Redlands Symphony Dancing with the Stars Gala Raises $40,000 for Charity

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The 27th annual Redlands Symphony Dancing with the Stars gala just drew to a close, with over 400 supporters participating in the charity auctions and numerous other activities. Organizers have shared that the event raised around $40, 000, which will be used to support the Redlands Symphony Orchestra’s music education programs, as well as the regular season.

“Music changes lives,” explained Paul V. Ideker, President and CEO of Redlands Symphony. “We put on professional concerts for kids to teach them all about music.”

He continued, “We have paid for school buses to bring in students to teach them about the beauty of music. Seeing children that respond to a full orchestra playing classical music is breathtaking.”

The gala, held this past Saturday night, began with two auctions; one silent and one live. A charity dinner and a ballroom dance contest were also highlights of the evening, both supporting the charity as well.

The auctions include items ranging from tires to restaurant gift cards, beauty and spa treatments and tickets to various events. There was a stay at the Mauna Kea Hotel in Hawaii; a trip to New York for two, including flights, hotel stays and several meals; a first class rail trip through Italy and tickets to a David Letterman show.

Dr. Jim Bennett, Cheryl Evans, Fire Chief Jeff Frzier, Kathy T. Maiberger, Shelli Stockton and Erik Laudenslager were all present at the Dancing with the Stars gala, much to their fans’ delight. The contestants’ families and friends all voted in the competition, donating one dollar per vote.

“In the last three years we’ve collected over $150,000 for the symphony’s causes,” Ideker revealed. “That’s just from the $1 votes.”

“It was a profitable night for music, kids and the Redlands Symphony,” said Dave VanLannen, a supporter. “It’s all about the kids.”

5th Annual Fire Charity Fishing Tournament Supports Child Burn Victims

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A Fire Charity Fishing Tournament was held in support of the Children’s Burn Camp several years ago in Bradenton, and has returned annually ever since.

Founder Erik Nicholson, an engineer for the East Manatee Fire District, makes sure that all of the event’s proceeds go to the charity, which supports child burn victims and allows them to forget about their appearances and form strong relationships with others like them. Since its inception, the tournament has raised more than $25,000.

He explained, “You spend most of your life trying to keep your head above water. For me, life was good and I wanted to do something to benefit others.

“It is so important for children who have been hurt by fires to have the opportunity to rebuild their lives and regain self-confidence. The burn camp provides those services and I’m proud our tournament provides money for their program.”

This year’s tournament caters to children as well, allowing supervised kids aged 5-12 to fish from the Bradenton Yacht Club seawall for only $10. The price also includes lunch on the scene from Chick-Fil-A, music, entertainment, free face paint, a bouncy house and arts and crafts. As for the tournament, “if it swims- it counts” and the biggest fish catcher gets a prize. All fish are released alive.

Committee Member Erin Craft explained the unique advantages of the event. “It’s an affordable way to promote outdoor activities and helping others,” she said. “We expect to see a lot of catfish, but any species is fun for the kids to reel in.”

Here are some highlights from last year’s event:

 

Penn State Coach’s Family to Donate $1.5 of Pension to Charity

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Joe Paterno coached at Penn State for 61 years, earning a state pension of $13.4 million. His widow, Sue, recently revealed that she will receive a bit more than $10 million, while the rest of the fund will be paid out over the next few years.

Spokesman Dan McGinn also revealed the family’s plans to donate $1.5 million to charities associated with Penn State or State College areas.

Paterno, a Hall of Famer, became Penn State’s top earner when he received a compensation package of $1.02 million from the university last year. The family explained, however, that the formula used to calculate the pension could not account for more than a $240,000 salary.

Though Paterno led Penn State to two national titles, the coach’s compensation was nowhere near as impressive as those of other famous college football coaches. Nick Saban of Alabama makes over $4.6 million a year, for example.

“Financial gain was never Coach Paterno’s top priority,” said McGinn. “He believed he was fortunate to work with great young men at one of the country’s premier academic institutions.”

He added that the Paternos have donated more than $9 million to Penn State, as well as to various non-profits.

“A commitment to give back to the community that had welcomed and supported them so fully was always a priority for Joe and Sue Paterno,” he said.

Restaurant to Donate 100% of Profits to Local Charities

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A new restaurant, called Local Food and Friends, was just established in Kansas with a goal of using only local food, and donating 100% of the profits to charity.

“I did a lot of research and no one had ever tried a concept like this in the United States, so we wanted to try it,” said the owner, Dave Dreiling. “Each month, we’ll pay off all of our bills, then we’ll take what’s left and we think we can generate between $5,000 and $10,000 per month in an average month.”

Each month, the restaurant will support a different local charity. The first is Flint Hills Breadbasket, whose mission is to “minimize hunger and poverty through the distribution of available food and to nurture projects that will help alleviate hunger and poverty.”

Dreiling said, “The needs are really high for the Breadbasket this time of year. We’re very excited to be partnered up with them for the rest of May and all of June.”

Flint Hills Breadbasket’s Maribeth Kieffer said “We were absolutely surprised and we can’t say thank you enough.”

She added, “I think that they are doing a one-of-a-kind thing, starting something that will maybe travel throughout the United States.”

“We’ll happily open up what we’ve done and how we’ve done it. If someone wanted to do this in every community across America, I think it’s a great way of answering how social and how corporate can help solve some of our problems without trying to get the government to do it,” Dreiling said.

 

Businessman Buys Out Closing K-Mart and Donates Store to Charity

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Rankin Paynter, was on an errand to purchase goods for his jewelry exchange business when he saw the local K-Mart was closing. At the cash register, he asked what the store was planning to do with its leftover merchandise. Upon learning that they would be sold to ‘power buyers’, he became one himself, and donated the entire store to charity. He even rented a building to store the items, worth $200,000, until next winter, when they are to be donated through Operation Happiness.

What I see is people coming in my store, needy people sell their stuff,” Paynter, who runs Rankin Paynter Buying Center, said. “It’s bad nowadays. I just told the clerk let’s just give it away to charity.”

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Drew Brees, Matthew McConaughey and Kenny Chesney Team Up for Charity

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This weekend, New Orleans hosted the third annual Amazing Race charity event with Drew Brees, Matthew McConaughey and a special visit from country superstar Kenny Chesney. Chesney joined the actor and Saints quarterback in support of the Brees Dream Foundation and McConaughey’s Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, performing at the House of Blues to end the event.

“We’ve been in tour rehearsals for weeks now so it was great for us to get on stage and feel the energy and feedback from the crowd,” Kenny said. “Tonight was all about playing music to help celebrate this great event. People in this town love music and helping out their neighbor and I was glad to be a part of it.”

Kenny had several duet partners throughout the night, including Brees, McConaughey and a lucky fan who joined Kenny for “Somewhere With You” for $10,000. The Amazing Race is the Brees Foundation’s signature event, with all proceeds benefitting the two charities. Created by Drew Brees and his wife Britney, the organization, as well as the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, works to provide care and education for underprivileged children and families in the area.

“Kenny has been a dear friend and always expressed interest in working with the foundation. This is such a wonderful way to end the race and his support means the world to us,” Brees and McConaughey said in a statement.

 

Charity Trap Shoot Supports Carousel Ranch

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Last week, the fourth annual How the West Was Won Charity Trap Shoot was held at the Newhall Pass in support of Carousel Ranch. The event, filled with 18 teams of 4, raised $21,000.

“We were only budged to raise $15,000, but we raised $21.000,” Carousel Ranch’s Denise Tomey exclaimed. “We were really excited at the turnout. This is a unique event and we are so happy to have sold out this year. The weather is perfect, today, too.”

Carousel Ranch is an organization that works to provide therapeutic and recreational riding lessons to disabled children. The non-profit currently helps over one hundred children and teens.

The Charity Trap Shoot is an annual shooting event that attracts benefactors and donations through outdoor, team-focused activities. All event participants are provided with massages, opportunities to shoot shotguns (often for the first time), shoot buckshot at bowling pins and shoot from the back of a fake horse.

“We try to keep everyone entertained and busy so we have a lot of other activities to participate in between the rounds of shooting,” explained Eric Stroh, chairman of the event.

Six of the eighteen competing teams had never held, let alone shot, guns before the event, Stroh said.

“This is a great charity and a great cause. How can you now support Carousel Ranch,” said Jeffrey Hacker, one of the inexperienced participants.

Stroh also thanked Benelli, the gun manufacturer, explaining that the charitable event would never be able to take place without the company’s help.

“Benelli sends us thousands of dollars of material each year, including all the hats and shooting prizes we rely on in order to complete the event. We couldn’t raise the money we do without their help. We are very grateful for their assistance,” he said.

Red Bull Racing to Support Wings for Life Charity

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Red Bull has committed to a new project in support of Wings for Life, a charity working to help people suffering from spinal cord injuries.

The project will cover two RB8s with the faces of more than 25,000 fans at the British Grand Prix this coming July. In order to participate, fans simply send a photo and 15 euros in support of the charity. Official confirmation will be delivered, verifying that the photo was indeed added to the collage. Red Bull will match every donation made by its fans, as well.

Mark Webber, a driver, said: “I hope as many people as possible take part in this awesome event. Whoever you want to upload onto our cars- your mum, your dog- it doesn’t matter just upload a photo now and join us.”

Sebastian Vettel, a fellow teammate, said: “This is a great way for fans to be able to join Mark, me and the team at the British Grand Prix and become part of history, while supporting a fantastic charity. So, go to facesforcharity.com now and join us at this year’s race!”

Wings for Life is an organization that believes that “spinal cord injury must become curable.” As a means to achieve this goal, Wings for Life “supports and finances the most promising research projects worldwide aimed at healing the injured spinal cord.”

 

58 Year Old to Cycle for Bee Population

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Quentin Given, 58, plans to ride his bicycle from London to Edinburgh in an effort to support bees.

The bee population has fallen dramatically, and Given, working full time for Tottenham and Wood Green Friends of the Earth, hopes to make a difference by cycling 510 miles next week.

The campaign, known as the Bee Cause, is one of the many Tottenham and Wood Green Friends of the Earth projects which will benefit from the journey. The organization’s other goals include promoting solar energy and preventing climate change.

Given said: “Cycling is part of the solution to some of the problems for health and environment and people doing things like this is demonstrating alternatives to the current way of doing things.

“It is not like saying to the government ‘we must do this’- there are so many things we need to do to bring the bees back, and we need to come up with an action plan.”

Mr. Given believes that the community is obligated to combine their efforts to save the bees. Though the exact cause is unknown, the honey bee population in the UK has fallen 54% in the last two decades. Some theories suggest that pesticide or parasites may be responsible.

As of April 25th, Given raised $2,504 for the cause.

Bees are an important member of ecology, and human society benefits from them greatly. The bee population is responsible for pollinating flowers, which are important for their beauty and fresh scents, as well as for producing fruit. Many areas depend on their produce in order to live, and the entire region’s economy can be affected by fruit production in the long run as well.

Topper’s Pizza Teams Up With SickKids Foundation

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Topper’s Pizza, a Foodservice and Hospitality Top 100 Company, recently announced its new partnership with the SickKids Foundation in an effort to support children’s health. According to Keith Toppazzini, president and CEO of the company, the new relationship fits into their corporate social responsibility program.

The new program will have several different branches, including in-store donations, corporate matching and promotions. In-store donations will be dedicated to family education resource AboutKidsHealth, while other campaigns will benefit the Possibility Fund for the Hospital for Sick Children.

“We’re proud to select SickKids Foundation as our corporate charity,” Keith said. “As a family-run business with strong family values, it makes perfect sense to support a charitable organization that does so much for so many families across our province, Canada, and around the world.”

Kelly Toppazzini, also of Topper’s, added: “By partnering with SickKids, we are making a considerable commitment to support children’s health and we couldn’t be happier to do it.

Adrian Horwood of SickKids Foundation also expressed excitement. “Topper’s Pizza has a wonderful, loyal following of families as customers and we’re looking forward to having them on board as one of our newest corporate partners to help promote awareness about children’s health, as well as to provide us with another way to raise critical funds,” he said.