A decade ago, a group of residents got together to raise money to support and train a guide dog for the blind. Their efforts inspired us to develop a philosophy of “looking after people, animals, and the environment, locally and globally.”
Saving Lily’s Eyes
In January, Lilly Murphy, a fifth generation, 11 month old Sarasotan, was diagnosed with a Retinoblastoma, an extremely rare form of cancer, behind both her eyes. Her treatment includes 30 hours of chemotherapy once a month for at least nine months.
To help, we donated the use of Woodlawn Hall and contributed $3000 in donation items that, thanks to the generosity of our guests, residents and the local Sarasota community, raised $15,000 to help defray the cost of her treatment. We were so thrilled with the success of the event we contributed another $3000 in donation items for a function at the Hershberger Property, where Dicky Betts, formerly of the Allman Bros. Band, played. It helped to raise another $50,000. That’s $65,000 and this generous community isn’t finished. If you want to contribute, you can make a donation to Lilly’s Angel Eyes Fund at any Bank of America, and we’ll continue to keep you informed on our Facebook page about this brave, beautiful child’s progress.
A Good Environment
We’re also helping other children in the community with our support of the Public Safety Communication Center’s 9-1-1 Open House, held in conjunction with the YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day. We produced 500 activity-coloring books and boxes of crayons to help teach kids how to lead a healthier, safer lifestyle. To encourage them, we gave every kid that showed up a one-day pool and slide pass to Sun-N-Fun. Expect to hear a lot of happy kids whooping it up this summer poolside. We also contributed weekends here and at Tropical Palms, Family Pool Passes, an exclusive children’s birthday party here, and a spa day that some lucky winners will get in a prize drawing.
Lilly and the 9-1-1 Open House are just two of the many programs we’re involved with that began with the support by our residents of that single guide dog for the blind a decade ago. Today, our residents continue to hold events to support guide dogs and during the 2003-2004 season we began hosting a homecoming picnic for rescued greyhounds, cooking food and securing donations to help raise funds for the dogs waiting for their forever homes. It’s been an annual event and this past year about 150 greyhounds were here for the day – with nary a bark heard.
Our residents, guests, and team members have also been raising money and collecting supplies for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The Fund is helping the animals of Haiti that were hurt and/or abandoned as a result of the earthquake. Get all the details in this blog post.
Next month, we’ll be telling you about some of the other projects that everyone here is involved with, both locally and globally. In the meantime, you can check out a partial list on the community support page of the website.
