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Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal June 5, 2008 Peace Frogs fundraiser nets good sum from bank-to-bank swim Eleven swimmers braved the Ware River’s currents and jellyfish to take part in the 5th annual Peace Frogs Bank to Bank Swim on Sunday, May 25, with proceeds going to the Middle Peninsula’s Rural Infant Services Program.
RISP, a program of the MPNN Community Services Board, provides services for children from birth to age three with developmental delays. Almost $15,000 was raised and a portion of that will go to RISP with the rest continuing to grow the endowed Peace Frogs Bank to Bank Fund. |
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Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal March 6, 2008 Peace Frogs’ swim to benefit RISP by Charlie Koenig 
Samuel Fleet of Hartfield, who turns three this month, really enjoys the time he and his mom Natalie spend in parent-child swim classes at the Northern Neck Family YMCA. So it’s only fitting that a group of swimmers will be raising money to help out with Samuel’s swim classes and the many other services offered by the Middle Peninsula-Northern Neck Community Services Board’s Rural Infant Services Program (RISP).RISP will be the recipient of this year’s Peace Frogs Bank-to-Bank River Swim, which will be held on Sunday, May 25. Swimmers will brave the currents of the Ware River for 2.5 miles from Wilson Creek to the Ware River Yacht Club, with each participant raising at least $1,000 in pledges. Samuel is one of about 150 RISP clients on the Middle Peninsula, according to program director Kathy Phillips. Swim classes are just a small part of the services that RISP offers. Founded in 1983, RISP provides pediatric physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy, case management, home visits by infant specialists, and family support services for special needs children from birth to age 3. Children served include those with health and learning problems, birth defects, developmental delays, vision or hearing impairments, and conditions such as prematurity that put them at risk for disabilities. Samuel has made amazing strides in three short years, thanks in large measure to RISP, according to his mother Natalie. “It’s opened a lot of doors,” she said. When RISP first began helping Samuel, the Down Syndrome child was attached to an oxygen tank and a pulse oximeter, conditions that would have made traveling to another location for therapy difficult, if not impossible. Fortunately, RISP believes that young children learn best in their natural environment, which is usually in the home or a day-care setting, according to Phillips. And the progress Samuel has made is remarkable, as anyone looking at the precocious toddler can clearly tell. “He’s come a long, long way,” Phillips said. RISP services are available to anyone in the Middle Peninsula. Although health insurance will be billed when available, many services are free and no one is denied because of an inability to pay. With funding remaining level and the number of clients on the rise, Phillips and her employees face an ever-growing challenge. The spike in gasoline prices has also made things difficult for RISP therapists, who provide home visits for a geographic area larger than Delaware. “We circle the globe at least five times a year with staff travel,” Phillips said. Right now, swim founder Catesby Jones said that about 10 people have already committed to take part in the Memorial Day weekend event, and he’d like to see that number increase to at least 25. Among those already signed up, Jones said, is MP-NN Community Services Board chief financial officer Yvonne Win- grove, who will represent RISP. “People shouldn’t be intimidated by the length. It’s a lot of fun,” Jones said of the Ware River crossing. The swim isn’t a race, he said—it’s more like a party with a flotilla of boats keeping a close eye on each of the participants. And the party really gets going once everyone arrives at the Ware River Yacht Club. Jones established the swim in 2004 to benefit the children of Tidewater. The first two years were held on the York River, moving to the Ware River in 2006. Past recipients have included the Children’s Village of Hampton Roads, Gloucester-Mathews Free Clinic and Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters. To ensure this fund-raising endeavor keeps going, the Bank to Bank swim is a component fund of the Gloucester Community Foundation. A quarter of the money raised on May 25 will go to RISP, as well as 4 percent of the endowment, with the rest managed by GCF. “It’s a great tool for someone to set up any kind of fund,” Jones said of GCF. “It just builds on itself.” “This is an excellent example of how creative, exciting and flexible one’s charitable wishes can be realized,” said Mimi Ulsaker, a Foundation board member, as well as a Bank to Bank swimmer. GCF is an affiliate of “The Community Foundation Serving Richmond & Central Virginia” which provides its sound fiscal management. TCF has a secure website (www.tcfrichmond.org) where online giving can be safely accomplished. To swim, or for more information, visit the Peace Frogs website at www.peacefrogs.com or call Jones at 1-800-44PEACE, ext. 222. |
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Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal February 7, 2008 BIG SWIM BENEFITS CHILDREN  A check for $8,000 was donated to the Children’s Village of Hampton Roads, a shelter for abused and neglected children, as a result of the 2007 Peace Frogs Bank to Bank Swim held in Gloucester last summer. The benefit swim across the Ware River raised $30,000 for the Peace Frogs fund, a component of the Gloucester Community Foundation, with the remaining balance used to build the fund for the benefit of children of Tidewater. From left are Clayton James, fund founder Catesby Jones, Jayne DiVincenzio accepting the check, and Jeff Martinovich. A release said this year’s swim will be held on Sunday, May 25, and will benefit the Rural Infant Services Program of the Middle Peninsula. |
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The Gloucester Community Foundation announces new officers for 2008 Left to right: Theresa Stavens, Vice Chairman; Tara  Thomas, Treasurer; Butch Rogers, Chairman; Elizabeth McCormick, Secretary. Also pictured: Haley Thomas.Serving on the board are also John Gillis, Catesby Jones, Breck Montague, Susan Perrin, Jeffery Smith, Evan Van Leeuwen, Wesley Wilson, and Laurence Wilkinson, Jr. immediate Past President. |
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Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal November 15, 2007 Community Foundation board members personally seek info on charities’ needs by Sherry Hamilton Gloucester Community Foundation board members have been knocking on doors of charitable organizations in the county to get first-hand information about those groups’ missions and needs. Board member Susan Perrin said that earlier this year the foundation identified 20 organizations as potential recipients of October grants from the Community Endowment Fund, then assigned the organizations to members and went calling. It was an eye-opener, said Perrin, who visited Rhoda-Jo Stress of the Literacy Volunteers of Gloucester, Inc., and watched as she tutored a 60-year-old man who had never learned to read. "She knocked my socks off," said Perrin. But Perrin wasn’t the only one who had such an experience. She said that one board member was "blown away" by Three Rivers Healthy Families and another was similarly impressed by Habitat for Humanity. All three organizations received grants, along with the Rural Infant Services Program, Gloucester Parks and Recreation, and the Friends of the Library. "When you visit one-on-one with these organizations you find out things you never would have before, and each board member got all protective of their own," said Perrin. "We got some wonderful grants out of it."  Stress said the money the Literacy Volunteers received will help pay for the books that provide the curriculum for her students and for bus tickets so they can get to their lessons."We’re thrilled," she said. "Books are very expensive and grants are difficult to get because everyone’s looking for money. We’re thrilled we got this one." Perrin said more grants will be given out in December, and recommended that charitable organizations in Gloucester add their needs to the "holiday wish list" on Gloucester County’s official website at http://www.gloucesterva.info/commed/Services/holiday.htm. Gloucester Community Foundation’s chairman, Larry Wilkinson, said that visiting the needy organizations was "a cool idea." He said local charitable organizations should understand that the community foundation wasn’t set up to compete with other groups for funding but to serve as a channel for funding. "We want to be there to go to the source—the donors," he said. "Then we can find out the needs of these organizations and have them tap into our donors for funding. It’s one of those ways a community foundation can take a leadership role in a community." Donor-advised funds Another way community foundations take a leadership role is in the establishment of donor-advised funds. These funds are established for certain purposes, perhaps to make an annual contribution to a specific organization or to address a specific need. Both Perrin and Wilkinson discussed a New York Times article by Stephanie Strom about changes that can occur in a private trust when the person who established it dies. Often, the management of such an "orphan" trust will slip into the hands of a large, multinational financial institution that doesn’t handle the trust as the founder intended. The amount and number of grants can decrease while the fees charged to handle the funds increase; small local grant recipients might be dropped or find the funding less dependable; and trustees sometimes give grants to their own favorite organizations rather than causes the trust’s originator would have approved. A community foundation solves those problems, said Wilkinson. "Banks and individuals go away, but community foundations don’t," he said. "With a community foundation, once you say you want your money to go in perpetuity to an organization, that’s where the money goes. It’s a big way to help donors achieve their goals." |
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Gloucester Gazette-Journal August 9, 2007 Foundation supports summer art campers by Quinton Sheppard  The Gloucester Community Foundation presented a $1,000 check Thursday to the Gloucester Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (PRT) in support of the Chrysler Summer Arts Camp. The camp allows students to explore in depth various art mediums and their backgrounds, according to Carol Steele, Gloucester PRT director. The first camp brought out 35 enthusiastic participants, Steele said. “We had a full group. When we start a new camp, usually we have to break it in. This, however, was an immediate success meaning that there is a need for (the art camp) in the area.” “The Gloucester Community Foundation (GCF) is very happy to support education endeavors for the children of our community,” said Larry Wilkinson, chair of GCF. He said the donation was made possible because of a contribution to the GCF from Jeff and Barbara Smigel. The camp is instructed by Gloucester County Public Schools art teachers Jeff Helm and Leslie Belvin as well as four local teenage assistants. Steele said that students are not merely painting, but are first exploring the meaning behind each piece of artwork they form. Each camp also spends one day visiting exhibits at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk. The first camp, for youth ages 6-12, took place July 30 through Aug. and the second camp, Aug. 6-10, each based at Botetourt Elementary School. Additional funding for the camp was made possible by the Cook Foundation. |
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Gloucester Gazette-Journal May 31, 2007 Ware River swim raises $30,000+  Gloucester High School swim coach Amy Conrad may have been the first one ashore, but the real winners are the children who will benefit from the more than $30,000 that was raised during Sunday’s Peace Frogs Bank to Bank River Swim.In its fourth year, 19 swimmers braved the currents of the Ware River to swim the 2.5 miles from Wilson Creek to the Ware River Yacht Club. Peter Wilcox, one of the organizers of the event, said that the number of participants and contributions have almost doubled from the previous year. This year’s selected charity is the Children’s Village of Hampton Roads, a shelter being built to help abused and neglected children. A portion of the proceeds will go to this charity, with the rest held in the Peace Frogs Bank to Bank Fund, which is part of the Gloucester Community Foundation’s umbrella of philanthropic funds. This way, the fund will be self-sustaining, generating sizable donations for area children for years to come. Peace Frogs owner Catesby B. Jones is president of the Bank to Bank Fund, which was established specifically to benefit the children of Tidewater Virginia. Photo Caption: 19 swimmers participated in Sunday’s 4th annual Peace Frogs Bank to Bank Swim, raising over $30,000. The first three swimmers to arrive at the Ware River Yacht Club were, Amy Conrad, Mimi Ulsaker and Peter Wilcox. |
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Gloucester Gazette-Journal May 3, 2007 PEACE FROGS BANK TO BANK SWIM  The fourth annual Peace Frogs Bank to Bank Swim will be held on Sunday, May 27, with swimmers braving the currents (and jellyfish) along a 2.5 mile stretch of the Ware River from the mouth of Wilson Creek to the Ware River Yacht Club. Over the past two years, the swimmers raised over $50,000, with event sponsors hoping to double that figure this time around. Proceeds from this year’s swim will benefit the Children’s Village of Hampton Roads, which provides emergency and long-term shelter for abused and neglected children. Pictured here, Karen Wolski, executive director of the Gloucester-Mathews Free Clinic (second from left), receives a check for over $6,000, presented by three of last year’s swimmers: Peter E. Wilcox (at left), Catesby Jones (second from right) and Clayton James (at right). |
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 The timely Virginia Museum of Fine Arts exhibit “Uncovering Home A Visual Essay on Jamestown Archaeology” sponsored by the Gloucester Community Foundation will be on loan to the Gloucester Library until April 30, 2007. Library Clerk, Lisa Buffett, tells GCF Board Member Mimi Ulsaker how much this exhibit has increased the interest and circulation of books on this topic. |
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