Longboat Key Foundation established at CFSC

Community leaders have established the Longboat Key Foundation through the Community Foundation of Sarasota County (CFSC).

The foundation exists “for the support and benefit of exclusively charitable purposes in and for the benefit of Longboat Key, Florida and its residents,” according to the fund agreement entered into with CFSC.

The board of advisors consists of Cheryl Loeffler, Jeff Mayers, Jules Rose, Warren Simonds and Robert Simmons.

Longboat Key Mayor Jim Brown, Vice Mayor David Brenner and Tom Apososporos, a member of the Longboat Key Revitalization Task Force and former Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce president, provided the initial work, support and funding.

Aposporos told the Longboat Observer last year that he and others discussed the possibilities for positive development during the Longboat Key Club’s hearings for its proposed $400 million expansion project. He and others discussed the possibilities for positive development if both sides put their money for attorney fees toward a community foundation.

Aposporos listed the possibilities in an April 2010 email, which he copied the Town Commission on in which he listed a variety of possibilities, including a program similar to the Ringling College of Art and Design’s Town Hall Lecture Series, support for the Longboat Library and Longboat Key Center for the Arts, A Division of Ringling College of Art and Design, establishment of a mentoring center and film commission support group, and enhanced entrances to the Key.

Aposporos served as acting managing director during the organization’s formation.

Aposporos, Brown and Brenner are not members of the board of advisors.

“We wanted to get this off the ground, we came together to accomplish that, and we believe it is now in very good and capable hands,” Brown said in a prepared statement.

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected].