Making an Impact

PHILANTHROPY by JUDY OSTROW photography by CHIP RIEGEL

Ocean House Fund for Charitable Giving Supports Community Causes with Innovative Employee Involvement

Above, left

to right: The advisory board consists of Ocean House Collection employees including Lauren DiStefano, Laurie Hobbs, Ben Tomek, Dant Hirsch and Harry Staley. T he management and associates of Ocean House, Weekapaug Inn and its sister properties have built a global reputation for these resorts on the strength of their unified commitment to providing excellence in hospitality at the highest level. So when thinking about how to extend this degree of commitment and give back to the communities in which they operate and live, the Ocean House Fund for Charitable Giving was launched five years ago as a philanthropic effort to support worthy local causes.

The Ocean House Fund was created in 2017 in cooperation with the Rhode Island Foundation, focusing on philanthropic efforts to support local children in need, underserved households and local foodways-related causes, that help bring food to people who otherwise wouldn’t have it. The Ocean House Fund was inspired by the generosity of OH Collection Founders Charles and Deborah Royce and their commitment to the community.

Each year, employees from any Ocean House Collection property can nominate a non-profit organization to receive a donation from the Ocean House Fund. The Fund's advisory board consisting of employees of every level,

then make fundraising decisions based on these nominations from employees. This board meets in the first quarter of each year to consider awards to nominees with needs that coincide with the Fund’s charitable focus areas. One of the first major gifts was inspired when OH employees, delivering toys donated from Ocean House’s Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony and Children’s Party, discovered that the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center (PNC)—an organization dedicated to providing food and other assistance to families in need in the community—needed a new van to continue their work including the delivery of food. In a true team effort, they enlisted the local dealership, Masse Automotive Group, to find the vehicle best suited to PNC’s needs, then followed up with Printing Plus in Westerly to place the organization’s logo on the van. Executive Director Susan Sedensky expressed PNC’s appreciation.

“We were very grateful for this extraordinary gift, after our current van was in disrepair and became inoperable. This van enables us to more effectively transport food and essential supplies for underserved people in our community,” says Sedensky.

Other organizations that have received Ocean House Fund grants include the Rhode Island Center for Assisting Those in Need, one of the top food banks in Rhode Island; the Beechwood Center for Wellbeing; the Olean Center, which provides services to children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and others. There was even an innovative grant to a local school district to help underserved children and their unique needs not covered by any other organization.

In addition to funding, the Ocean House Fund for Charitable Giving has helped children and families in need in other ways, including the serving of lunches when schools were closed through the Off the Menu Food Truck, and on holidays during the pandemic.

Asked how Ocean House guests can be involved in this effort, Laurie Hobbs, who heads the fund advisory board, notes that guests of OH Collection properties help in many ways. “Gifts from holiday events, sales of our annual limited-edition holiday snowman toys, and part of the proceeds from our high profile venues—such as the Gondola Village and Sipping Terrace—contribute to the good work of the Fund.”

“Through donations and small acts of kindness, we make a positive impact in our communities like no one else can,” says Hobbs.

Top row, left to right:

Holiday items benefit the charitable fund. Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center received a new van to make food deliveries.

Bottom row, left to right:

Gondola Village at Ocean House; Toy drives at Christmas events