Naples Winter Wine Festival foundation awards $15.1 million to nonprofit groups

After a successful Naples Winter Wine Festival live auction that raised $15.1 million, the Naples Children & Education Foundation announced Monday the 47 recipients of its annual grants at an awards ceremony at the Bay Colony Golf Club.

The organizations that received the highest allocations were the Guadalupe Center ($522,000), the Legal Aid Service of Collier County ($500,250), the Boys & Girls Club of Collier County ($450,000) and the Collier County Child Advocacy Council ($426,300).

The 14 nonprofits participating in the foundation’s long-term initiative to address child hunger and oral health received a combined total of $2.4 million.

The funds support programs and organizations that fill gaps in children’s services in Southwest Florida. A committee of 11 trustees vets local organizations year-round to determine which are the most effective.

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Jane Billings, executive director of Friends of Foster Children Forever, which received more than $339,000, said the funds will go toward an academic mentoring program.

The program pairs each foster child with a mentor that stays with them as they move from home to home and school to school. The mentor visits them in school three times per week and meets with their teachers to ensure their academic progress and emotional well-being.

“They fall behind in school because of all the turmoil and chaos in their lives,” Billings said. “This program provides one consistent person in their lives to help while they’re going through this awful ordeal.”

Billings said her organization has received close to $4.5 million from the foundation since 2002.

“We wouldn’t be in existence if it weren’t for NCEF,” she said. “Our community and children are truly growing because of what they’re doing.”

Missy Lamont, executive director of the Therapeutic Riding Center, which was allotted $174,00, said the funds will help the center’s collaboration efforts with other nonprofits. The riding center has partnered with Youth Haven, the Shelter for Abused Women and Children, and the David Lawrence Center, among others, to offer children and adolescents therapy through horseback riding.

The program helps children build trust with their counselors, who attend the riding lessons, and improves their social and communication skills.

Many children who participate in the center’s program have gone through traumatic experiences, Lamont said. “So to be able to come somewhere quiet and peaceful and to be outside with these magnificent animals, they gain therapy, and they don’t even realize it.”

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The Foundation has donated more than $2.1 million to the riding center since 2003. The funds have been used in part to expand existing programs, such as those for people with disabilities, and to keep lesson costs at just $10 for a 45-minute session. They have also helped build a large covered arena with fans and lights that has allowed the center to give lessons in the rain and at night.

“It’s a game changer for us,” Lamont said.

Volunteer Sue Lottridge said she’s seen children grow emotionally and mentally. She’s even witnessed children go from a wheelchair to walking; riding helps build balance and core strength, she explained.

“They just blossom,” she said.

The wine festival has raised more than $176 million since its debut in 2001. In 2017 the event raised more than $15 million, making it the highest-grossing wine charity auction in the country.

This year’s live auction, held in January at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, included the first eighth-generation Rolls Royce Phantom, a custom-designed McLaren 720S and an 18-day all-inclusive private jet trip to Hong Kong, Malaysia, Reunion Island, South Africa, Cyprus and Spain.

“The Naples Children & Education Foundation continues to be a critical resource for programs and organizations striving to support and aid the underprivileged and at-risk children of Collier County,” said Valerie Boyd, 2018 grant committee chairwoman in an emailed statement. “Every paddle and dollar raised has been given to one of these 47 impactful organizations that are helping change the lives of thousands of children in our community.”