Area Charities Reap Fundraiser Benefits From Brandon '86 Rotarians

Representatives from six of the Greater Brandon area’s most-recognized charities received checks today from the Rotary Club of Brandon ’86, which raised most of the donations at the group’s annual fundraiser.

According to Reggie Osenton, who as immediate past president of the Rotary club serves as the group’s endowment chair, close to $14,000 was distributed to seven non-profit organizations at the club’s Jan. 6 meeting at The Bridges Retirement Community. (A representative from one of the charities was not in attendance.)

Checks were received by:

• Debbie Meegan, executive director of the Brandon Outreach Clinic, at 517 North Parsons Ave., which provides medical care to residents who work, but can’t afford the available access to health care insurance.

• Stacey Efaw, executive director of the Emergency Care Help Organization (ECHO), at 507 North Parsons Ave. ECHO serves more than 700 area residents a month from the communities of Brandon, Lithia, Dover, Gibsonton, Seffner, Valrico and Riverview. The group provides food, clothing and household items to individuals and families in emergency situations up to four times in a lifetime.

• Richard L. Stroud, executive director of Everyday Blessings, a 72-acre child-care agency that houses foster care children (newborn through 17 years of age) who have been removed from their homes due to physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse, abandonment or neglect. Everyday Blessings provides sibling groups the opportunity to remain together in a safe and stable environment, on 72 rural acres in Thonotosassa. The group this month is expanding to Sarasota.

• Karen Brooks, center director of LifeCare of Brandon, at 122 North Moon St. The group aims "to defend the sanctity of human life, promote Biblical sexuality and God's plan for marriage and the family," Brooks said. LifeCare provides pregnancy and parenting support and plans to expand this month to SouthShore, at 310 1st St. N.E. in Ruskin.

• Peter Watkins, president and director of New Horizons Group Homes in Brandon, which "provides a Christian, family, group-living alternative for developmentally challenged adults."

• Jim Harmon, executive director of Rotary's Camp Florida, at 1915 Camp Florida Road, off Lakewood Drive in Brandon. The camp's mission is "to ensure that all special needs children have the opportunity to experience the same fun and joy of camping that we did as children, enriching them in body, mind, and spirit."

• Not present for the check presentation was a representative from the seventh Greater Brandon charity to receive fundraiser benefits, I Am Hope Cafe, founded by the Greater Brandon Ecumenical Ministries to feed and tend to the "health, recovery and independence needs" of the homeless with a faith-based program that includes serving meals in a restaurant-like setting.

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Check back at Brandon Patch for more coverage of this event.

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