May 2024 - Lunch & Learn: Creative Ways Businesses Can Support Non-profits
Nonprofit organizations are conducting major fundraising campaigns, may be undergoing significant change, or are introducing new programs or services to our community. The proposed focus of our discussion will be the intersection of Sudbury's business and nonprofit communities.
Join us to learn creative ways that businesses can support our local non-profits.
Bill Spencer of Spencer Financial will moderate our Panel discussion.
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Panelist Introductions:
Samantha Bower, on behalf of HOPE Sudbury.
HOPEsudbury was created in 2001 to engage the residents of Sudbury in humanitarian aid after the tragic events of Sept 11th. In its almost 23 years of existence, HOPEsudbury has grown and adapted to the needs of our community and beyond. Today, HOPEsudbury assists Sudbury residents through a variety of programs and drives. Our signature program, the HOPEfund, provides short-term emergency financial assistance to Sudbury residents through directly paying critical bills (rent/mortgage, utilities, etc). Additional programs include HOPE Meals, Camp Fund, and yearly drives that (1) provide backpacks and school supplies for SPS/LS children and (2) help stock the Sudbury CARE Pantry. As an all volunteer organization, we have minimal overhead so the vast majority of donations are returned directly to our community where it is most needed.
Samantha Bower has served on the HOPEsudbury board since 2012. She has held various positions, including President, and is currently on the Outreach Committee. Born and raised in Sudbury, Samantha founded The Friends of Broadway, a service-based traveling musical group that performs at venues all over the country, as a freshman in high school. She holds a B.A. in Theater Education from Wagner College and owns Sudbury's The Performing Arts Connection, now in its 17th season. Her favorite role is mom to three amazing sons ages 11, 8, and 4. Recognized as the 2021 recipient of Businessperson of the Year through the Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, Samm is grateful for a community that values the arts and caring for its citizens, both at home and beyond.
JT, on behalf of the Sudbury Food Pantry
The Sudbury Community Food Pantry was started in March of 1990. It is presently staffed by a group of about 100 dedicated volunteers, and assists approximately 60 to 80 families each week. Ascension Parish (formerly Our Lady of Fatima) provides the space needed to shelve and distribute food to our clients.
Food Pantry clients receive food without prerequisites, such as needs tests or letters of referral.
Our sole purpose is to help any family, or individual in need, and no one has ever been turned away from the Food Pantry. Because coming to strangers and asking for food can be difficult, an effort is made to put all clients at ease while they wait to be served.
The Food Pantry is a 100% volunteer organization. No person working for the Food Pantry has ever received any compensation for his or her time, travel or expenses. Since we opened, approximately 88% of all of our expenditures have gone directly for food and personal care items for distribution through the Pantry. The remainder has been spent on freezers, maintenance and upkeep of the Food Pantry, truck rental for food pick-ups from the Greater Boston Food Bank, legal expenses to acquire our tax-free status, postage and printing, telephone, gloves for food handling and plastic bags for food storage.
As a member agency of the Greater Boston Food Bank, the Sudbury Food Pantry is able to purchase food at less than wholesale. During the growing season we get fresh vegetables from two organic farms in Concord. Approximately 35% of the nonperishable food we distribute is donated by elementary school children, civic and religious organizations. The Food Pantry is a distribution site for the USDA food assistance program and the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program.
The Sudbury Food pantry would not be in existence if it wasn’t for the generosity of Ascension Parish (formerly Our Lady of Fatima) which provides us the space to operate.
JT is Executive Director of the Sudbury Community Food Pantry, a regional pantry serving food insecure individuals in the Metro West area and 73 surrounding cities and towns.
JT previously served as Director of Legislative and Budgetary Affairs at the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services, a $2.5 billion state agency and was Deputy Director at the Arc of Massachusetts (formerly Mass. Association for Retarded Citizens) where he advocated for and crafted housing, civil rights, criminal justice, labor and health care policies, regulations and legislation on behalf of individuals with disabilities and their families.
JT holds a Master's degree in Public Administration with a state and local government concentration from the Sawyer School of Management at Suffolk University.
JT grew up in Sudbury and has resided in Wayland for 23 years, where he serves as an elected Board Commissioner for the Wayland Housing Authority. He has previously served locally in a number of capacities, including as Chairman of the Wayland Council on Aging Transportation Committee and as a member of Wayland Affordable Housing Advocates.
Lottee Diomede, on behalf of SMILE Mass.
Lotte Diomede is the Founder and President of SMILE Mass, a non-profit whose mission is to help families raising children and adults with disabilities enjoy happy, healthy memories through education, recreation, and vacation opportunities.
Fourteen years ago, Lotte and co-founder Susan Brown, both mothers of children with disabilities, raised funds to create a state-of-the-art, universally designed playground for the town of Sudbury. The project became a mission to provide equal accessibility to those born with disabilities.
Since that time, SMILE Mass has created several programs to further the mission, including donating over 180 floating beach wheelchairs to public ponds and beaches throughout New England so that families with disabled family members can enjoy a day at the beach just like you and me, the purchase and rental of an adapted beach house in Truro MA where families can vacation in a setting that allows access for the entire family, a robust equipment loaner program so that travelers have a free and easy option to vacation without having to maneuver the logistics of bringing wheelchairs, ramps, lifts and more on vacation.
SMILE Mass's newest and fastest-growing program is Club SMILE Mass, a program that consists of hybrid classes to stimulate clients mentally and physically. Classes include access to one-on-one gym or small group classes, one-on-one swimming classes at Atkinson Swimming Pool in Sudbury, in-person social group, and seven-day-per-week access to any LA Fitness in Massachusetts. The program also includes music therapy, story time, Bingo, book club, and so much more. Each client also receives a bike evaluation performed by a Physical Therapist.
In 2020, Lotte was recognized as a 2020 Myra Kraft Community MVP Award winner. In honor of her dedication to volunteering. The prestigious award was accompanied by a $10,000 donation to SMILE Mass by the Kraft family and the New England Patriots Foundation.
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