only helped her physically but also gave her the opportunity to develop much of her confidence. She was fortunate to experience the benefits of equine-assisted therapy which helped her to focus more on what she could do and less on the obstacles in her way. Now Molly is hoping a grant from the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties will help others receive the same benefits that changed her life. 

“Until then, I didn't really understand what my strengths were,” said Molly who credits the countless hours of equine therapy with her success. “It made me realize that I could achieve anything I set my mind to. If I wanted something, I could chase it.”

At the center, Molly benefited from two types of equine therapy including therapeutic horseback riding and hippo therapy. The first is a recreational program in which the riding instructor designs a lesson plan adapted to the needs of the individual students. Among some of the benefits of this type of therapy are gains in balance, coordination, strength, tone, agility, self-confidence, social adjustment, and both mental and physical relaxation. The latter helps persons with physical disabilities improve flexibility, balance and muscle strength.

The $23,430 grant by the Community Foundation will enable the Broward based organization to work with an additional 43 children from Palm Beach County to provide both types of therapy. Many of the 77 clients currently served are autistic clients, who learn to speak for the first time after riding a horse. Some are students suffering from low-self esteem who learn to appreciate and believe in themselves. But the majority of children who benefit from equine-therapy are like Molly was not so very many years ago - physically disabled students learning how to hold themselves up in a stable sitting posture.

These days, Molly is putting a lot of her efforts into her course work at college and into serving as head volunteer coordinator on campus. Thanks to funders like the Community Foundation, Molly has come a long way from that shy little girl in a walker. “I never thought I would be such an influence on other people,” she said. When Molly finishes college, she plans to work in the not-for-profit sector. Who knows, maybe the Community Foundation. But for now, it's great to just watch her dance. 

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Martin County Grade Project

Following action taken by the Martin County Board of County Commissioners March 11, the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties announced a $20,000 grant to Sustaining Community Lands (SCL) to support the process of obtaining Scenic Highway designation for the Martin Grade.

“The Martin Grade” is the local nickname for a stretch of Martin County Route 714 that runs east and west from Route 609 to 710 (the Beeline Expressway).  Currently the Martin Grade is a two-lane highway bordered on both sides by old oak trees.  A proposal to widen the road to four lanes – meaning that the trees would be cut down – led to the formation of SCL and the initiation of the efforts to protect the roadway.

The $20,000 grant will come from the Community Foundation’s Environmental Endowment Fund, which supports grantmaking for programs that seek to preserve and improve the watersheds, habitat, natural resources and urban environment of the two-county area.  SCL’s receipt of the grant was contingent on the Martin County Board of County Commissioners’ approval of a letter of intent to designate the western reaches of Martin 714 as a Scenic Highway.  This approval also included the County’s authorization of in-kind support and officially initiates the designation process on the state level. The funds will be used to pay for a half-time administrator and consultants to develop the reports and surveys required to obtain Scenic Highway status.  The duties of the administrator would also include representing the project before citizen groups and government agencies.

           
“We are pleased to be able to support this project, which will help to protect an important part of our community’s heritage,” says Shannon Sadler Hull, president and chief executive officer of the Community Foundation. “This is an outstanding example of one of the ways in which our Environmental Endowment Fund can raise public awareness of environmental issues.” For information about the Environmental Endowment Fund of the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties, visit www.yourcommunityfoundation.org.

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Pine Jog Environmental Education Center at Florida Atlantic University                                                                                    

On April 26, 2008 students participating in the Pine Jog Fellowship, a program Cultivating Community Involvement and Environmental Leadership, gathered to celebrate the culmination of their year-long endeavor.  Thirty-two college and high school students from all over Palm Beach County began the three-semester program through Pine Jog Environmental Education Center, College of Education, Florida Atlantic University in July 2007.

The Pine Jog Fellowship develops a cadre of young adults who are knowledgeable about issues impacting South Florida and who understand the social, environmental, and economical interrelationships that are critical to addressing these issues.  The program includes three phases of learning:  1) Fellows embark on day-long field trips to see the issues first hand and hear from the community experts, 2) Fellows learn how to become a change agent in their community by working in teams to design and implement their own community action projects, 3) Fellows mentor a youth group by using the Earth Force process to facilitate a community action project. The Pine Jog Fellowship uses a two-tiered approach to service-learning. College and high school students participate in a service-learning program designed to increase their knowledge of and skills in addressing environmental issues.  These students then become mentors and facilitators of youth in developing and implementing service-learning projects around environmental issues.

From January-May 2008, fifteen service-learning projects were completed by Pine Jog Fellows and their youth groups.  Two Fellows from SunCoast Community High School, Trevor and Keturah, mentored twenty students in Lake Park Elementary School’s After School Program.  The Fellows helped the students to create a can recycling program for the school.  As a special twist, the students decided to incorporate “can art” into the recycling program to spread awareness and interest throughout the school.   In addition, the students in the after school program created a T-shirt (showcased below by Trevor and Keturah) for participants to wear throughout the project. 

This is just one example of the more than thirty community projects designed by the Pine Jog Fellows in the 2007-2008 school year.  As this group graduates from the program this month, Pine Jog welcomes a new cadre of Fellows who will begin in July 2008.  For more information, please visit our website at http://www.pinejog.org

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