Safety net gets much-needed grants

LAKEWOOD RANCH — They represented a crazy quilt-work of patches in need of a few stitches to hold them all together.

“They” being 21 organizations serving primarily disadvantaged children, but frail seniors as well.

The Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch recently divided more than $97,000 of “stitches” to the organizations, to assist with everything from providing an electric lift to help clients in wheelchairs get mounted on horseback for riding therapy to providing a dropout prevention program at Lakewood Ranch High School.

Thursday, those organizations gathered at Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club to thank the Rotary Club, and in turn be thanked for their service.

To date, the young Rotary Club has provided $760,000 in grants, proceeds from its annual wine and food festival.

Rotarian Stella Olinger said the need is great and it was heartbreaking trying to winnow down 38 applications, with grant requests totaling $280,000 this year.

The grant requests “ran the spectrum,” Olinger said, “and the need touches us in many, many ways.”

Pam Hindman, representing Guardian ad Litum, an advocacy group which looks out for the interests of children in the court system, said her agency works with many of the groups that shared the spotlight Thursday.

A child who has been abused or abandoned might also have Down Syndrome or be autistic, and several of the groups at the luncheon serve those special needs children, Hindman said.

Guardian ad Litum will use its $5,000 grant to meet unforeseen needs by the children it serves, everything from paying for an after-school program to possibly buying a prom dress, Hindman said.

All of the agencies serve clients who face what most would consider overwhelming obstacles.

What Hindman said keeps her going are the “successes,” such as when abusive parents understand their mistakes and mend their ways, or when a child is adopted into a loving family.

James A. Jones Jr., East Manatee Editor, can be contacted at 745-7021.