Rotary Club of Longboat Key donates to Children's Guardian Fund

On Nov. 17, the Rotary Club of Longboat Key did its best to bring a little holiday happiness to families and children served by Children’s Guardian Fund, a Sarasota organization that responds to the needs of children removed from abusive or neglectful homes. 

In total, 16 guardians ad litem picked up two bags of food, a few pounds of meat, handmade bags and blankets, a chocolate turkey and a stack of books — a dictionary for every household and another book for each child in the home, based on their age and gender, put together by member and former club president Nancy Rozance. The food was from Publix, and Rozance worked with two employees from the catering department to get the best BOGOs and deals on meat to give the families. 

“This is the coolest project I’ve ever been involved in for Rotary,” Rozance said. “This was a totally unaddressed community for our club (and we wanted) to make a difference, especially during this challenging time we live in. We want to make sure they know there are people who want to make sure they’re safe and sound.”

Originally, Rozance had been thinking about doing a Christmas event, but a lot of groups do events like this at Christmas, Children’s Guardian Fund executive director Svetlana Kaminsky noted, while Thanksgiving can be overlooked. Food is a big need for these families, so they planned for a November event. Rozance and Kaminsky both hope to make the project an annual event to continue to serve Children’s Guardian Fund families. 

“We would love to work with Nancy again and their club is amazing,” Kaminsky said. “There’s a lot of excitement, people feel good doing things like this and it helps kids (and) helps families. It’s a feel-good type of event.”