CAPELESS BUT CAPABLE

As this week’s installment shows, our Club Heroes come in many varieties, from young lawyers just beginning their careers to retired seasoned executives looking for a way to give back. But they have this in common: they’re making a real difference in the lives of our community’s children. We hope you enjoy meeting Nancy Conicella and Mike Jackson, and will join us in a moment of reverence for our beloved Grandma Boatman.

The sizable impact that Nancy Conicella has made on Central Florida youth belies the fact that the young real estate lawyer has lived here less than 4 years. The Pittsburgh native and graduate of UF Law School says she’s found that volunteering has been the best way to establish roots in her new community. “Boys & Girls Clubs has become my passion project,” she says. “These kids are so innocent—they have so much potential, and their paths are not yet set. This is where I see the biggest opportunity to make a difference.”

Nancy has volunteered at the Walt Disney World Clubhouse, served food at our annual Blessings Banquets, and now sits on the West Orange County Board. Lately, she’s embraced the “Club Heroes” peer-to-peer campaign, and leads the team in the amount raised online! “I’ve found people are grateful to have an opportunity make a difference right now,” said Nancy. "I'm just connecting the dots."

If you’d like to contribute to Nancy’s campaign, or become a peer-to-peer fundraiser like Nancy, you can join our Club Heroes.

NOURISHING CHILDREN, BODY & SOUL

The President & COO of a national grocery chain, who once oversaw 160,000 employees, chooses to spend his retirement hauling palettes of food and stacking up cans of corn for needy families at a Boys & Girls Club. Does the grocery trade run that deep in the blood of Mike Jackson? Perhaps. But a more likely explanation is the man’s deep compassion to give back, and to do whatever it takes to make a better life for his community’s children. Jackson, who serves on BGCCF’s Osceola County Board and also the Celebration Foundation Board, has spent dozens of hours since the COVID Crisis began putting his professional experience to work by setting up a food pantry in our Tupperware Brands Branch. To date, Mike and a team of staff and volunteers have provided more than 1,100 bags of weekend food to Club families. “We feel that if we can put disadvantaged kids back on a level playing field, they can compete with anyone,” says Mike, who also started a thriving food bank in the Pacific Northwest when he worked there. “What is a more basic building block of life than food security?”

A HERO GOES TO HEAVEN

“For the staff and members of the Walt Disney World Clubhouse, the COVID-19 virus took a very personal toll earlier this month. Most of our members didn’t even know her name was ‘Claretha’ – to everyone at our Club, she was “Grandma Boatman.” Grandma showed up faithfully every single day the Club was open for 8 years. She did everything from the unglamorous jobs of sweeping the floor and wiping down the tables, to sitting and talking with the teens one-on-one. Indeed, her own three grandchildren attend our Club, but many, many member claimed her as their own, particularly the teens. “She’s my grandma,” they’d say—when one of them was troubled, they knew just where to find a listening ear.

She also made a huge impact on the staff, myself included. I remember many times when I would talk with her for hours, when I was struggling with something, just to mine the rich wisdom she had accumulated over her 86 years. Grandma Boatman is gone now, but her spirit lives on in the hundreds of lives she touched in Pine Hills and Carver Shores during her lifetime of caring for others.”



– Jose Bastias, Senior Service Director, Walt Disney World Clubhouse

Deepest gratitude to the following generous donors who have already joined our Club Heroes campaign. You are ensuring that our organization, and our families, stay strong through this crisis, and that we will emerge with renewed purpose to create great futures for our Club members!

$25,000 +

$10,000 +

$5,000 +

Brian Baker

Chepenik Financial

The Duke Energy Foundation

Mark & Maureen Filburn – Providence Construction, LLC

GolfNow

Kevin & Denise Habicht

David & Linda Hughes

Office Depot

N. Christine Sylvester

Winter Park Health Foundation

$1,000 +

AIT Engineering

Steve & Patty Appel

David & Lyn Berelsman

Tom & Ann Brooks

Wes & Paula Brumback

Keith & Lila Buescher

John & Dede Caron

Derrick Chandler

James & Allison Clark

Vivek & Tejal Desai

Les & Jill Eiserman

Equity Partners, Inc.

Jim & Jennifer Etscorn

FAME Group, Inc.

Robert & Mary Frantz

Graff Holdings

Kevin R. Hill & Nicholas F. Farinella

Kelly Family Cuidiu Foundation

Steve & Judith Kirby

Paul & Stacey Manos

Nextera Energy Foundation, Inc

OUC- The Reliable One

Renaissance Charitable Foundation

The Rotary Club of Lake Mary

Russ & Mazie Salerno

Scan Design

Shutts & Bowen LLP

Sidhu Family Foundation Inc.

SIMS Crane & Equipment  Co.

The Villages Theater Company

$500 +

Steven & Jean Allender

Allender & Allender, P.A.

Jennifer Ashton

Camelot Properties Referral Group, LLC

Nancy Conicella

Phillip C. DeLong

Duke Energy Florida, LLC

Dr. Steven & Suzanne Dukes

Cami C. Leech Florio

Lamont & Lynda Garber

Clark Keator

Allison Krueger

Les Choux Company

Drew & Paula Madsen

Nathan & Ashley Male

Cheryl Mall

William & Rebecca Manuel

Mike & Marybeth Morsberger

Christopher Pirolo

William & Ann Schooley

Star Distribution Systems

Wilhelm Construction

$250 +

Charla Albury

Christyne Albury

Linda Allen

Brasfield & Gorrie LLC

Robert & Caroline Buster

Chad & Elizabeth Cain

Bryan Campbell

CCH Marketing & Events, Inc.

Circuit Breaker Sales

Amber Clore

D1 Orlando

Clara Ewing

Stephen Forte

James & Jean Gallaghe r

David Hicks

Russ Hill

Sue Hoeksema

International Title and Escrow Co, LLC

Sarah Johnston

Garrett & Laura Jones

Diane & John Mahony

Mechanical Dynamics & Analysis

Charles & Shanda Redding

Steven & Jennifer Sabga

Fiona Shannon

Phillip Smith

John & Betsey West

Lena & Craig Williams