After a cold and wet winter, the hot days of summer are here. A change to warmer weather is always wonderful on the KP as it brings the sounds of children playing late outside, swimming, kayaking, boating, and all those sitting by the campfire experiences. This summer has also brought changes in the make-up of the Foundation Board as Michele Gorman and Barb Floyd have stepped down. I want to extend a huge round of applause and appreciation for all their
hard work and service to The Longbranch Foundation.
Barb Floyd served as President of the Foundation from 2017 through 2020. She nurtured and grew the assets of the organization from $13,480 in 2016 to $123,672 in 2020. This allowed for expansion of scholarships offered to graduating seniors in the number and amounts given and our ability to provide grants to our Student Programs at Evergreen as well as other community grants. Barb expanded the number of members serving on the Board and garnered the support of hundreds of volunteer hours in various activities to raise money for the Foundation.
Michele Gorman took over from Barb as President in 2020, as a newbie to the Peninsula. Despite that she was undaunted and led the Foundation to even more growth with assets at $201,985 in 2021, leading the volunteers in a great Virtual Auction and Celebrate campaign. The amount and number of scholarships given has increased and we now have a 5-year plan for distributing $56,000 in scholarships for graduating seniors and $44,000 for student programs. Our yearly budget for community support is now $6,000.
As the new President, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Dr. Sheryl Low and I have served on the LIC and TLF board for the last two years as the secretary and now have very large shoes to fill. For those of you who don’t know me, I am a pediatric physical therapist, and recently retired Professor and former chair of the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at California State University, Northridge. As Chair I developed a relationship with the LA Dodgers, and we established a scholarship program for PT students funded by the Dodger Dream Foundation and the Roy Campanella Foundation. That scholarship program continues to provide yearly scholarships for economically challenged students pursuing graduate education. While I was on the educator side of selecting students for their scholarships, I was not on the fundraising and development side of the team. That role is new to me, and as a relative newbie to the Peninsula I will be asking for volunteers to step up and take on various roles for our Spring Fundraiser next Spring. One thing I have learned here on the KP is that there is a dedicated and gifted community of volunteers who are very capable of accomplishing big things for our youth!
So don’t be surprised if you get a call or email from me asking for help. We will be putting together the steering committee and plans this fall for an April Auction. I look forward to growing the Foundation’s assets so we can Make A Difference here on the Key Peninsula.