Local giving circle supports fledgling nonprofit

A charitable women’s organization in St. Petersburg held its quarterly meeting Thursday night, with members voting to support a recently-formed inclusive sports nonprofit.

100 Women Who Care St. Petersburg is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to supporting area charities. Nonprofits apply to present at the organization’s quarterly meetings, and a search committee selects three nominees. Members each contribute $100 with a goal of raising $10,000. However, corporate donors and the community have increasingly contributed to the club’s efforts, raising the amount of money the women are able to donate to local not-for-profits.

At its Sept. 5 meeting, 100 Women Who Care awarded a total of $25,000 to three local nonprofits. The top recipient was Inclusive Play Every Day, which received a check for $20,000 to support its mission of making play more accessible to children of all abilities. The organization grew from a once-yearly basketball camp into a movement to create transformative experiences that bridge the gap between children with special needs and their typically developing peers.

“When our son Jack was born with Down syndrome 13 years ago, my husband and I vowed to give him the same life experiences as any other child,” said Inclusive Play Every Day Founder Danielle Cole. “Jack has been fortunate to live a fairly mainstream life, but as most special needs parents will tell you, it’s hard to find typical activities such as camps, sports teams and social events that our children can attend without us successfully.”

This desire to provide equal opportunities led to the creation of Inclusive Play Every Day, which has grown from hosting the ‘Bounce Out the Stigma’ basketball camp into an organization that puts on a variety of events throughout the year. During her presentation to 100 Women Who Care, Cole said their goal is to increase to five events per year, which will bring together children and young adults with special needs, their families and neurotypical volunteers of all ages.

Cole said the volunteer-run organization’s current annual operating costs are about $9,000, but with the addition of new events, will increase to $15,000. Now, finding funding is one less thing for Cole to worry about in 2025 thanks to the grant from 100 Women Who Care covering its entire yearly costs.

Charlotte Arndt, Education Coordinator for Seaside Seabird Sanctuary, brought along Cypress the Barn Owl for her presentation. Arndt said Cypress was hit by a vehicle and can no longer fly, so the owl is now a permanent resident at the sanctuary.

“We’ve been relying on friends and family to get us through each event, kind of hand-to-mouth,” Cole told the Catalyst. “This means we can actually plan all of the events that we had in our head, that we dreamed about for the next year or two. This is going to make a lot of families very, very, very happy.”

Seniors in Service of Tampa Bay, a nonprofit that provides solutions to community challenges by engaging volunteers age 55 and over, took second place and won a $2,500 donation. 

Seaside Seabird Sanctuary, an avian rehabilitation hospital and sanctuary dedicated to the care of sick, injured and orphaned native wild birds, took third place and also won a $2,500 donation. 

Christina Noordstar, co-founder of 100 Women Who Care St. Petersburg, said the additional funding for the second and third place donations came from a private foundation with the goal of ensuring none of the nonprofits left empty-handed.

Addressing the crowd from onstage, co-founder Lauren Brigman said, “To you women who have showed up tonight, you’ve made a huge difference in our community. Even if this is your first time, it might not change your life, but you will change someone else’s. So that’s an amazing responsibility you have tonight, and I’m so glad you get to be a part of it.”

New members are welcome to join 100 Women Who Care St. Petersburg and participate in the next meeting Nov. 14. The application for nonprofits to present then opens online Sept. 20.

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