Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth broke ground last July on an $8 million addition to its campus, and the nonprofit is counting down to its ribbon cutting on Aug. 28. The new 20,000-square-foot building features 20 additional family bedrooms, an expanded dining room, a new family game room, larger laundry facilities, a weekend manager suite and new administrative offices. In a ceremony on July 26, the organization will officially turn on the Light of Love Tower, an architectural detail designed to provide a beacon for the “House that Love Built.” Children staying in the southwest portion of Cook Children’s Medical Center will be able to see the new brightly lit tower from their rooms. Special events are planned at the house during July and August. A community grand opening is set for Sept. 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the agency, located at 1004 Seventh Ave. in Fort Worth. For information, visit www.rmhfw.org or RMHFW’s page on Facebook and Twitter.
Grant helps child victims of domestic violence Children, the smallest clients of SafeHaven of Tarrant County, will continue to receive services thanks to a $25,000 grant from the Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation. The award will fund a program called SafePlay at SafeHaven’s emergency shelters in Fort Worth and Arlington. The program includes case management, counseling, play and filial therapy, education, recreation and childcare. In 2012, SafeHaven served almost 5,900 victims of domestic violence. In the last five years, it has served more than 9,500 children, and it anticipates serving 1,750 more by the end of 2013. To find out more about domestic abuse or SafeHaven of Tarrant County, visit http://www.safehaventc.org.
Community Hospice affiliate to open facility Providence Hospice, an affiliate of Fort Worth-based Community Hospice of Texas, in partnership with Providence Healthcare Network, will open Waco’s first inpatient hospice facility this fall. Located in Providence Park, Providence Hospice Place will have nearly 6,000 square feet of space dedicated to inpatient hospice care in St. Catherine Center, a senior living community and division of Providence Healthcare Network. The facility will have eight patient suites and serve an estimated 530 patients annually. The unit will be staffed with a team of specialized hospice nurses, social workers, chaplains and volunteers experienced in caring for people who are terminally ill. Community Hospice of Texas is the largest nonprofit hospice network in Texas. Providence Healthcare Network is a member of Ascension Health, the nation’s largest Catholic nonprofit integrated health system. Built in 2003, Providence Park is a division of the Providence Healthcare Network and provides independent living, assisted living, long-term and sub-acute care for residents based on individual needs.
Imagination Celebration receives grant Texas Women for the Arts has selected 10 arts organizations across Texas to receive a total of $200,000 in grants. Imagination Celebration of Fort Worth was awarded $25,000 for the Special Weekend for Deaf and Hard of Hearing program. The Texas Cultural Trust created Texas Women for the Arts with the mission to fund arts programs across the state. To date, the organization has awarded $1,086,500 in grants to 45 arts organizations. Local students awarded Simon scholarships Macie Guthrie of Saginaw has received a Simon Youth Foundation Award of Excellence Scholarship valued at $10,000. In addition, Carolina Contreras of Haltom City and Jesus Diaz of Arlington each received a Simon Youth Foundation Community Scholarship valued at $1,400. The scholarships are awarded in partnership between North East Mall, The Shops at North East Mall and the Simon Youth Foundation, a national nonprofit dedicated to providing educational and career development opportunities to youth. Guthrie is a recent graduate of The American School of Correspondence and plans to study neuroscience at Brigham Young University in the fall. Contreras is a recent graduate of Haltom High School and plans to study public relations at Texas A&M University in the fall. Diaz graduated from Juan Seguin High School and plans to study electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington this fall. With a combined value of more than $1 million, Simon Youth Scholarships were awarded this spring to at least one student in every community nationwide that is home to a Simon property. In the past 15 years, Simon Youth Foundation has dispersed more than $10 million in scholarships and graduated more than 10,000 at-risk students in Simon Youth Academies.
Top charity checkouts named Wal-Mart, eBay and McDonald’s were declared the top three America’s Checkout Charity Champions, according to a recent report by New York-based Cause Marketing Forum Inc. The first-of-its-kind study ranked the largest consumer checkout donations in the United States last year. More than $358 million was raised in 2012 through 63 corporate-backed campaigns identified by the organization. Large charity checkout programs have raised more than $2.3 billion in the last 30 years, the study said. The largest in-store program of 2012, a six-week Miracle Balloon Campaign by Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, netted $41.6 million to benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. The No. 1 donation-producing program last year was eBay Giving Works, in which sellers give a percentage of their sales proceeds to charity and also invite buyers to make contributions. The program’s participants generated more than $54 million for more than 22,000 nonprofits in 2012. Safeway had the most campaigns in the top 10 list: four supermarket point-of-sale efforts raised a collective $38.4 million to fight breast cancer, prostate cancer and muscular dystrophy and to help people with disabilities. McDonald’s/Coin Donation Box Program raised $27.9 million for Ronald McDonald House Charities. For the complete list of America’s Checkout Charity Champions, visit www.causemarketingforum.com.
Send nonprofit news to Betty Dillard at bdillard@bizpress.net