GOOD DEEDS: Exchange gives WBTT $25,000 for upcoming season

Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe was recently awarded a grant of $25,000 from The Exchange, in support of its 2022-2023 theater season of shows.

The season includes productions of “Guys and Dolls” (Oct. 5-Nov. 20, 2022), holiday show “Black Nativity” (Nov. 30-Dec. 23, 2022), “Flyin’ West” (Jan. 4-Feb. 12, 2023), “Dreamgirls” (Feb. 22-April 9, 2023) and one-act plays “Big Sexy: The Fats Waller Revue” (April 19-May 28, 2023).

WBTT has been the grateful beneficiary of support from The Exchange since 2012. Over the course of its history, The Exchange (formerly The Women’s Exchange) has awarded more than $9 million in grants and scholarships.

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A donation from a Sarasota nonprofit group will benefit two Ukrainian students in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus.

Designing Women Boutique receives donations of high-end clothing, furniture and other items, and then sells them from a storefront in Sarasota. Part of the proceeds is donated to various other nonprofit organizations. Past beneficiaries include WUSF and the USF Sarasota-Manatee’s Chancellor’s Fund.

Designing Women Boutique’s recent donation of $2,500 in scholarships to the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus will help cover academic expenses for Halyna Horpynich and Melissa Korolchuk, two students from Ukraine who fled their country because of the war. They will enroll this fall in the graduate program at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, said Dean Cihan Cobanoglu.

The donation came after Ida Zito, president of Designing Women Boutique, attended HospitaBull, a fundraising dinner for the program, in March. Zito said she came away impressed by the hospitality students who prepared and presented the meals.

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On June 20, Dolphin Aviation Owner Shannon Ciaravella presented six graduating high school students with checks to support their first year at college. She is continuing a tradition established by her late husband, Dolphin Aviation founder Ron Ciaravella, over two decades ago.

Ciaravella, who died in July 2021, had awarded more than 100 scholarships to deserving local teens over 20 years.

This is a list of the seniors, their high schools and where they plan to attend college.

• Sephena Jackson, Venice High, Florida State University

• Gabriel French, Braden River, University of Central Florida   

• Halden Parker, Riverview High, Embry-Riddle

• Jaxson French, Sarasota Military Academy, Concord University

• Delaney Hampton, Sarasota High, Florida Atlantic University

• Chloe Sebiro, Booker High, Florida A&M

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CareerEdge, the Sarasota Chamber of Commerce workforce development program, has received a $25,000 grant from Bank of America to expand the organization’s Bridges to Careers training programs and on-the-job training.

As a founding investor, this is the latest support the bank has provided CareerEdge in a 12-year partnership strengthening the workforce opportunities available to the Sarasota-Manatee community.

Today’s workforce climate is desperately in need of talent to fill job openings, especially at the entry-level.

In 2021, 96 people graduated from one or more of its programs – 50% of them were nonwhite/BIPOC and 25% were unemployed prior to the training.  Participants averaged an increased hourly wage of $3.79 per hour post-training.

Participants will also receive financial education training from Bank of America’s Better Money Habits sessions as part of the Bridges to Careers experience.

Bank of America’s funding will also support CareerEdge’s on-the-job training wage reimbursement program.  It will help reduce the expense of upskilling employees through salary reimbursement during the training period.  Employees earn a paycheck while learning in the actual environment where the work is performed, while employers are reimbursed a portion of the employee’s salary.

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Informa colleagues representing the Sarasota office recently participated in their annual “Walk The World” charity event at The Ringling.

The walk is an opportunity for colleagues to fundraise for a local charity and give back to their community. They raised close to $5,000 for the Education Foundation of Sarasota County and collected 80 pounds of food for All Faiths Food Bank.

Informa is an international events, digital services and academic knowledge group.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: $25,000 grant for WBTT, scholarship for Ukrainian students at USF