Giving Back: Freeman, Beebe, Christiana Care, Delaware Park Easterseals, Wegmans, Diamond State Financial

 Since 2019, ChristianaCare’s Community Investment Fund has provided more than $5.6 million to 64 organizations, addressing social, behavioral and environmental health factors.

 This year’s recipients received funding to support health improvement initiatives in neighboring communities and address critical issues and community needs.

 Recpients:

- AIDS Delaware

- Black Mothers in Power.

-  Boys & Girls Club of Delaware

- Children & Families First: Children & Families First

- Claymont Community Center

- Delaware Center for Horticulture

- Delaware Futures, Inc: 

- Delaware Nature Society.

- Do Care Doula: Do Care Doula

* Healthy Food for Healthy Kids .

* Jefferson Street Center: 

* Milford Housing Development Corporation

* ONCOR Coalition

* Our Daily Bread Dining Room of MOT

* Project New Start: Project

* Ray of Hope Mission Center

St. Patrick’s Center.

* The Resurrection Center: 

* Voices of Hope

* West End Neighborhood House4.

* Wilmington HOPE Commission Inc

* YMCA of Delaware 

Delaware Park raises, donates $130,000+

Delaware Park Casino  raised and donated more than $130,000 for 12 different charities.

Throughout the year, guests at Delaware Park donated everything from money, dog treats and clothing to toys and even their own blood during monthly drives to benefit the casino’s charity of the month.

Campaigns reached guests of the casino, as well as Delaware Park team members, who also gave through various events, like Jeans Day and Deck the Halls for a Cause.

Over the past 12 months, Delaware Park Casino has donated more than $130,000 to support the following Delaware nonprofits:

• Brandywine Valley SPCA
• The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
• St. Patrick’s Center
• Autism Delaware
• Children & Families First
• West End Neighborhood House Life Lines
• Boys & Girls Clubs of Delaware
• Faithful Friends
• Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition
• Blood Bank of Delmarva
• Toys for Tots
• Food Bank of Delaware

On Friday, Feb. 14, Delaware Park will host a Valentine’s Day-themed blood drive, open to the public, to benefit the Blood Bank of Delmarva. Presenting donors will receive $20 in slot play for their participation.

Easterseals receives grant

 Easterseals Delaware & Maryland’s Eastern Shore, received a grant from the Longwood Foundation to benefit two  projects at Easterseals Camp Fairlee: replacing the aquatics area and adding a sensory-friendly cabin.

After 61 years of memories made in the current pool, Easterseals needed to demolish and build a new aquatic facility that includes a pool, pump house, and pool house so it is ready for the 2025 summer camp sessions.

 This   aquatic area will create a pool that is accessible with a zero-entry ramp, rails, a chair lift, a soft deck transfer station designed for safety, and a lanai for protection from the .

The Sensory-Friendly cabin will vary from the current cabin design to accommodate campers requiring more intense physical, sensory, or behavioral support. Small group rooms within the cabin will provide sleeping quarters for four to six  people, including campers and staff, and house approximately 20-24 people.

 Limiting the numbers in any single room reduces the sensory inputs to help promote campers’ ability to sleep through the night, a release stated. 

Go Purple event raises more than $86,000

Proceeds from the 4th Annual Beebe Goes Purple Guest Bartending event raised $86,209 for the healthcare system’s Go Purple Fund.

The Go Purple Fund supports the awareness, education, prevention, and recovery in relation to the opioid epidemic in Sussex County. The annual event was founded by the Beebe Medical Foundation’s Young Professionals Group and the most recent event was held on Sept. 19, 2024, at The Starboard in Dewey Beach.

The Go Purple Fund has been designated to support Beebe Healthcare’s Community Mobile Health Unit with a focus on mental health and addiction medicine.

Beebe deploys a mobile unit and a hybrid team of mental and behavioral health physicians, clinicians, and community health workers to areas with high rates of opioid use.

 Wegmans raises $10,000 for Food Bank

Customers of Wegmans Food Market stores raised more than $2.5 million during the company’s fall 2024 hunger relief checkout scanning campaign, known regionally as Check Out Hunger or Together Against Hunger.

This campaign allows customers to donate any amount at checkout with 100 percent of the proceeds going to each store's local Feeding America food bank partner.

 In Delaware, $10,214 in donations went to the Food Bank of Delaware.

Freeman Foundation offers grant opportunities

The Carl M. Freeman Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of grant opportunities for nonprofit organizations located in Sussex County, Delaware.  Financial support is available through the FACES (Freeman Assists Communities with Extra Support) Grants Program, which is designed for smaller organizations that are often overlooked by funders.

 Nonprofits will have the opportunity to apply for $10,000, $5,000, or $2,500 in grant funding.

The grant cycle is now open, and applications are due by March 3 at 5 p.m.

 A virtual “Meet the Funder” workshop will take place on Thursday, February 13 at 10 a.m. This workshop will provide an overview of the FACES grant process as well as the online application software. To register for the virtual workshop, visit carlmfreemanfoundation.org/grants/faces-grants. Those with questions about the application process may contact Lindsay Richard at 302-483-7639 or lindsay@freemanfoundation.org. Recipients s will be announced in mid-May.

To qualify, non-profit organizations must have an annual operating budget of $500,000 or less and have been in operation for a minimum of two years. Additionally, all FACES grant funds must stay in Sussex County..

Diamond State Financial Group honored by Heart Association

Diamond State Financial Group was recently honored for its work with the American Heart Association.

At a recent event, the Heart Association and ChristianaCare offered CPR training.

While the firm supports of the association’s go Red for Women initiative on Feb. 7, they could not bring themselves to wear red on the eve of the big game won by the Philadelphia Eagles in convincing fashion.

 Participants instead wore Eagles gear along with heart health awareness pins.

Diamond State is based near Newark.