SARASOTA – The Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix brings in thousands of dollars to the Suncoast over the course of the nine day festival and local nonprofits like the Haven receive grant money that helps its clients.
“This is an amazing collaboration, we definitely rely on the community. We serve 800 children, teens, and adults with disabilities each and every day,” said Brad Jones.
The Haven is one of five charities that receive grants from the Suncoast Charities for Children. These grants help out with repairs to buildings or other projects the charities have in plan.
Jones, President and CEO of the Haven, says the funds raised at the festival help nonprofit fulfill its mission providing a safe place for people with disabilities and helping them get into the workforce.
“In our programs we definitely rely on philanthropy and that’s where the Suncoast Charities come into play,” said Jones. “They’ve helped us is a lot of capital projects from new roofs, gates, and most importantly housing.”
Megan Maus is one of the clients at the Haven who has seen the effects the Sarasota Powerboat Race has had on the Haven.
“Well what we do with the grant money that we do projects like we are having a new house behind friendship house,” said Maus. “So we’ve been doing a lot of projects and in 10 years we will be having new [housing] with the haven.”
The Haven looks to build new housing on their campus with the grant money from this year’s Grand Prix to accommodate new clients hoping to join the Haven family.
