A newly established scholarship fund created by the Christ Church Frederica Episcopal Church Women is being inaugurated this year. Annually, the Christ Church Frederica ECW Scholarship Fund for Women will provide $2,500 to a female high school graduate pursuing a degree through an academic or technical college or university. The student must be of the Episcopal faith and hale from Glynn or McIntosh County.

"Many of our Christ Church women have, over the last fifteen years, donated to this wonderful effort to establish a scholarship program for our young ladies. The fruit of our gifts will now benefit many young women with their future educational goals. In establishing this scholarship we honor those who came before us and saw this as just a dream…….but now it is a reality and we could not be more pleased." noted Jane Watson, President, Episcopal Church Women.

Applications may be accessed via the Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation website (www.coastalgeorgiafoundation.org) and are due no later than April 21, 2018. Candidates will be screened and interviewed by a scholarship committee and the award will be made in May.

Said Paul White, President & CEO of the Foundation “We are so delighted to work with the Episcopal Church Women to make this scholarship a reality. What they have accomplished and what they will do to affect the lives of young women is simply amazing.”

A scholarship fund created in 2017 by the Christ Church Frederica Episcopal Church Women is open to applications. Annually, the scholarship will provide $2,500 to a female high school graduate pursuing a degree through an academic or technical college or university. The student must be of the Episcopal faith and hale from Glynn or McIntosh County.

Apply here:  2019 Christ Church ECW Scholarship

Fund aims to support agencies providing hurricane relief

By Lauren McDonald

In the days immediately after Hurricane Irma hit the Golden Isles, Salvation Army workers were out in the community helping people in need. Coastal Georgia Community Action Authority workers were distributing diapers, toiletries, cleaning supplies and more. They helped people who were burdened by an expensive evacuation pay bills and relocate to new homes.  America’s Second Harvest food pantry helped feed more than 3,000 people.  These agencies were among the first to provide aid after the storm.

Bobby Haven/The Brunswick News

United Way of Coastal Georgia President and CEO Virginia Brown, second from left, and Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation President and CEO Paul White, center, hand checks to Coastal Georgia Community Action CEO Tres Hamilton, from left, Salvation Army Captain Chris Powell, and America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia Community and Agency Relations Coordinator Kalista Morton Wednesday from the new hurricane recovery fund.

They received thanks Wednesday in the form of monetary donations from a new fund established by the United Way of Coastal Georgia and Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation.  “These dollars will not by any means totally reimburse them, but it is to recognize and to bring attention to the great risk that they took to their organization to help people in need,” said Virginia Brown, President and CEO of the local United Way.  After Hurricane Irma blew through the area in September, the United Way and Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation came together to establish a Community Emergency Needs Fund to support charitable agencies that deliver direct assistance to local residents affected by the storm.  The two agencies made the first donation from the fund Wednesday. They designated the first allocation of money for agencies that stepped up immediately after the storm.  “These three agencies in particular rose to the top of that list because they didn’t spend a lot of time looking at their individual budgets and saying ‘Can we afford to help people?’” Brown said. “… They said ‘There’s a great need. We need to help now.’”

United Way Worldwide created the United Way Irma/Maria Recovery Fund this year to support communities in the Southeast United States and the Caribbean affected by hurricanes.  For the first time in the local United Way’s history, the agency received funding from United Worldwide through this initiative. United Way received and allocated the first installment of $22,500 on Wednesday.  Captain Chris Powell, corps officer of the local Salvation Army, said the donation will allow the organization to continue offering its services, such as distributing meals through its food pantry and paying rent and utility bills.  “As usual, just like with United Way, we’re trying to make sure that we’re taking care of our community,” Powell said.  There is still great need in the community due to the storm, he said, and most of the Salvation Army’s budget relies on donations.  “Without funds like this and without partnerships with our partner agencies, it makes it hard for us to do our job,” Powell said.

More donations from the Community Emergency Needs Fund will be made next year. The fund provides a vehicle for private money to come into the community, Brown said.  “(The Federal Emergency Management Agency) has been extremely generous with us in this community, but we know that FEMA money is sometimes delayed and that it doesn’t meet all the needs,” she said. “There needs to be an easy, well-organized way where funders from not only here in our community but across the country can give their generosity.”  The first distribution of money aimed to honor those who leaned forward immediately after the storm to provide help, Brown said.  “I think this is a good way to end a year — celebrating our nonprofit heroes as well,” she said.

Rich's Consumer Brands Fund celebrated its second year of grantmaking to local community non-proifits through their charitable fund at the Community Foundation.  Last year the total amount granted was significant at $50,000.  This year they doubled that!

Recipients were...

Morningstar Children and Family Services - $50,000

YMCA - $25,000

Fellowship of Christian Athletes $25,000

Congratulations to all!  Just one of the many ways Rich's is giving back to the community!

L-R: Jim Motos, Rich Products; Wells Kilgore and Katie Morse, Morningstar; Tim Hardin, Fellowship of Christian Athletes; Jay Mullins, YMCA; Donna Ratliff and Jayne Mathews, Rich Products.

The Foundation Board had their annual meeting last evening at Southeastern Bank in Darien followed by an oyster roast and dinner at the Lucas Farm in Harris Neck.  Despite the rain, all enjoyed the evening tremendously! 

Thanks  to Art and Lindee Lucas for a wonderful evening!

L-R: Greg Post, Lloyd Newberry, Jack Kilgore, Rocker and Sandi Channell

L-R: Craig Root, Con Holland

L-R: Rene' and Rick Shelnutt, Debbie Holland, Ellen Post, Mary Root

L-R: Rose Andrews, Martin Miller, Laura Lynn Miller and Monica White

L-R: Lindee Lucas, Jim and Janet Shirley, Sheila and Bernard McCloud and Stephen Kinney

On the beautiful evening of October 10th, the Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation celebrated the successful completion of their Decennial Campaign. The event was hosted by Foundation Board Treasurer and Campaign Chairman Bill Stembler and his wife Anne at their beachfront home on Sea Island. In attendance were over 60 of the Coastal Georgians who made the effort a success.  The Decennial Fund is now a $3.5 million operating endowment, and the campaign to fund it was announced on the Foundation’s 10th anniversary. It will provide financial support for the Foundation’s operations and guarantee its presence for the foreseeable future.

(Brunswick, GA) - Community Emergency Needs Fund

The Brunswick News - By LAUREN MCDONALD

The Correll Scholars program at the Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation recently awarded four Glynn County high school graduates with scholarships to pursue higher education.  “These kids have demonstrated a remarkable potential, and we as a Foundation and the Corrells are prepared to make sure that potential is realized,” said Paul White, President and CEO of the Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation. “That’s what this scholarship is all about.”  Pete and Ada Lee Correll established the Correll Scholars program to help Glynn County high school graduates who are members of the Elizabeth F. Correll Teen Center in Brunswick pursue a two-year or four-year post-secondary degree through one of Georgia’s public colleges.

Pete Correll is Chairman Emeritus of Georgia Pacific and Chairman of the Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation, among other things.  The program provides an annual scholarship of $5,000 to students enrolled in four-year academic degree programs and an annual scholarship or stipend of $4,000 to students enrolled in two-year academic or technical degree programs. “Pete and Ada Lee set this up, and it’s basically to help kids that graduated from high school who have been involved with the Boys & Girls Club,” White said.  Nalani Burch, Jaylon Cooper, Cekayla King and Bria McGirth were this year’s recipients.  Burch plans to attend Savannah State to study dentistry or business. Cooper is headed to Georgia State to study architecture and graphic design.  King will attend College of Coastal Georgia to study business and marketing. And McGirth plans to study at Middle Georgia State University, where she’ll major in pediatric nursing.

Pictured: Paul White, President and CEO of the Communities of Coastal Georgia Foundation, center, poses with this year’s Correll Scholars program recipients at the Elizabeth F. Correll Teen Center. This year’s recipients were Nalani Burch, from left, Cekayla King, Jaylon Cooper and Bria McGirth.

“These kids had done well in school, had been involved in extracurricular activities — a variety of them — and had very good college plans,” White said. “They had been involved with the Boys & Girls Club, and then they represented themselves well to the selection committee.”  The purpose of the scholarship, White said, is to support these students as they work to meet their potential.  “This is just one more way that the Community Foundation helps our donors maximize the impact of their philanthropy,” he said.