The annual 200-mile overnight relay has proven so popular that interest is far beyond the maximum 300 teams and participation in the race is granted only through a lottery system. Though a team may not be afforded a slot through the lottery, there is an alternate opportunity for participation in the race. The civic-minded organizers of The Bourbon Chase dedicate 10% percent of the highly-coveted team slots to charities and in 2013 LexArts will have ten teams in the race. Each team will have a captain and eleven other team members and, in return for raising monies in the form of pledges and donations, LexArts will pay the team’s $1,500 entrance fee to the event.
 
LexArts CEO Jim Clark noted, “We are thrilled with this exceptional opportunity to partner with The Bourbon Chase and feel very fortunate to have been chosen as a beneficiary. This is a new fundraising avenue for LexArts…one that is a win-win for both a Bourbon Chase team and for LexArts…and is a wonderful opportunity to continue our quest of providing high quality arts experiences to all the people of Central Kentucky. We are grateful for the support of The Bourbon Chase and look forward to cheering our teams at the finish line.”
 
Mike Kuntz, founding organizer of The Bourbon Chase, explains, “The Bourbon Chase is proud of the fact that we raise over $150,000 annually for our three charities of choice. In fact, we are so dedicated to their causes that we devote 10 percent of our team slots to these charities to assist in accomplishing their missions. By running for LexArts, your experience in The Bourbon Chase becomes more meaningful and you’ll be supporting all of the arts in Central Kentucky.”
 
Registration and fundraising for the event is offered through the ACTIVE network, a leading online community that allows users to search and register online for races, team sports and recreational activities and to facilitate their fundraising efforts. To register for Run for the Arts – The Bourbon Chase, go here and search “bourbon chase.”
 
The two other charities are Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and National Hospice.
 
For more information contact Maury Sparrow at 859-351-3502 or by emailing bourbonchase@lexarts.org. For more information on The Bourbon Chase, click here.
 
From LexArts

Qualifying families can receive up to $5,000 per grant to help pay for medical services and equipment such as physical, occupational and speech therapy, counseling services, surgeries, prescriptions, wheelchairs, orthotics, eyeglasses and hearing aids.
 
To be eligible for a grant, children must be 16 years of age or younger. Families must meet economic guidelines, reside in the United States and have a commercial health insurance plan. Grants are available for medical expenses families have incurred 60 days prior to the date of application as well as for ongoing and future medical needs.
 
Parents or legal guardians may apply for grants here, and there is no application deadline. Organizations or private donors can make tax-deductible donations to UHCCF here. Donations are used for grants to help children and families in the region in which they are received.
 
“The UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation is dedicated to improving a child’s health and quality of life by making it easier to access needed medical-related services. The grants enable families to focus on their children’s health instead of worrying about how they’ll pay their medical bills,” said Paul Brophy, COO, UnitedHealthcare Employer and Individual of Kentucky. “Eligible families are encouraged to apply online for a medical grant today and take advantage of this valuable resource.”
 
In 2012, UHCCF awarded more than 1,300 grants—including 29 in Kentucky— worth more than $4.1 million, to families across the United States, for treatments associated with medical conditions such as cancer, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, diabetes, hearing loss, autism, cystic fibrosis, Down syndrome, ADHD and cerebral palsy. As successful fund-raising efforts continue to grow, UHCCF is hoping to help more children and families in 2013.
 
From UHCCF

Christopher McKnight (Photo from The Jax)

The May 19th event from 8-10 p.m. features a comic performance by Christopher McKnight, a three-course meal and glass of wine, and a donation to the anti-bullying cause. The event price of $53 includes a donation to Project Speak Out.
 
Angela Williams of The Jax says this is the first of many weekly events to pair entertainment and a cause. The Jax, she says, plans to host a Be Generous/Be Enchanted event every Sunday evening when they get their schedule up and running like the restaurant. For more information on the restaurant, click here.
 
For more information about Project Speak Out, click here.
 
From The Jax

 
The Appalachian Rural Development Philanthropy Initiative is sponsoring three free regional training seminars in Somerset, Ashland, and Hazard for attorneys, accountants, insurance agents and other professional advisors to learn more about charitable giving in Kentucky.
 
Seminars will be held June 6 at The Center for Rural Development (at Traffic Light 15) in Somerset and repeated on June 12 at the Foundation for the Tri-State Community, 855 Central Avenue (Citizens National Bank Building), Ashland, and on June 13 at the Kentucky River Area Development District, 917 Perry Park Road, Hazard. Sessions will begin at 9 a.m. EDT at each location.
 
The seminars, led by Allison Peck Lankford, vice president and general counsel at Blue Grass Community Foundation, one of the ARDPI partners, will focus on how communities across Southern and Eastern Kentucky can utilize charitable endowments to capture local wealth and invest it in life-changing endeavors.

Allison Peck Lankford (Photo from ARDPI)

 
Lankford will share her expert knowledge on charitable giving and planning. She works directly with donors and their advisors to help them develop customized philanthropic plans to meet their charitable giving goals.
 
For more information on the Somerset charitable giving seminar, register online here; contact The Center for Rural Development at 606-677-6000; or email psimpson@centertech.com.
 
Participants interested in attending the Ashland seminar may contact the Foundation for the Tri-State Community at 606-324-3888 or email ftsc_smartin@yahoo.com.
 
To register for the Hazard session, fill out the online registration form here; contact the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky at 606-439-1357; or email allison@appalachianky.org.
 
A complimentary lunch will be served at the Somerset and Ashland seminars. There will be a charge for lunch at the Hazard session. Attorneys participating in the seminars can earn six hours of Continuing Law Education (CLE) or Common Professional Examination (CPE) credit, including one and one-half hours in Ethics (CLE pending).
 
ARDPI is committed to helping distressed counties in Eastern Kentucky build the capacity to capture financial assets that will provide the long-term resources for community transformation. Through ARDPI, citizen leaders are encouraged to promote a culture of philanthropy and to create structures, such as community foundations, that will secure these assets for generations to come.
 
ARDPI partners include the Kentucky Philanthropy Initiative, the Blue Grass Community Foundation, the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, the Foundation for the Tri-State Community, The Center for Rural Development, Brushy Fork Institute, and the Endow Kentucky Commission.
 
From ARDPI

 
The Child Development Center of the Bluegrass at the University of Kentucky will present the 11th Annual Kitchens of the Bluegrass Tour on May 18-19. The self-guided tour features 13 kitchens throughout the Lexington area and benefits Child Development Center of the Bluegrass’ educational and therapeutic programs.
 

(Photo from CDCB)

“The Kitchens of the Bluegrass Tour is a signature event for CDCB and we are thrilled to see it raise funds for such an important cause – children with special needs in our community,” said Janet M. Smith, chair of the event. “We have an outstanding variety of homes on the tour this year and know that participants will have fun while they are touring and bring back innovative ideas to spice up their own kitchens.”
 
Tours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 18, and 1-5 p.m. on Sunday, May 19. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 the day of the event and can be purchased at any of the following locations: American Founders Bank, Architectural Kitchens & Baths, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cabinets and Designs, Best of Flowers, Third Street Stuff, and online here.
 
Tickets will also be available at each featured kitchen on the days of the tour. For more information, contact the Child Development Center at 859-218-2322 or here.
 
From CDCB

The Bandyatuyaga family (Photo from Habitat)

The new home will be ready sometime this year. The boys are looking forward to having their own rooms and playing with friends in their own backyard. Georgetta wants a kitchen and extra space.
 
“Owning a home means happiness and freedom for my family,” said Heri, who works as a housekeeper and plans to study nursing. A native of the Democrat Republic of the Congo, he will be the first in his family to own a home. His immediate family came here in 2008 from a refugee camp in Tanzania.
 
“My family is very happy for me,” he said. “This is a new life for all of us.”
 
Habitat is looking for ambassadors interested in making more dreams come true for other needy Central Kentucky families. They are recruiting, young and active members of the community for their leadership program. According to a published flyer, “The Ambassador program provides participants with an opportunity to develop their leadership skills among a diverse group of their contemporaries with a common interest – eliminating substandard housing.”
 
Applications for the Ambassador program can be found here and are due Monday, May 20.
 
Habitat for Humanity is also announcing to the public that their Lexington Habitat ReStore will be hosting a benefit for public radio station WUKY in June. They will sell old vinyl records people donate to help pay for many of the publicly-funded radio shows that are popular on National Public Radio and aired on the local station.
 
There is also an annual golf tournament coming in August. For more information, click here.

Both winners are graduates of Lafayette High School which will be the beneficiary of Spirit Nights from 5-8 p.m. on May 16 at both the Nicholasville Road Chick-fil-A at 2514 Nicholasville Rd. and the Turfland Chick-fil-A restaurant at 2025 Harrodsburg Rd., both operated by Jeff Stryker, to celebrate the two winners.
 
Stryker will donate 10 percent of sales at the Nicholasville Road restaurant during that time to benefit the school’s band program while the same percentage during the same time frame at the restaurant on Harrodsburg Road will go toward the school’s special education program.
 
Slone, who works at the Nicholasville Road restaurant as a manager, was active in the band program in high school and now is attending the University of Kentucky, majoring in communications. She has worked with Chick-fil-A since 2009 and is the daughter of Bryan and Brenda Slone of Lexington.
 
Lewis is studying elementary education at the University of the Cumberlands, Williamsburg, and worked at the Harrodsburg Road restaurant beginning in 2007. She was active with the special education program at Lafayette High School. She is the daughter of Keith and Debynie Sowder of Lexington and the wife of Kevin Lewis.
 
Both Slone and Lewis were selected not only for their academic and work achievements but for their strong records of community involvement throughout their high school and college careers.
 
The 25 winners are chosen annually from among the chain’s 1,600 Leadership Scholarship winners, all of whom are employed at Chick-fil-A restaurants across the country. The program was created by Cathy in 1973, marking 40 years of scholarship giving that to date has resulted in more than $31.1 million in $1,000 scholarships nationwide and more than $457,000 awarded in Kentucky alone.
 
This second $1,000 scholarship, the S. Truett Cathy Scholar Award, recognizes team members who excel in academics, community service and leadership. A life-long supporter of higher education, Cathy personally selected Slone, Lewis and the other 2013 recipients in conjunction with a blue-ribbon panel of Atlanta-area civic and business leaders.
 
“For several generations now it has been a priority for me to encourage and support our team members as they seek to further their educations,” said Cathy, 92, who continues to serve as CEO of the Atlanta-based chain he founded. “I am thrilled to recognize youth such as Kirby and Amanda whose
dedication, pursuit of excellence and personal character exemplify the traits we want to foster in the leaders of tomorrow.”
 
Kentucky has produced 10 S. Truett Cathy Scholar Award winners with six of them coming from restaurants operated by Stryker. “Amanda and Kirby personify the qualities the S. Truett Cathy Scholar Award was created to recognize,” said Stryker. “They have led by example in our restaurant and community. I am delighted that their hard work, positive attitude and leadership have been rewarded with this prestigious scholarship.”
 
Chick-fil-A’s franchised operators make an effort to create a working environment that cultivates creativity among team members as well character development that will help them excel in school, home and in their communities. These operators, many of whom are Leadership Scholarship and S.
Truett Cathy Scholar Award recipients themselves, serve as mentors in promoting the development of restaurant team members in the areas of goal-setting, integrity, service, work ethic and leadership.
 
Since its inception, the S. Truett Cathy Scholar Award has awarded $425,000 in funds to previous Leadership Scholarship recipients.
 
From Chick-fil-A

Those are just a few of the community needs being addressed with the $18,550 that students in Northern Kentucky University’s nationally recognized Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project invested this spring in 12 nonprofit organizations.
 

NKU has become a leader in developing student philanthropy pedagogy. This faculty handbook, published in 2010, has been distributed nationally to universities in nearly every state. (Photo from NKU)

Student philanthropy classes at NKU combine grant-making with classroom learning so that students become more engaged in their reading and research. Nearly 90 percent of the students who take a student philanthropy class at NKU report increased understanding of the ideas being taught in the course. They also reported heightened awareness of community needs and how nonprofit organizations are meeting those needs.
 

“Mayerson classes are some of the most effective classes we offer at NKU,” said Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Gail Wells. “They teach philanthropy and stewardship. But they also contribute – and measurably so – to the learning outcomes of the class. And that is true across disciplines. We had nine classes this semester with a student philanthropy component. They were in six different disciplines: history, communication, English, social work, political science and Spanish. Over the life of this program, we’ve been in 36 different disciplines.”
 

Dr. Jonathon Cullick, who has included student philanthropy as a component of his English classes several times, described the added dimension it brings to the classroom. “It enabled me to teach writing skills in context…to teach students how to evaluate source material, and transform students who really cared about the relevance of what they were learning,” he said.
 

This was the 13th year for student philanthropy courses at NKU. In that time, students have had a hand in the distribution of $757,000 to 300 nonprofit organizations, the majority of that in the form of direct grants of $1,000 to $2,000. The funding generally comes from community donors. The Manuel D. & Rhoda Mayerson Foundation of Cincinnati, Citi of Florence and the Scripps Howard Foundation of Cincinnati were the key supports for the spring semester.
 

Children's Law Center in Covington was one of 12 nonprofit organizations receiving funding through the Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project.

In addition, students raised some of the money to support the classes with letter-writing campaigns, T-shirt sales and other fundraising efforts. Students raised over $2,500 of the $18,550 being distributed. Some classes also collected needed items for nonprofits and signed up after class to volunteer for the organizations.
 

“One of the great aspects of this program is the community support,” said Mark Neikirk, executive director of the NKU Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement, which oversees the program. “Donors to the ‘giving pool’ have made it possible for NKU to offer these classes year in and year out. But in recent years, students have stepped up, too, raising some of the funds directly. What we’re trying to teach is the class material. What we’re trying to instill is community stewardship – what the late Manuel Mayerson, who helped conceive of this program, called ‘the habit of giving.’ And research shows that this works. NKU students who took a Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project class are more likely, after graduation, to give money to nonprofits, to serve on nonprofit boards and to volunteer their time.”
 

This year’s recipient organizations were: the Dragonfly Foundation ($1,275); the Children’s Law Center ($1,275); Teen Challenge Cincinnati ($1,000); DCCH Center for Families and Children ($1,000); Reset Ministries ($1,000); Hosea House ($4,000); Buseesa Community Development Centre in Uganda and the Sisters of Notre Dame in Park Hills ($2,000); Santa Maria Community Services International Welcome Center ($1,000); Stop AIDS ($1,000); Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Cincinnati ($2,000); Brighton Recovery Center for Women ($1,000); and Historic New Richmond Inc. ($2,000).
 

Classes participating this year included Strategies of Persuasion, College Writing, Grant Proposal Writing, Leadership Around the World, Studies in Spanish Language Cinema, Community Social Work, Social Work Practice, and Exhibits and Museums and Historic Sites.
 

These and other philanthropy classes are part of the NKU’s commitment to connect the classroom to the community, so that students have an opportunity to learn in real-world situations while also delivering something of value to the community. In another example of this approach, two classes at NKU set about to tell stories about people, places and programs in an inner-city neighborhood, the Westside of Newport. KyForward is publishing some of those stories, including Lightning struck … and an arts institution was born, sparking life in inner city neighborhood.
 

A full list of nonprofits that have received funding from 2000 through spring 2012 is available here, along with the classes involved.
 

Donations to the Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project can be made online here (specify Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project) or by contacting Dan Emsicke in the NKU Office of University Development at 859-572-5628 or emsicked1@nku.edu.
 

From NKU

Toyota Kentucky Executives with top volunteers (l-r) Noboru Hidaka (executive adviser in manufacturing), Billy Wells, Pat Malesick, Mike Price (vice president in administration), Carla Wright, Osamu Ushio (corporate adviser), Bethany Giordano, Wil James (president), Dorothy McManigle (volunteer of the year), Walter Odisho (vice president in manufacturing), Ron Holbrook, J.P. Switzer and David Burke (Photo from Toyota)

 
Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. honored its top volunteers during the company’s annual Volunteers In Place recognition ceremony May 11. Established in 1994 to encourage volunteerism and recognize employees for their efforts, TMMK’s VIP program has enrolled nearly 1,900 members who in 2012 contributed over 22,000 volunteer hours in Kentucky communities.
 
TMMK President Wil James thanked the honorees at the recent event by saying, “The amount of time and talent you give back to the communities where you live and work is impressive. Considering how hard you work at Toyota, spending time outside of work to volunteer is a big commitment. We are pleased to be able to recognize you tonight by providing additional donations to the organizations you support.”
 
There were 11 Toyota employees recognized as top volunteers for 2012. One of the 11 was chosen as Volunteer of the Year and one was chosen as the New Member of the Year. Each honoree was awarded with a donation on their behalf to a favorite charity ranging from $500 to $3000.
 
In addition to hours logged, top volunteers are graded on a scoring system that awards points in various areas including diversity of the activity, impact on the community, leadership roles undertaken and participation in TMMK- sponsored activities. The New Member of the Year is a new enrollee in the VIP program, who logs the most volunteer hours in a calendar year.
 
Honorees included:
 
David Burke, in Facilities Control, to Cooper High School Football – $500
Ron Holbrook, in Facilities Control, to Madison Central High Baseball – $500
Billy Wells, in Assembly, to Washington County 4H Horse Club – $500
Carla Wright, in Facilities Control, to Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest – $500
Amy Crowe, in Body Weld, to Cool Breeze Track and Field Club – $500
Howard Taylor, in Body Weld, to Bluegrass United Homeschool Sports – $500 (New Member of the Year)
Bethany Giordano, in Facilities Control, to Scott County Humane Society – $1,500
Pat Malesick, in Operations Development Grp, to Scott County High Baseball Boosters – $1,500
James Paul Switzer, in Powertrain Maintenance, to Harrison County 4H – $1,500
Jason Jacob, in Paint Production Engineering, to White Hall Elementary Archery Team – $1,500
Dorothy McManigle, in Business Planning, to Kentucky Horse Park Foundation – $3,000 (Volunteer of the Year)
 
From Toyota Kentucky