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good news department
Need some Good News? There’s lots happening in our community
Sunshine From Darkness raises funds
for mental health
Neal Communities Donates $ 25,000 to Healthy Teens
to Create Scholarship Program
(From l-r) Keynote speaker Tom Arnold, event co-chairs Taylor Karp Teymuri and Sarah Karp Renkliyuz,
Sunshine From Darkness Executive Director Marlene Hauck, event co-chair Amie Austin, PhD, and
Sunshine From Darkness President Jeffrey Peterson
Photo by Harry Sayer
In mid-January, Sunshine From Darkness
– a nonprofit organization dedicated to
the funding of local mental health services
and programs and mental health
research – held its 2024 Inspiring Hope
Dinner.
The keynote speaker was comedian,
actor, writer and producer Tom Arnold,
who spoke about his journey with anxiety
and longtime battles with addiction.
Arnold has been sober for over
five years, but he’s faced addiction, sobriety,
and relapse at different points in
his Hollywood career as well as significant
health challenges. Arnold shared
heartbreaking stories about childhood
trauma and his decades-long battles
with addiction and anxiety, noting that
his most important job now is to be in
a good mood for his young children, to
whom he is a single father.
The evening featured “Faces Behind
the Stories,” shining a spotlight on the
personal, sometimes difficult journeys
of four members of our community:
Roger Capote, a professional
with many years of nonprofit
leadership; Kelvin Foster, chaplain,
North River Fire District and American
Red Cross Disaster spiritual
care regional advisor for Central
and SW Florida; Sydney Koffman,
chemical engineer; and Linda Larsen,
motivational speaker.
The event also featured the bestowing
of the 2024 Lee and Bob
Peterson Legacy Award to Bunny
Skirboll, founder of Compeer, Inc.
Co-chairs were Amie Austin, Ph.D.,
Sarah Karp Renkliyuz and Taylor
Karp Teymuri. Exclusive Dinner
Sponsor was Elisabeth Waters;
Luminary Sponsors were David Peterson
and Jeffrey Peterson; and
Benefactor Sponsor was Arthur
Karp Family Foundation.
24 WEST COAST WOMAN MARCH 2024
Proceeds are for Sunshine From Darkness’s
“blue door services,” which focus
on emotional literacy for youth, and
youth mental health research.
“We are committed to collaborating
and providing valuable aid for the families
of our community, to encourage continued
positive change for the future,”
added Sunshine From Darkness executive
director Marlene Hauck. “Together,
we can build the right supports to save,
care for, and help our children.”
Founded as a subsidiary of the Lee
and Bob Peterson Foundation, Sunshine
From Darkness hosts events throughout
the year that bring mental health and
addiction awareness and education to
the forefront of the community, providing
professionals and philanthropists
with the opportunity to engage with the
broader mental health community.
For more about Sunshine From Darkness,
visit sunshinefromdarkness.org.
Neal Communities has donated $25,000
to Healthy Teens, an organization dedicated
to the success and wellbeing of
Florida teens in Manatee and Sarasota
Counties. Healthy Teens’ mission is to
empower youth to make positive, healthy
decisions for their success and wellbeing,
providing peer-based health and life
skills education and mentoring to hundreds
of local youth between the ages of
11 and 25 each year. The donation from
Neal Communities will support this work
by funding further education scholarships
and local programming.
“Since I joined Healthy Teens in 2021, Neal
Communities has been a hugely generous
partner in empowering the health and wellbeing
of our youth,” said Jonathan Evans,
executive director of Healthy Teens. “Helping
them create positive, healthy and successful
futures for themselves is a shared
passion between our organizations.”
The $25,000 sponsorship will partly be
used to create a scholarship contest for
high-school seniors currently volunteering
with Healthy Teens as Teen Health Educators.
Healthy Teens started the program
in February. The applications will
Seniors At Bay Village
Raise $ 9,456 for
Wilkinson Students
Senior residents at Bay Village
have just raised $9,456 to provide
each Wilkinson Elementary
student with a warm, longsleeved
shirt for the winter. The
Warm Clothing drive is just one
of the many programs carried
out as part of the Bay Village/
Wilkinson Partnership established
in 2019.
Other ongoing projects include
monthly Pen Pal letters and annual
picnic, student chorus performances,
collaborative science
projects and a school supplies
fund raiser.
be judged by a panel comprised of representatives
from the Healthy Teens Board
of Directors, the Healthy Teens volunteer
Advisory Council and Neal Communities.
In addition to the scholarship program,
Healthy Teens students will visit the Neal
Communities headquarters in Lakewood
Ranch to provide a “lunch and learn”
educational program for Neal Communities
employees, where the students will
present on a topic that they also educate
their peers on.
Founded in 2010, Healthy Teens has
helped more than 175 Teen Health Educators
receive leadership and public-speaking
experience, provided peer education
sessions for more than 10,000 teens, and
worked with more than 60 organizations
and agencies to help teens learn about
topics such as mental health and resilience,
substance abuse, peer pressure,
bullying and much more
Neal Communities and Manasota BUDS
(Bringing Up Down Syndrome), have formed
a new partnership. Manasota BUDS received
a $6,000 sponsorship from Neal
Communities for the Manasota BUDS Young
Adult Group in 2024, providing crucial support
for social activities and awareness
initiatives for this community of
young adults with Down syndrome.
The sponsorship will fuel a year
of social events and awareness
campaigns for the Manasota BUDS
Young Adult Group, a dedicated time
for individuals aged 18 and over to
connect, socialize and thrive.
March will see the group celebrate
Down Syndrome Awareness
Month with a special event recognizing
the global significance of
3.21 – Trisomy 21 or World Down
Syndrome Awareness Day.
Throughout the year, the sponsorship
will enable the Young Adult
Group to host additional social
gatherings, educational workshops
and community outreach
initiatives, fostering inclusion and
understanding for individuals with
Down syndrome.
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