Pizza Profits at Work in Our Community

I joined the Satchel's giving team in July to determine our second quarter grants for 2013. We had quite a few applications up for review. After careful consideration, our giving committee decided on the following:

Peaceful Paths Domestic Abuse Network  Awarded $500

Each year Peaceful Paths holds a Back to School Kick Off event to help support families in need. One of the biggest components of this program is to provide families with school uniforms. This $500 Satch Grant will help Peaceful Paths reach their goal. You can learn more about Peaceful Paths at www.peacefulpaths.org.

SCHOOL UNIFORMS modeled by Williams Elementary School students with their principal Karla Hitchinson.

 

MindFreedom Florida Inc.   Awarded $500

MindFreedom Florida is a local organization that promotes mental health awareness by peacefully uniting people affected by the mental health system. This $500 Satch Grant will help MindFreedom Florida bring independent filmmaker Daniel Mackler to Gainesville Sept. 13 - 16. Mackler is an accomplished writer, musician and psychotherapist who focuses on healing childhood trauma through his music and stories.





For more information about MindFreedom Florida's event with Daniel Mackler visit Daniel Mackler on facebook



Journey Daybook, Inc    Awarded $428
Journey Daybook, Inc is a nonprofit organization founded by artist/writer Peggy Herrick. The organization is committed to teaching, learning and sharing the practice of creating illustrated journals, called Journey Daybooks.



  
This Satchel's grant purchased supplies to support a journal project with the women at the Lowell Correctional Institute. For more information about other Journey Day Book projects, visit www.journeydaybook.org



BONUS AWARDED to Eastside High School Students!
In addition to our three quarterly grants, Satchels donated a gently used iPad to Amanda Shitama's Eastside High School Intensive Reading class to support their learning process.
This iPad along with other iPad donations solicited by Shitama will be used daily to read local/global news and events. The goal of the project is to use the latest technology to spark interest in reading, learning and sharing ideas.

2012 ATM donations

Every year Satchel's donates the profits from our ATM machine to charitable organizations that help less fortunate members of our community.  In 2012, we donated a total $12969 to a variety of worthy causes from our ATM fund.  This is significant due to the fact that we were closed for 15 weeks due to a kitchen fire.  The organizations that we donate to are determined at the beginning of the year.  We dedicate each month during the year to a specific charity and donate half the profits to them.  The remaining profits are reserved so that we can make a significant contribution to a few predetermined charitable organizations.  In 2012, we were able to use these remaining profits to donate to the charities that didn't receive funds in March, April and May due to our fire in addition to these predetermined charities.

The breakdown of donations in 2012 is:

January:  Westwood Combine  $508.75
February:  Multiple System Atrophy Support Group  $717.25
March:  Center for Autism and Related Disabilities  $715
April:  Helping Hands Clinic   $715
May:  St. Johns Riverkeeper  $1275
June:  Tylers Hope for Dystonia  $581.75
July:  Camp Crystal Lake  $916.75
August:  Sidney Lanier School  $910
September:  Acrosstown Repertory Theatre ARTiS Program  $762.25
October:  Rebuilding Together North Central Florida  $663.25
November:  Operation Petsnip  $691.75
December:  Project Makeover  $687.25

Bread of the Mighty Food Bank  $1275
Helping Hands Outreach Ministries  (scroll down to #7 on list - no website)  $1275
The Doris Barden Community Cultural Center  $1275

We are grateful for our customers use of the ATM machine so that we are able to make contributions to these awesome organizations.  This program is truly a community effort!

January 2013 SatchGrant

Wow, we're now entering our fifth year of the SatchGrant Program here at Satchel's Pizza!  It's been a great way to get to know and be involved with so many wonderful charitable organizations in our community.  We started by offering eight $500 grants per year and now are offering twelve $500 grants per year.  I hope that as we receive more requests for charitable funding, our program will expand to meet the demand of the awesome organizations that are working so hard to take care of those in need in Gainesville.


This quarter, we chose to award our grants to these three fine organizations:

1. The Einstein School, a charter school that serves children who have not been able to learn to read, write and/or speak through conventional educational methods.  They are requesting noise cancelling headphones to help students take state required standardized tests.  The beauty of this grant is that they have a 1:1 match which means they are able to double the amount of noise cancelling headphones they can provide to students because of our contribution.  They believe that helping students learn to read will offer Alachua County a more educated populate as well as one that gives back to others.

2. The Reichert House, a nationally renowned non-profit program for disadvantaged at-risk youth.  They are requesting funds to reward "honor roll" students receiving a 3.0 GPA or better with a field trip to Satchel's for dinner with additional monies being used toward another field trip in Alachua County for honor roll recipients.  They believe that this will provide further incentive for their students to display efforts to become honor roll recipients. 

3.  Public Interest Environmental Conference, a three day conference at UF devoted to discuss current issues affecting Florida's natural environment.  The theme of this year's conference is "The Endangered Species Act at 40".  They are requesting funds to offset food costs associated with hosting over 150 attendees by providing attendees with lunch from Satchel's Pizza.  They believe that their conference provides a forum for an exchange of ideas between private government, public practitioners, environmental professionals, advocates and activists, and the interested public.

Congratulations to the organizations listed above.  Your awards will be mailed this week.  For those of you who submitted grants and did not receive an award, we encourage you to apply for the second quarter grant in which submissions are due March 31, 2013.