News of www.newsofkingspoint.com
February 2015
The Power of Philanthropy
An Exciting New Way For Our Community To Help Those In Need By John Bowker A new charitable foundation is being developed for Sun City Center by a group of local residents headed by Walter Cawein. Three past presidents of the SCC Community Association are serving as officers of this new corporation’s board of directors. Cawein is president, Ed Barnes is vice president and Paul Wheat is serving as corporate secretary. The other board members are familiar names in town—Connie Lesko, Martha McTeague, Tom Ritenour, Sam Sudman and Dallas Tuthill. That group has a total of 90 years of residency in Sun City Center, and they represent 87 years of participation on various 501(c)3 organizations. Their initial goal is to establish the Foundation as a nonprofit organization that will either donate funds to other 501(c)(3) organizations, or will be a source of funding for its own charitable purposes. Filings with the state and IRS have already been submitted.
Corporate Secretary Paul Wheat at left discusses plans for the new Charitable Foundation with President Walter Cawein and Vice President Ed Barnes.
In an opening statement at a recent briefing, President Cawein established the mission of the new group as improving the quality of life for our senior citizen
residents and to help shape the future of our community by creating public awareness of the foundation. “We must develop resources and support initiatives
that address local needs,” he said. Cawein added, “We are designed to be a permanent resource and to be active partners in building a better community—now and in the future.” The effort will be to mobilize individuals, clubs and businesses to become active partners in the building of a better community, and to be a permanent resource for the needs of our community’s future. Cawein added that he foresees the establishment of a Legacy Fund that would offer all Sun City Center residents an opportunity to bequeath or donate money to show their appreciation for the years of happiness as a resident here. There will be a “Ewing Smith Beautification Fund” to carry on the work of the recently deceased Mr. Smith who did so much to improve the appearance of our town with careful plantings, new Power Continued on Page 2
A New Reading Program Benefits Children Taking Part in The Hope Fund’s After-School Activities
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Wonderful things are happening at Bethune Park in Wimauma where The Hope Fund, a nonprofit organization, sponsors after-school programs for atrisk children. The children learn, grow, and have fun in a safe, nurturing environment. Most of the children speak fluent English and are bi-lingual. Many of the children have parents who speak no English at all. It has been found that children from homes where English is their second language have problems with reading comprehension. They may read words very well, but they do not understand what they are reading. This is due in a large part to a gap in their foundational (basic) vocabulary. These are the words usually learned in the home at a young age, but these children have not learned them in English. With this concern in mind, Janet Caruthers, Ed.S., a former classroom teacher for more than 25 years and an Academic Intervention Specialist in Hillsborough County schools, has come forward with a program
L to R: Janet Caruthers, the Tutor Supervisor of the Reading Program she developed to build basic vocabulary skills, June Wallace, the Founder of the SCC Community Campaign Against Human Trafficking, and Nancy Foster, Tutor Coordinator for The Hope Fund.
she created that focuses on building that basic, foundational vocabulary. She has written 5 books, a series of workbooks that the children enjoy using, along with tutoring guides for each workbook. The workbooks and books show pictures of items
common in everyday life—such as a hand, a dog, a tree, a person, a bicycle, a kitchen, etc. Each picture has the major parts of the object labeled. The labels are actually those foundational words that students need to know to understand what they
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read, as well as to talk about and write about their daily activities. As students learn these words, their reading comprehension should improve. Ms. Caruthers said, “Building vocabulary is very important because the size of a person’s vocabulary is a strong predictor of academic success, and it is a strong element in a child’s self esteem.” The vocabulary building workbooks, tutoring guides and Parts of Everyday Things books for kindergarten and first grade students were an anonymous donation from a member of the Prevention/Education Team of SCC Community Campaign Against Human Trafficking. The Education team is working to establish a relationship with area schools, so that they might present curricula and prevention programs that will help raise students’ self-esteem and diminish the possibility of students becoming targets of exploitation and trafficking. Many of their members are in area schools on a weekly basis to work in Reading Continued on Page 2
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