100 Women Who Care of Pinellas County presented Keep St. Pete Lit with a donation of $11,000 on July 15, 2019. The charity will also receive a $5,000 matching gift from the Richard M. Schulze Foundation. Richard M. Schulze is the founder of Best Buy. Keep St. Pete Lit celebrates and promotes greater St. Petersburg’s literary community – past, present and future – through arts, education and events with a literary twist. They are readers, writers and lovers of words who strive to bring an approachable, engaging literary component to St. Petersburg’s vibrant arts community. Keep St. Pete Lit is partnering with PCSB’s 21st Century iclass in offering after school writing classes at Campbell Park Elementary, Fairmount Park Elementary, and Midtown Academy. They also have after school classes at the Virginia M. Leonard Community Education Center and are partnering with The BattleGround, which is offering poetry and martial arts to at-risk youth at Sulphur Springs Library in Tampa, Florida.
100 Women Who Care of Pinellas County is a philanthropic group that provides an avenue for women to join together to bring financial support to local, charitable organizations that have a 501(c)(3) status. Members commit to attending four meetings per year (one per quarter) and pledge to donate $100 to an elected charity at each meeting. The members have the opportunity to nominate any organization, three of the nominated organizations are then randomly selected to give a 5-minute presentation, a vote is taken, and then checks are written directly to the winning charity. Since February of 2013, the group has given $228,700 to local charities. The next meeting is 7:00-8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 20th at Cove Cay Golf Club, located at 2612 Cove Cay Drive in Clearwater. There is a social time from 6:00-7:00 p.m. at the Cove Cay restaurant, where drinks and snacks can be purchased.
Adults pictured left to right: Marilyn Miller, 100 Women Who Care member; Brenda George, 100 Women Who Care Co-leader; Maureen McDole, Executive Director of Keep St. Pete Lit; and Debra Canning, Program Manager of 21st Century Learning Center.