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September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. For the past few years, PrimeSouth Bank has promoted an annual campaign offering our employees and customers the opportunity to “give back” to this worthy cause. Keeping one of our Core Values, Service, in mind, our Employee Engagement Team has created campaign offering two options to secure donations. Proceeds from the Nassau market will benefit Wolfson’s Children’s Hospital. For more information and to purchase either a gold ribbon or mask, stop by the local PrimeSouth Bank branch, located at 1500 Sadler Road in Fernandina Beach, or call (904) 432-3125. Option 1: Each Branch will offer Gold Ribbons for a $1.00 donation:  Option 2: Each branch will offer BE BOLD GO GOLD masks for a donation of $5 or more:  
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The Boys & Girls Clubs of Nassau County (BGCNC) are pleased to announce a major gift from donors and Golden Guardians to the organization. Barbara and Don Gant of Amelia Island, Florida recently stopped by the Miller Freedom Center to present a gift of $25,000 from the Gant Family Foundation to the BGCNC Foundation. The Gants are advocates and supporters of the BGCNC efforts to enhance the lives of local Nassau youth and their families. This very generous gift comes at the beginning of a challenging school year for our Clubs and the children of Nassau County. Both the Miller Freedom Center and the Roberts Learning & Achievement Center are committed to operating safely and maintaining social distancing and other guidelines to ensure the health and safety of both our children and our staff. The Gant’s support will allow our members to enjoy all of the enriching after- school programs they have come to love including homework help, technology hardware & software, teen programs, arts & crafts supplies, sports equipment, as well as cleaning supplies and PPE for children and staff. Our Annual and Golden Guardians provide on-going support that is crucial to the operation of excellent programs our members and their families depend on. Guardians sponsor our Club members to ensure that we are able to reach those who need us most. For more information on Boys & Girls Clubs of Nassau County please visit bgcnassau.org.  Steve Nadeau, President of Boys & Girls Clubs of Nassau County Foundation; Barbara Gant; Don Gant; Bill Gower, Board Member Boys & Girls Clubs of Nassau County Foundation 538 Nassau County residents participate in the Nassau County Household Hazardous Waste Collection Event Keep Nassau Beautiful (KNB) and Nassau County Solid Waste Department thank the residents of Nassau County for properly disposing of Household Hazardous Waste Nassau County residents showed strong support for the rescheduled spring Household Hazardous Waste Collection (HHWC) event on Saturday August 15. In addition to collection of hazardous waste, residents also supported Barnabas Food Pantry during the event with the donation of 1,068 pounds (1/2 ton) of non-perishable food items.  Volunteers donated time to help residents during the Household Hazardous Waste event. Left to Right: Kelley McCarter, Kile Bell, Laura Schulkins, Jules Ruppel, Jean Mauldin, Andrew Powell, Zach Stowell, and Rachel Woodcock. Not pictured: Lynda Bell, Jim McCarter, and Elders Spencer Garns and Jameson Savage. Historically an average of 350 residents participate in each Nassau County HHWC event. This year’s event was an exception. During the same 4-hour period of 8am to Noon, 538 residents participated in the event making this the largest Nassau County event on record. The event was scheduled as a contactless collection; residents were asked to stay in their vehicles and allow volunteers and staff to remove approved items from their vehicles. For the first time in event history two residency verification stations were set up so two rows of vehicles could be processed simultaneously. Volunteers and staff worked through the sweltering heat at an average speed of 45 seconds per vehicle!
Twelve Keep Nassau Beautiful (KNB) Board Members and community volunteers, and approximately fifteen temporary staff were outfitted with masks and gloves to unload resident vehicles and sort approved items for proper disposal or recycling. The 12 volunteers donated more than 60 hours of time on the day of the event. It may be more than 30 days before full reporting on the weight and type of items collected, until then it is estimated electronics and latex paint will once again be in the top 3 items collected. Lynda Bell, Executive Director for KNB, said, “Year after year one of the most popular items for disposal during the HHWC event is latex paint. Many residents aren’t aware they can dispose of latex paint throughout the year by following a few easy steps.” The steps include the purchase of any brand of cat litter. Add the cat litter to the latex paint can. Leave the lid off and give the mixture time to dry out and solidify. Once the mixture has solidified the latex paint is not considered a hazardous waste. The can and solidified mixture may be disposed of during regular trash collection which may allow tax dollars to be used for disposal of other household hazardous waste items. Becky Diden, Nassau County Solid Waste Recycle Coordinator, reminds residents the Nassau County Solid Waste Department Tire Amnesty Day is scheduled for September 12. Said Ms. Diden, “While Nassau County residents may dispose of up to 4 tires per household per year, Tire Amnesty Day provides an additional opportunity to properly dispose of up to 15 tires per household with no fee for disposal.” Visit the Nassau County website for more information, http://www.nassaucountyfl.com/368/Convenience-Recycling-Center. KNB and Nassau County Solid Waste Department appreciate Nassau County residents and community volunteers, Nassau County Road Department, Alachua County Environmental Protection Department, U.S. Ecology, Sensible Recycling, Barnabas Food Pantry, and Nassau County Sherriff’s Department for their participation in the collection and responsible disposal of household hazardous waste. The next Nassau County Household Hazardous Waste Collection event is already being planned. Signup for the Keep Nassau Beautiful newsletter for details, www.keepnassaubeautiful.org. About KNB: Keep Nassau Beautiful, Inc. is working to inspire, educate, and equip individuals, groups, businesses and governments to take action to make Nassau County a place where residents, visitors and wildlife can thrive and experience the beauty of Nassau County. VIRTUAL CELEBRATION HONORING FLORIDA ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDS Keep Florida Beautiful Hosts Virtual Ceremony A virtual experience celebrating businesses and organizations for their efforts to keep Florida clean, green and beautiful! Keep Florida Beautiful (KFB) recently held its annual Awards Recognition Ceremony to honor its top affiliates and community partners for their environmental efforts. The award winners were instrumental in organizing cleanup events, increasing recycling efforts and hosting beautification projects. “Like many nonprofits, we have had to think outside of the box because of the pandemic. We are proud of our first-ever virtual awards ceremony. It was an opportunity to recognize affiliates and volunteers across the state. KFB Affiliate leaders found creative ways to keep people engaged in safely picking up litter in communities and along our beaches. Our goal is to keep Florida in a continuous state of eco-improvement. We also work to increase recycling, reduce waste and encourage sustainable practices,” said Elizabeth DeWitt, Keep Florida Beautiful board chair and Florida Beverage Association president. KFB staff members presented awards in 10 categories. They named TECO Energy Outstanding Business for its effort to help the Tampa Bay community remove 120,000 pounds of invasive plants and clean up 25,000 pounds of litter and debris. Engaging youth was also a key component of the celebration. KFB gave an award to Danielle Hightower, a Port St. Lucie student, for her leadership in promoting behavior change in litter prevention, recycling and beautification. She recruited her peers to participate in an Adopt-A-Street program and served as a mentor, encouraging others to beautify and keep the community clean. Keep Florida Beautiful is a state affiliate of Keep America Beautiful. It consists of over 40 affiliates from the Panhandle to the Keys that engage with more than 200,000 volunteers. The volunteers work to remove litter from Florida roads and waterways as well as participate in beautification programs and encourage recycling. KFB receives funding from the Florida Department of Transportation’s DRIVE IT HOME – Keep Our Paradise Litter Free Campaign to complete successful events across the state. 2020 Keep Florida Beautiful Award Winners Outstanding Business - TECO Energy Outstanding Great American Cleanup, Drive It Home “Trash-Off” - Keep Nassau Beautiful Outstanding Education Involvement - Keep Charlotte Beautiful Outstanding Youth Champion - Danielle Hightower Outstanding Law Enforcement Officer/Agency - Highlands County Code Enforcement Outstanding Recycling Effort - Keep Sarasota County Beautiful Outstanding Communication Outreach - Keep Pensacola Beautiful Adopt-A-Waterway Recognition - Keep Pinellas Beautiful Adopt-A-Highway Recognition - Keep Panama City Beach Beautiful Creative Community Partner - The Repurpose Project  Kelley McCarter - Project Chair/KNB Officer, Jules Ruppel - KNB Program Manager, Ashley Powell - KNB Board Member, Lynda Bell - KNB Executive Director and Janet Vining - KNB Board Member Yulee High School Seniors, and twins, Xarah and Xanah Sproul have been awarded the Tipping the Scale Scholarship by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Nassau County Foundation. This award is in recognition of their hard work and successful completion of their internships with Baptist Nassau. Boys & Girls Club members since they moved here from Chicago six years ago, both girls joined the Tipping the Scale program when they saw other teens in the program getting to go off campus and work at the hospital. They applied, interviewed, and were accepted to the program where they and other teens began internships covering a variety of professional health areas including nursing, accounting, telecommunications, radiology, health information, and physical therapy. The teens are provided with a mentor in the hospital and are paid a stipend for their work. Upon completion of the program, students are able to apply for the scholarship in their senior year. “My favorite part about working at the hospital for the summer internship was feeling grown up. It was my first job and it was just cool to have a 9-to-5 job!” said Xarah. “The connections and bonds I was able to make at Baptist Health…helped me realize what I really wanted to do going forward in life,” added Xanah. In addition to their hard work in this program, both young women were members of the Yulee High School Marching Band, National Honors Society, and BETA Club, as well as many other extracurricular activities. Xarah and Xanah truly exhibit the goal of Boys & Girls Clubs of Nassau to help deserving students achieve their dreams. Both of the Sprouls are headed to Saint Leo University where they intend to do their pre-med studies in Medical Humanities. For more information on Boys & Girls Clubs of Nassau County please visit bgcnassau.org.  Ed Hubel of Baptist Nassau, Xanah Sproul, Xarah Sproul, Bill Gower of BGCN Foundation Community Hospice & Palliative Care will be offering a new grief webinar called Understanding and Navigating Through Grief that is being held this Thursday, June 18th then Monday, June 22nd then again twice in early July. Please click the link on the flyer below to register. Community Hospice & Palliative Care will also continue to offer the Coffee and Conversation video group for anyone grieving the death of a loved one. This is a weekly video session that starts with a brief presentation about an aspect of grief by a bereavement counselor and a discussion with all involved. This is mutual support and education. Please call (904) 407-6464 or email engagement@communityhospice.com for more information and to register. Community Hospice & Palliative Care will send you easy to follow instructions on how to connect to the meeting through video chat or phone. Participants can also call in with a cell phone or land line.   The Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida's fourth installment of the 2020 Local Focus. Lasting Impact.™ Moments Recognition is dedicated to The Arc Nassau. The Arc Nassau created an innovative component to their Job-a-Palooza event that matches employers with future employees who have disabilities. The student participants in this event were selected through a partnership with the Nassau County School District.
The 11 local and regional employers who participated in Job-a-Palooza provided performance task demonstrations of essential job functions, and the student participants were then invited to demonstrate their skills by completing the same job task. This event was the first of its kind in Nassau county and is designed to address some of the communication barriers that individuals with disabilities might face in a traditional job interview or job fair environment by providing skills-focused interactions and peer mentors for the student participants. The Arc Nassau The Arc Nassau plans to expand this program next year and they have already received inquiries from new business partners who are interested in hiring people with disabilities. In addition to expanding the program next year, The Arc Nassau is developing a partnership with the Nassau County Chamber of Commerce and Nassau County School District to connect students pursuing work opportunities directly to employers. “By using student peer mentors as guides during the Job-a-Palooza event and a performance-based job fair rather than a networking-based job fair, our goal is to reduce some of the barriers students with disabilities might face when seeking employment. Job-a-Palooza allowed us to break down some preconceived notions of abilities with local employers. This new annual event will continue to provide a creative way to open more employment opportunities for the individuals we serve.” Paul Bussell, Executive Director, The Arc Nassau. About the 2020 Local Focus. Lasting Impact.™ Moments Recognition Program. This post is the fourth in our 2020 Local Focus. Lasting Impact.™ series. Through this program, The Nonprofit Center will recognize a total of seven local nonprofit organizations for their programs and services that have created a lasting impact in our community. Check out previous winner announcements here: Week 1 – Youth Crisis Center, COVID-19 Innovation Week 2 – Feeding Northeast Florida, COVID-19 Collaboration Week 3 – Ability Housing, Social Innovation In 2011, the Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida, The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida and the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, partnered to create the the Local Focus. Lasting Impact.™ initiative to help nonprofits connect with the community and each other. The initiative includes marketing materials for nonprofits to use as well as the signature awards program to highlight the achievements of nonprofits in the Northeast Florida area. In 2020, due to the unique circumstances created by COVID-19, The Nonprofit Center expanded the program to recognize five Local Focus. Lasting Impact.™ moments in addition to two Local Focus. Lasting Impact.™ awards in the categories of Collective Power and Social Innovation. Each of the five organizations recognized with the 2020 Local Focus. Lasting Impact.™ Moments received a $750 cash award, sponsored by Jessie Ball duPont Reflective Practice Endowment Fund at The Community Foundation For Northeast Florida. The Collective Power and Social Innovation award winners each received a $1,250 cash prize, sponsored by Florida Blue, a documentary film donated by WJCT, and an additional cash prize of $1000 to create and deliver a Learning Lab, sponsored by Community First Credit Union. As the major safety net organization for Nassau County residents in need, Barnabas Center is on the front line of helping residents in need during the COVID-19 crisis. Services offered to Nassau County residents with low to moderate incomes include food assistance, financial assistance and urgent medical and dental care.
Food Assistance: A short-term supply of food is provided that may include produce, dairy, meat and nonperishable items, depending on availability:
Mobile Food Distribution:
Financial Assistance:
Medical and Dental Care: We provide medical and dental care to adults who are uninsured and do not have a primary care doctor. Please contact us to discuss. For more information about our health services, visit www.barnabasnassau.org/get-help/health-services. For information about available assistance and eligibility, contact Barnabas at (904) 261-7000, visit www.BarnabasNassau.org, or follow our Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/BarnabasNassau. For your safety and others during the pandemic, please call Barnabas for a telephone pre-screening for financial assistance, food stamp and/or Medicaid applications before visiting the office. Apr. 30, 2020-- Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Rayonier Advanced Materials (NYSE: RYAM) through its two independent charitable foundations in the U.S. and Canada contributed over $160,000 to 23 local nonprofits that are addressing community needs in rural Florida, Georgia, Ontario and Quebec.
“Weathering this crisis means pulling together,” said Paul Boynton, President and Chief Executive Officer at Rayonier Advanced Materials. “It’s our responsibility to help our neighbors in need. These nonprofits are doing critical work assisting those who need it most. The Company and its employees are proud to support them.” The local nonprofits organizations were selected according to their mission and need. RYAM worked with local governments to identify nonprofits that reach the most vulnerable residents during this difficult time. Some of the selected organizations offer food assistance to residents, while others serve senior citizens, provide mental health services or shelter victims of domestic abuse. “We know these gifts will make a difference,” said Jay Posze, President of the RYAM foundations, “not only by providing these deserving nonprofits with some much-needed assistance, but also by spotlighting the truly indispensable work they do. We hope others are encouraged to give as well.” RYAM’s lending partner, CoBank, a national cooperative bank serving vital industries across rural America, is also providing $10,000 in additional funds through its 2020 Sharing Success program for selected organizations—which provides dollar-for-dollar matches of donations by eligible customers to nonprofit organizations in rural communities across the country. “Over many years, we have found that the most impactful way for CoBank to deploy charitable funds is to do so in partnership with customers, employees and other Farm Credit institutions,” said Tom Halverson, CoBank’s president & chief executive officer. “That is the approach we have adopted with COVID-19. We appreciate the opportunity to partner with Rayonier Advanced Materials to support these important relief efforts." Foundation Contributions: Wayne County, GA Tabitha’s Place Wayne County Family Connections Good Samaritan Center Fair Haven Shelter Nassau County, FL Barnabas Council on Aging Salvation Army Hope House Micah’s Place Starting Point Jacksonville, FL Hubbard House Quebec and Ontario Association Place au Soleil Nipissing Transition House Samaritain du Nord Fondation du Centre Table des aînés Entretoise Maison St-André Corporation de la maison Kapuskasing Food Bank Cochrane Food Bank Chapleau Food Bank The Table Food Bank Salvation Army Huntsville About Rayonier Advanced Materials Rayonier Advanced Materials is a global leader of cellulose-based technologies, including high purity cellulose specialties, a natural polymer commonly found in filters, food, pharmaceuticals and other industrial applications. The Company also manufactures products for lumber, paper and packaging markets. With manufacturing operations in the U.S., Canada and France, Rayonier Advanced Materials employs just over 4,000 people and generates approximately $1.8 billion of revenues. More information is available at www.rayonieram.com. By: Dr. Kathy Burns, Superintendent of Schools
Where would we be without teachers? Without teachers there would be no other profession! The influence of a great teacher is lifelong. If you don’t believe it, ask a child, a middle-aged person, or a senior citizen who their favorite teacher was, and they will respond without hesitation. The response usually includes a story about why that teacher holds a special place in their heart. It’s often been said that teachers affect eternity and you never know where their influence will end. The week of May 4th is Teacher Appreciation Week. This year, more than ever before, let’s take the time to thank our teachers. When the 2019-2020 school year started, no one could have ever predicted what teaching and learning would look like in the final weeks of the year. But… because teachers are teachers, in just a few short days, they made the transition to distance learning. Over the past few weeks, we have received emails, calls, notes, and messages about our teachers going above and beyond for their students. The halls may be empty, the classroom may have moved, but one thing will not change…teachers will never stop teaching, caring, sharing, giving, and going the extra mile to make a difference in the life of their students. Thank you, Nassau County Teachers, for doing your best work during this challenging time. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! |
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Nassau County Chamber of Commerce
961687 Gateway Blvd., Suite 101-G | Fernandina Beach, FL 32034 Phone: (904) 261-3248 | info@nassaucountyflchamber.com | site map |
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