Posted on January 1, 2010

Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice Awards $1.2 Million to Help Troops

The Florida-based Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice has announced grants totaling more than $1.2 million to seven nonprofits working to assist soldiers and veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and their families.

The grants were awarded through the foundation's $5 million Florida BRAIVE Fund, which was launched in 2008 with funding from the the California Community Foundation's Iraq Afghanistan Deployment Impact Fund to support military personnel from twenty-five counties in central and southwest Florida. Grantees include the American Red Cross Tampa Bay Chapter ($500,000); the Florida National Guard Foundation ($243,792); the State College of Florida Foundation ($219,775); Welcome Home Vets ($125,000); Haley House Fund ($60,000); and Seminole Behavioral Healthcare ($49,479).

"We know the future is uncertain for our military heroes, even when they have returned home," said Gulf Coast Community Foundation president and CEO Teri A. Hansen. "The BRAIVE Fund is our signal to those men and women that we care and want to help them as much as we can."