The Junior Honor Society of Pine Island Academy, St. Augustine, created greeting cards with words of encouragement for the elderly. The cards were delivered to Pie n the Sky for inclusion with food donations delivered to homebound elderly in St. Johns County. Thank you to the thoughtfulness of the Pine Island Academy Junior Honor Society.
Florida Prime Sports & St. Johns Moms Kick Off Annual St. Johns CARES Pet Food Drive: March
Pet food donations were encouraged of participants of the Springfest on March 23, 2024 sponsored by Florida Prime Sports and the St. Johns Moms organization. This was a great kick-off to our Annual Pet Food Drive. Thank you to Florida Prime Sports and St. Johns Moms for their ongoing assistance with our Mission of Uniting the Community Through Helping Others in Need. Thank you to the teen volunteers who helped load the donations.
2023 NEWS
Annual Pet Food Drive April 2023
22 Day Care Centers, Libraries, Fitness & Recreation Centers and other businesses, 2 neighborhood drives, Ponte Vedra High School St. Johns CARES Club and Florida Prime Sports Spring Fest served as this year's Pet Food Drive collection sites. $5,100 of pet food and treats was collected and distributed to non-profit animal organizations Ayla's Acres, Feline Canopy of Care, S.A.F.E., St. Augustine Humane Society, Wags & Whiskers, Swamp Haven and to Pie in the Sky, serving homebound elderly with pets. Thank you to the donation sites, donors and to our volunteers who collected, sorted and loaded donations. Each organization was very appreciative of the car load of donations at a time when their supplies were low.
May 2023 Backpacks for Unaccompanied High School Seniors Enrolled in Higher Education
Thanks to the generosity of our donors, 10 Homeless High School Seniors enrolled in College or Trade School received new backpacks, academic planner, water bottle and a gift card as recognition of their pursuit of their educational goals and a more promising future. A scholarship was awarded to one of these students to help with school expenses.
Project School Snack Pantry
Beginning with the 2023-2024 academic year, St. Johns CARES is regularly supplying snacks to a St. Johns County school with a high concentration of students with food insecurities. Studies have shown that children and teens need to eat every 3-4 hours, making snacks an important part of their day. Snacks can help improve students' school engagement, sense of belonging, equality among students, improvement in attendance and retention. Community assistance will be needed to help supply the snacks. Donations from individuals, workgroups and other organizations and neighborhood drives will be needed to make this program successful. Donations received during the current academic year will be delivered to the designated school. If your group or organization is interested in donating snacks on a one time or on-going basis, please contact president@stjohnscares.org.
August 2023 Florida Prime Sports Donates to Project School Snack Pantry
This is a portion of the donations made by Florida Prime Sports for Project School Snack Pantry. We greatly appreciate Florida Prime Sports ongoing support of our Initiatives and our Mission of Uniting the Community Through Helping Others in Need in St. Johns County. In total, over $1,000 in snacks were delivered to St. Augustine High School by St. Johns CARES, Inc. for the start of school in August.
Annual Food Drive: October & November 2023
$8,888.50 of nonperishable food was distributed to the followingFood Pantries: Christ Cupboard (Fruit Cove), Pie in the Sky, St. Francis House/Port in the Storm, Homeless Coalition (St. Augustine), SEA Community (Elkton) & The Simon House (Hastings). Thank you to the following host donation sites: A Fun Place to Be, Ancient City Gymnastics, Anytime Fitness, Bartram Academy, Brighton Day Academy, Deerwood Academy, Goddard School of St. Augustine, JCP Rec Center, Kiddie Academy of St. Johns, KinderCare Fruit Cove, KinderCare Nocatee, Ladybird Academy St Johns, Library-Ponte Vedra Branch, O2B Kids Village North, Plantation Dry Cleaners, Primrose School at Crosswater Parkway, Primrose School Julington Creek, Primrose School of St. Johns Forest, Rain River Learning, The Learning Exchange Nocatee, UPS: SR 13, Palencia, Rivertown. Thank you for the neighborhood drives: the Gooding Family and the White Family (Anthony & Annabelle). Thank you to Florida Prime Sports and St. Johns Moms for food collection at the October 21st Not So Spooky Market Bash at the Rivertown Sports Field.
The Little Gym of Fruit Cove Children's Winter Clothes Donations
The Little Gym of Fruit Cove located at 2750 Race Track Rd. is in the process of collecting new and gently used children's winter clothing. In one month they collected 6 huge storage bags of clothing that was distributed to Alpha-Omega Miracle Home, Betty Griffin Crisis Center and the Homeless Coalition. Their plan is to continue to collect children's clothing donations through the end of this year. The clothing donations were greatly appreciated and will help keep children warm this winter.
17th Annual Giving Tree Initiative November & December 2023
Forty-five (45) Host Sites participated in our 17th Annual Giving Tree Initiative in November and December. Over $53,000 of items and gift cards were shared with 40 nonprofit organizations in St. Johns County serving our target populations of the Elderly, Veterans, Homeless, Abused, Children & Animals. The organizations were so appreciative of the Community support. Not only did the donations help meet the needs and wishes of their clients at the holidays, the donations will also help many of the organizations for many months in 2024. From socks, clothing and toiletries for the homeless, pet food for homebound elderly so they do not have to share their own food supplies with their beloved pets to diapers, car seats and clothing for infants, all are being put to good use. One of the images of this year's Giving Tree was that of a young girl receiving a pink bike with training wheels and pink streamers. The smile on the girl's face and the joy of her Mother as she rode the bike for the first time was priceless. They did not know where the bike came from but they did greatly appreciate the generosity. This is just one example of the postiive effect the donations made at the holidays and in the future. Thank you to all of the Host Sites and their patrons, neighborhoods and donors for the generosity and support. Thank you to our dedicated volunteers who worked tirelessly and with good spirits to collect, inventory, sort and distribute the donations.
News from 2021 & 2022 can be found under Archives