Five Southern End nonprofit organizations are among the groups that will participate in the Lancaster Community Foundation's Extraordinary Give program November 16. The Solanco Education Foundation, New Hope Community Life Ministries, the Quarryville Library, and the Southern End Community Association have taken part for a number of years. This year, Neighborhood Ministries will join the effort. The fundraiser goes for 24 hours, starting at midnight and wrapping up at 11:59 p.m.
The sponsoring foundation also has money that is distributed to the nonprofits based on how much money the local groups raise. All donations are made on line during the day. Three of the local groups are planning special events for the day. Solanco Neighborhood Ministries, 355 Buck Rd., will be holding an open house that day. That fits one of the community foundation's major goals - raising the community's knowledge about the impact the nonprofits have. "Last year, we had several people ask us why we weren't participating," director Theresa Dolan said. Neighborhood Ministries will hold an open house from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on the day of the Extraordinary Give. "We're going to open our doors to people so they can see what we do," Dolan said. "Most people associate us with the food bank but don't know much about our other programs. We also do holiday meals, serve as a resource center for the community, help people sign up for the toy drive, and provide emergency fuel assistance." The funds the nonprofit raises during the 24-hour period will help fund those ministries. The Quarryville Library will host a series of programs for adults during the day, director Sylvia Drennen said. "We already have a good selection of children's programs and I would like to use the money from the Extraordinary Give to let us create more programs for adults," she said. The library will have examples of such programs on November 16. Among them will be a book fold candle craft project from 12:30 to 2 p.m., an eclectic readers book sharing group from 2 to 3:30 p.m., a basic cooking skills pizza making class from 4 to 5:30 p.m., crafts for all ages from 4:30 to 6 p.m., and a basic cookie cooking skills class from 6 to 7 p.m. "We're planning to have a day of education and fun," Drennen said. The library and Neighborhood Ministries will have volunteers on hand to help visitors contribute to their fundraising efforts. That's been a successful approach for the Solanco Education Foundation, director Keith Kaufman said. Foundation volunteers will be at The Daily Grind, W. 4th St., Quarryville, from 6 a.m. until late afternoon on November 16 to help donors make their online contributions. In the three years it has participated in Extraordinary Give, the foundation has received more than $15,000 in donations. Extraordinary Give is one of the fundraisers the foundation uses to bring in enough money to provide college scholarships for graduating Solanco High School seniors as well as literacy, science, engineering, math, and technology programs for Solanco students. The foundation also provides grants for the district's teachers. One of this year's $500 grants will help Solanco High School teacher Todd Brown field a team for a robotics competition next spring. "It's called the SEAL Competition and it's done by the U.S. Navy and Penn State," Brown said. Each year, the competition offers three scenarios - one on water, one in the air, and one on land. "The teams have to design and build a robot that will complete the scenario. Last year, they all involved rescues the robot had to perform," Brown said. To learn more about the program, Brown and fellow teacher Mike Minchoff attended last year's competition. Brown and his students will learn about this year's scenarios in early 2019. The school plans to field at least one team. Each team can have between five and seven students. Team members do not have to be students in Brown's engineering and design classes. The foundation grant matches the amount a team can spend on materials. "This will be the first time we've entered a competition like this," Brown said. Like the education foundation, two other Southern End nonprofits will use money raised during the day to help fund their ongoing programs. However, neither the Southern End Community Association nor New Hope Community Life Ministries is planning special activities for the day. "We have participated since the first year [of Extraordinary Give]," said New Hope director Neil Uniacke. "We have local followers who know what we do, and this also lets us describe what we do to people outside the area. … We see this as a windfall. It gives another population a chance to give." SECA has been participating since 2015, director Nichole Leucker. "It's been successful for us," she said. "It seems to depend on the year; some years have been better than others." Like New Hope, SECA sees the day as a way for people outside the Southern End to give to the local organization. Black Rock Retreat will also take part in the fundraising effort. Comments are closed.
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