Western Region Associate Council Charity Vote
Use the form to rank your charity preference using numbers 1 through 4. 1 represents your top choice.
Below the form is detailed presentation notes from Thursday February 21st. Click each charity title to expand on their details.
Presentation Notes:
Charity URL: www.runforrow.org
Presentation Notes:
Andrew Armitage and Scott Boyko (founders), Andrea R. Row-Oddo
- Tell us about your organization, who does it help
- Matthew died from a workplace accident. Andrea is Matt’s wife. To memorialize Matt they started a successful 5k racing event to raise money for Matt’s family. Then Andrea decided to change direction of the organization to help others in the area.
- Focus on high school age young adults who have lost a parent/guardian(s). A continuing education scholarship
- 2017: 30 applicants
- 2018: 50 applicants
- Was $1,000; now $2,500 per scholarship. Gave 4 out last year
- Those who don’t get the scholarship still receive an amazon gift card. They want to give all a sense they are not alone.
- The applicants stories are hard, horrible circumstances they’ve incurred. They want to pick every one.
- Andrea:
- Not every parent is legally married, get death benefits, not have another parent to care for them, some are playing a parent role for their younger siblings.
- Scholarship encourages them to continue an education. Their losses themselves have inspired their career path – one recipient who lost her dad to a heart issue wants to become a cardio surgeon now.
- Paid registrations to Camp Widow each year. Uplifting, fun and hope-filled event with a few locations around the continent; closest is Toronto.
- Leads a facebook and in person meeting for widowed people locally. Some in this support group are even the high school counselors for these schools because of their own personal losses.
- How do you receive most of your funding
- Primary source is the 5k race. Last year they decided to not expense a 5k and give more scholarships out in 2018 instead.
- Fundraise on facebook which is effective. A friend is on the board for a family foundation that gave a donation 2 years in a row.
- Brainstorming other ways to get more funding. They want to stretch out of the 5k; it’s expensive and not making as much as they would like.
- What are examples of what would you could do with the donated funds
- They usually can only pick 2 scholarships but last year they had enough to pick 4.
- Jumping for joy over this nomination because they are so new, this money directly goes to these scholarships
Charity URL: https://www.ovariancancerproject.org/
Presentation Notes:
Kathleen Maxian, President
- Tell us about your organization, who does it help
- A trust organization for those newly diagnosed or family of those, starting from when you are first diagnosed.
- Kathleen was diagnosed at 47. Pictures in slide. Desperate for information, extremely anxious, not a lot of support. Found a support group that used to be around 10 years ago; support was bare.
- Now an expert on several panels, works with doctors to develop guidelines working with women and treating ovarian cancer. Work with women who are just like her, who had no resources, and understand evidence-based medicine. Hired a social worker (Kathy) to comfort, emotional, encouragement, spend hours and hours with women to guide them who are so frightened, anxious, alone.
- Comfort and hope tote program was the first service they decided to do. When people are first diagnosed you need to take some stuff to therapy, encouraging/comforting assurance literature. Give out across 17 counties of WNY.
- How do you receive most of your funding
- All volunteer organization, Kathleen doesn’t get paid only her social worker. Full time jobs.
- Our funding is through fundraising. We do have some small grants for printing symptom and risk cards to distribute, and we have a grant for our woman to woman mentoring program part of which is for Financial Aid for women w/ ovarian cancer.
- What are examples of what would you could do with the donated funds
- We are desperate for funds to run our Support Groups. Beginning last April we started receiving 2 new referrals per week. With that we have added two new ovarian cancer patient support groups, and a caregiver support group. Based on our projections, we anticipate that over the next two years we will add an additional groups. Within the next month, we will as well be adding a Monthly Ovarian Cancer Orientation Group.
- Currently, our groups average $4,350 per year to run for materials, licensed professional facilitation, and food and drinks for 12 meetings. That number does not include overhead or administration of the group. Currently we have 4 groups, this year we will add 2 additional groups, one caregiver group, one Ovarian Cancer Orientation group. In 2020 we anticipate adding 1 to 2 additional patient support groups.
Charity URL: http://www.preventionfocus.org/
Presentation Notes:
Matthew G. Smith, CPP Executive Director, & Cheryl
- Tell us about your organization, who does it help
- Long-time tenured staff especially Cheryl since the 80’s
- Area schools is where most of their work occurs
- Training, informational campaigns for people to make better choices
- Try to stop problems before they start with the terrible disease of addiction
- How do you receive most of your funding
- 80% of it is state tax dollars and as a result they are heavily scrutinized by those authorities. A small amount from NY council on gambling
- Private donations
- What are examples of what would you could do with the donated funds
- See slides 3+ of their presentation for the multiple programs they run. Over 5,000 people a year are served
- Help people go down the road of life with as few problems as possible, proactively
- The money can be specific or go into general funding for the below programs
- Cheryl: It takes a village, not just one parent to teach life skills. Evidence-based education to help with effective decision making, social interaction, empathy, physical strength/support, strengthen communication friendship-making skills, teamwork/celebration, Suicide prevention training: 1-hour, 3-hour, all-day, 2-day trainings. Everybody matters to everybody else. Work with University of Rochester working throughout the region to develop modalities in different schools.
Charity URL: https://www.alz.org/wny
Presentation Notes:
Julia Szprygada Education & Training Director
- Tell us about your organization, who does it help
- Not just for Alzheimer's. Any individual in a cognitive decline, progressive in nature, serious enough to affect their life (think, remember, reason, navigate).
- Alzheimer's: The numbers are astounding. Every 66 seconds someone develops it. Almost 6 million now; 14 million by 2050. The only disease in the top 10 that does not have a cure, prevention or effective treatment.
- See their Programs and Services slide for all aspects of free support they offer including day respites, relief for caregivers, safety bracelet gps tracking, and research. Research shows supportive intervention can improve quality of life including for the caregivers, reduces emergency room, keeps people functioning better and longer for additional years.
- They are the 3rd largest and impactful research organization and are faster to fund research, less red tape. All programs are free of charge.
- How do you receive most of your funding
- Primarily individual donations and fundraising events. 5 different walks are hosted a year.
- Some grants such as the social programs to help cover the costs for admission/transportation.
- Research funding: they have found that prevention and interventions are working and more successful than any medication they have tried.
- What are examples of what would you could do with the donated funds
- Donations can be earmarked to something specific if needed, specific programs, research, etc.