Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch to award $112,000 in grants

The Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch will award $112,000 in grants to charities in the Manatee-Sarasota area this month, bringing the total awarded during the club's 16-year history to $1.4 million.

The grants are funded by the club’s Suncoast Food and Wine Fest. The club, chartered on April 20, 2001, with 26 members, launched the festival a year later. Today, the club has more than 70 members.

“We like to say that we give away $100,000 a year,” Preston Olinger, festival chairman, said Tuesday.

This year, the club was able to fund 31 charitable organizations, selected from 56 requests, Olinger said.

“We primarily fund grants for youth and the elderly, and give preference to Manatee and Sarasota counties,” he said.

The club also provides funds for Rotary International’s Books for Kids program, and the clean water project for Third World countries.

Among first-time grant recipients is Manatee County Search and Rescue.

“It will go a long way,” said Jared Leggett, coordinator for Manatee County Search and Rescue, said of the grant.

The grant will be used to pay for training expenses and increase skill sets. Search and Rescue serves an area of 893 miles with public safety personnel -- emergency medical services, fire rescue, and law enforcement -- and provides disaster aid, emergency medicine and awareness education.

Also receiving a grant will be Take Stock in Children, which that helps children from low-income families achieve academic and personal success through a postsecondary college scholarship and mentor program.

“We are very excited to receive this grant. All of our scholarships are matched by the Florida Prepaid College Foundation,” said Diana Dill, executive director of Take Stock in Children.

“This helps break the cycle of poverty. Once they are selected in the sixth grade, they sign a contract and receive a mentor. We maintain contact with them through their public school years, and once they graduate they receive a four-year tuition scholarship. We have a 96 percent success rate,” Dill said.

The grants will be awarded noon April 20 at Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club.

This story was originally published April 11, 2017 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch to award $112,000 in grants."