There are several local charities that the Ponte Vedra Woman’s Club helps to support through their club’s fundraising efforts, and representatives from two of those charities spoke at a recent club meeting.
Two of the newest charities the club is supporting were recent guest speakers at a September meeting, as Karen Burke, clothing coordinator for Hugs Across the County, and Karen Correale, with Port in the Storm spoke to club members about what the services they offer and some of the ways people can get involved even further.
Both organizations focus on helping children in the local community, but just go about doing so in a different way.
Because they are nonprofits, they rely so heavily on volunteers and funding from the community to allow them to do what they do to offer help to others.
“It means everything to have that support,” Burke said. “We were both talking earlier about just how generous our communities are. For as much need as there is, it seems like somebody is always there to help fill the gap. We never take it for granted.”
Hugs Across the County’s goal is to make sure children across the county have what they need to succeed in life, and that includes making sure they have a lunch to eat at school or enough clothes to wear throughout a week.
The focus with Port in the Storm is set primarily on teenagers who are homeless within St. Johns County.
“We’ll put a need that we may have on Facebook, and the next day we have the donations already coming in,” Correale said. “This community is just so generous, and we couldn’t do what we do without them.”
It is a tradition of the Ponte Vedra Woman’s Club to give back to certain charities each year and Hugs Across the County and Port in the Storm are two of the newer organizations that the club has partnered with this year.
“We are one of the wealthiest counties around, but they need in the community is so huge,” Correale said. “There are 800 homeless or unaccompanied students in the county, and they’ve identified one in every school in the county.”
According to Burke, many people believe that poverty is only found in certain areas of the county, but during her time with Hugs Across the County she has found that there are major needs that exist throughout the county as a whole.
“We deliver clothing and emergency food to every single school in the county,” Burke said. “It’s just everywhere.”
According to Correale, Port in the Storm does not just offer a shelter for homeless teens, but they also have various initiatives designed to help them learn how to interview and put a resume together with the goal of helping them find a job, which will begin their path to a more stable future.
“Our overarching theme throughout our program is that we are housing focused,” Correale said. “We don’t want you to have to stay with us. The ‘homeward bound’ program is all about giving them the tools to succeed.”
