From Diana’s Desk

Hollywood movie star America Ferrera was the guest speaker at our annual fund-raising gala, Art of Giving, last month.  Before the event she met with students from several of our programs. Her focus on education fit in perfectly with the mission of Art of Giving: to raise funds for Summer Care, a program that provides enriching summer child care and financial education to working families.

Children who don’t learn over the summer fall behind and have a harder time catching up in school. Thank you for supporting the children in our community.

From where I sat, everyone had a good time. Click here to see the pictures. And if you’re interested in learning more about Summer Care, click here.

We celebrated our HandsOn Tampa Bay (HOT) volunteers during National Volunteer Week in April. I shudder to imagine a world without volunteers. We can never thank them enough.  We wrapped the week up with our HandsOn Tampa Bay Day at Bay Pines where volunteers cleaned wheelchairs, cleaned up the shore line, chatted with the veterans and mulched and raked and painted.

Not a volunteer? HOT offers you a variety of opportunities, many of them family-oriented. Click here to find out more. I can promise you that volunteering not only makes life better in our community but makes your life better, too.

Diana Baker, President and CEO