Foundation News
2022
December 2022
The Foundation once again supported the Salvation Army's Angel Tree campaign. This holiday program is designed to raise in-kind gifts to assist families who are experiencing financial difficulties and provide them the resources to celebrate Christmas. For further information please contact: https://salvationarmyflorida.org/holiday-assistance/
November 2022
The Foundation once again supported #GivingTuesday 2022, with donations to all of our main charity partners. This global day of giving uplifts communities, empowers nonprofits and celebrates kindness.
November 2022
The LongReach Foundation was pleased to be able to sponsor Thanksgiving Dinner for the KIX YFC group in Homestead. Looks like a great celebration was had by all who attended!
October 2022
Following the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Ian on the west coast of Florida at the end of September, the LongReach Foundation was pleased to be able to partner with Samaritan's Purse with on the ground help in the Ft. Myers area. We provided bottled water, tarps and other essential items and worked directly providing in-person help in the week after the storm hit. We also made a donation to Samaritan's Purse to help with their Hurricane Relief Efforts. In addition while in the Port Charlotte area of FL, we discovered a wonderful group called Operation BBQ Relief. Operation BBQ Relief deployed to Port Charlotte, FL on September 29, 2022 and immediately served hot meals the following day. During the first 48 hours, Operation BBQ Relief set up their largest and longest deployment site to date. Hot meals were delivered by land, air, boats, and ferries. The organization served its 10 millionth meal since 2011 and broke the record for the most meals served during a deployment. For further information on both organizations, please click on their logos below.
July 2022
The LongReach Foundation was pleased to be able to partner once again with the YFC Kix team this summer. We sponsored the Back 2 School Bash which provided hotdogs, hamburgers, chips and drinks for about 60 people; In addition, the Foundation sponsored a youth to attend the Southwind Camp from July 29 - August 2 and covered their registration and travel costs. Kudos to Stacy Morales and Jules Altidor from Kix for the amazing work they do each year helping and encouraging urban youth from the Homestead area. The Kix programs are designed to reach under served, at-risk students in the neighborhood. Since KIX began, it has provided a safe, loving, place for young people to come after school, and to help them become empowered to make good, moral decisions so they can be healthy, productive members of our community. The LongReach Foundation was pleased to be able to help in a small way to encourage this terrific team as they continue to do great work in the Homestead, Florida area.
March 2022:
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the LongReach Foundation made a donation to Samaritan's Purse International to assist with opening the Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Field Hospital in western Ukraine. Through 26 airlifts—24 of which were carried out through their DC-8 cargo jet—Samaritan’s Purse has transported hundreds of tons of relief items, including the Emergency Field Hospital, medical supplies, food, and hygiene kits. They continue to bring in new shipments of supplies nearly every week and are working in close partnership with churches in Ukraine to get these items to communities where the need is urgent. For further information, or to donate to this worthy organization, please contact them directly: https://www.samaritanspurse.org/our-ministry/ukraine-response
2021
December 2021:
The Foundation was pleased to be able to work with Project Angel Tree and the Salvation Army to provide Christmas gifts for underprivileged children.
November 2021:
Once again, the LongReach Foundation was pleased to participate with the #GivingTuesday movement making donations to all of the charities that we support.
An estimated $2.7 billion was raised in the United States during the tenth annual GivingTuesday event, a 9 percent increase from 2021!
July 2021: In partnership with Fresh Water Friends, through a grant provided by the LongReach Foundation, our first borehole well, and our fourth and final well in India, has now been completed.
The remote village in which the 250-foot-deep well was built, consists of 7,000 multi-people groups, where drawing water from the village public well - which gets dried-up during summer - has proved difficult. In India, most of the small towns and rural areas suffer for access to safe water, as many of the water sources are polluted by chemicals, pesticides, open defecation, etc. The polluted water leads to villagers frequently getting sick. The Foundation was pleased to be able to assist this remote village, by providing them with a community bore well, which will help over 400 people draw fresh water on a daily basis.
July 2021
The LongReach Foundation was pleased to provide a number of Back to School backpacks through the Salvation Army's "Apple Tree" Program to help low income children in need. This is an ongoing partnership, and we were pleased to be able to support this worthy cause again.
June 2021:
As we head into the Fourth of July weekend, usually a celebratory time, our hearts go out to everyone affected by the tragic building collapse in Surfside, which is the third largest building failure in the history of the United States. The LongReach Foundation has donated to assist those families hurt by this terrible tragedy at: www.supportsurfside.org. Please consider giving your support to this community relief fund, because together, we can all make a difference. Thank you and have a safe and enjoyable Holiday weekend.
March 2021 - Two more LongReach Foundation manual wells have been completed by Fresh Water Friends bringing clean water to two additional villages in India. The ability to draw water from these public wells is life changing for so many, especially those in rural communities, and the Foundation is pleased to have been able to provide the necessary funding to bring clean water to hundreds of people every day.
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January 2021: The LongReach Foundation recently partnered with Fresh Water Friends, an organization that raises funds to build wells for communities overseas that are in great need of fresh water. We are excited to advise that our first manual well has been completed! This was a 645-foot-deep well, serving a community of more than 2000 people in a village in India. In this very arid region, the drillers had to go 602 feet below ground surface before they hit water! When they finally found water, the depressurization of the aquifer made the water shoot up more than 20 feet into the air! As you can see from the video link attached, and the photos below, the villagers are thrilled to have clean running water which will not only help them from a health perspective, but change their daily lives in so many ways.
The village celebration!
2020
November: The LongReach Foundation was pleased to participate once again in the Walk to End Alzheimer's. Due to Covid-19, this year's walk was completed by teams in neighborhood's rather than in a large group setting. Thanks to the generosity of many donors, the LongReach Foundation was able to raise $4000.00 this year!
Our grateful thanks to all who donated and participated. There are several new drugs waiting for approval which are helping to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s and give comfort to those afflicted. The long term efforts to stop the onslaught of the disease are showing encouraging signs and our efforts will hopefully help bring this to reality soon. To understand more about the new drugs and clinical trials, please view this link. https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/research_progress/treatment-horizon.
October: The LongReach Foundation is pleased to announce its partnership with Fresh Water Friends® (FWF). FWF is a 501(c)3 organization that raises funds to build wells in communities overseas where fresh water is desperately needed. Since its inception in 2016, Fresh Water Friends® has raised over $400,000 to build bedrock wells. This has enabled FWF to provide water to 160 impoverished villages in India, Pakistan, Uganda, and Malawi, and the organization is currently developing a water filtration program in Kenya. Clean water enables villagers to be more fruitful in their regular activities, helps to lessen their susceptibility to disease, and promotes open, equal and free access to drinking water for people in a safe and protected location.
The grant from the LongReach Foundation will be used to build three manual wells, and one deep borehole well with an electrical submersible pump in India, where fifty percent of the population lacks access to safely managed drinking water sources, and two-thirds of India’s 718 districts are affected by extreme water depletion. We are excited to have this opportunity to work together with Fresh Water Friends® and to make a difference in the lives of so many people.
Bill Korth and the LongReach Foundation will once again be participating in the Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer's® and fundraising for Alzheimer's care, support, and research.
This year, walk is everywhere — on every sidewalk, track, and trail. While we won't be gathering at a large in-person event, (due to Covid-19) Bill will be walking in his neighborhood, while others in our community are walking in theirs. Will you support us in the fight to #ENDALZ by making a donation on our fundraising page?
Every dollar you donate will help the Alzheimer's Association® provide care and support to all those facing Alzheimer's and all other dementia. Together, we can end Alzheimer's. Please consider supporting my efforts with a donation.
My page: http://act.alz.org/site/TR?fr_id=13365&pg=personal&px=12935251
The LongReach Foundation will be matching all donations dollar for dollar as we work together to try to cure Alzheimer's. Thank you!
July 2020: Due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, many local restaurants were closed down for 3 months or more due to the lock down. Once Florida started reopening, we wanted to help local restaurants to get back on their feet, as well as donating meals to a worthy organization.
The LongReach Foundation reached out to KIX, a local Youth For Christ ministry in Homestead, Florida run by Stacy Morales (KIX Ministry Director). The City Life KIX neighborhood outreach program was established in West Homestead in 1993 with the mission of offering help, hope, and wholeness to at-risk children and youth. City Life KIX has provided all-inclusive, free after-school services for urban children and youth from kindergarten through high school for over 20 years.
LRF was pleased to sponsor four weekly meals during the KIX Summer 2020 program by providing lunches on Monday Fun Day during the month of July from local restaurants Mamma Mia and Capri Restaurant. Our thanks also to Jules Altidor, the KIX Middle School Director for working with us - it was great partnering with the KIX organization this summer!
May 2020: The LongReach Foundation supported the additional #Giving Tuesday Now effort that occurred for the first time and made donations to each of the charities we support.
#GivingTuesday, the groundbreaking global generosity movement announced #GivingTuesdayNow, a global day of giving and unity, which took place on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 as an emergency response to the unprecedented need caused by COVID-19. The day is designed to drive an influx of generosity, citizen engagement, business and philanthropy activation, and support for communities and nonprofits around the world.
February 2020, the LongReach Foundation was very pleased to be able to partner with The Valley Foundation, The Reed Jules Oppenheimer Foundation (RJOF) and Mainsprings to provide a grant program to support grassroots organizations in East Africa to learn and implement permaculture design into their existing programs. These organizations teamed up with the Permaculture Institute of Tanzania to host the second annual Permaculture Design Certification Course. The 72 hour course provided farmers and leaders of grassroots organizations with the knowledge and skills of permaculture design principals and concepts equipping graduates with an internationally recognized certificate in Permaculture design. After completing this course, graduates will have the knowledge necessary to design and implement, or improve, their very own permaculture farm and enable others to do the same.
This new method of farming will help to improve the sustainability of the participating organizations, improve the nutritional value of the food they are serving to their participants, and help to educate their surrounding communities to better utilize their land. Thanks to the work of these three organizations, lives are being changed permanently as these farms help to alleviate extreme poverty in a sustainable way.
February, 2020, the LongReach Foundation was pleased to be able to sponsor the third annual MINTS Seminary-in-Prison and Metanoia Prison Ministries 2020 Celebration and Benefit dinner. This was the third year in succession that we have been able to partner with these ministries. The vision of these two organizations is to offer a) a prison mentoring program through Metanoia Ministries and b) to take MINTS Seminary-in-Prison programs into prisons across the US, providing high quality theological education and ministry training. This program prepares prison inmates to become thinkers and doers who proclaim the Gospel while in prison and who are equipped to serve the Church after their release.
The programs provide Undergraduate Bible college level degree programs and Graduate Seminary level degrees. To date, the prison program graduates have become professors in prisons, started an inmate-led church inside a prison, taught informal classes in Bible and theology to other inmates and released prisoner-students are now serving and working in churches. Both programs help enormously to reduce recidivism (the tendency of a convicted criminal to re-offend). The US Department of Justice says that after five years, 76% of prisoners are back in prison. With MINTS graduates the recidivism percentage is 0% and with Metanoia mentees, the percentage is 2.44%. The programs are in great demand and are now currently available in over 20 prisons in the USA.
October 2019:
The LongReach Foundation supported the American Red Cross in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian which decimated the Bahamas in September. Damage amounted to 3.4 billion US$ and there were at least 70 deaths in the country with hundreds more left missing after the storm.
2019
August 2019: The LongReach Foundation announced our partnership with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The Foundation provided a grant to benefit the work of Dr. Allan D. Levi and the Department of Neurological Surgery.
Dr. Levi and his team are conducting groundbreaking research in cellular strategies to improve peripheral nerve repair. The Dept. of Neurological Surgery and the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, are working on both pre-clinical and human trials to help patients who suffer from severe peripheral nerve injuries, using techniques in cell transplantation, and it is in these specific areas, that the LongReach Foundation grant was utilized.
Translational research – moving discoveries from the lab to the patient – is critical to medical breakthroughs. Dr. Levi and his team are increasingly optimistic that their cellular transplantation strategy may hold hope for patients for whom no other treatment options currently exist. The LongReach Foundation is pleased to be able to help with this vital and ongoing research. For additional information, please visit: www.neurosurgery.med.miami.edu
April 2019: The LongReach Foundation supported a Go Fund Me movement to rebuild three historic black churches in Louisiana that were sadly burned down by arsonists.
2018
Each November, just after Thanksgiving, the LongReach Foundation is pleased to participate in #Giving Tuesday, the global generosity movement that unleashes the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.
Each year on this day, we make donations to each of the charities we support on a regular basis.
November 2018: Every year, the LongReach Foundation participates in the Miami Walk to End Alzheimer's. Held annually, usually in November, it is the world’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s care, support and research. The Alzheimer's Association leads the way to end Alzheimer's and all other dementia — by accelerating global research, driving risk reduction and early detection, and maximizing quality care and support.
Dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia. Alzheimer’s is a specific disease. Dementia is not. Learning about the two terms and the difference between them is important and can empower individuals with Alzheimer’s or another dementia, their families and their caregivers with necessary knowledge.
Below are a few photos from our walk this year. If you would like to participate or learn more about the Walk to End Alzheimer's please visit: https://act.alz.org/.
October 2018 - The LongReach Foundation supplied multiple pallets of bottled water to the victims of Hurricane Michael.
Michael was a very powerful and destructive Category 5 storm which hit the Florida Panhandle leaving a trail of destruction and we were glad to be able to help in a small way.
October 2018 - The LongReach Foundation was pleased to be able to make a donation to the Voices for Children Foundation Inc., based here in Miami, Florida, Voices For Children works in collaboration with the Guardian ad Litem Program to transform the lives of children in foster care. They develop initiatives designed to most effectively ensure their needs are met and help break the cycle of abuse, abandonment and neglect that is so prevalent in low-income and poverty-stricken communities. Sadly there are about 2,000 children currently in Foster Care in Miami-Dade County so help is greatly needed.
September 2018: - The LongReach Foundation was able to provide pallets of bottled water to residents in North Carolina following the landfall of Hurricane Florence. Florence was a powerful and long-lived Category 4 hurricane that caused catastrophic damage in The Carolinas.
Working in conjunction with the Raleigh Dream Center, LongReach was able to assist NC residents after the storm. Florence was the wettest North Carolina hurricane on record and overall caused $24.23 billion in damage, mostly in the Carolinas, and 54 deaths.
August 2018: - The LongReach Foundation donated to Doctors Without Borders, a global medical humanitarian organization providing medical care and humanitarian aid where the needs are greatest in crisis zones around the world, This amazing organization often goes to places where other organizations can’t or won’t operate and is very deserving of support.
September 2017: The LongReach Foundation worked with Feeding America to provide food and water in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. The Category 4 storm hit Florida the morning of Sept 10, 2017 causing massive amounts of damage.
2017
2016
November 2016: The LongReach Foundation is a big proponent of Solar Energy and in light of a deceptive utility-backed Amendment for Floridians that was on our voting ballots, we hired a plane to pull a banner across Miami in order to help get the message about Solar Choice out to our local community.
The good news was that Florida rejected the Amendment 1 which would have halted solar development by paving the way for utilities to penalize solar customers. The Foundation is proud to be a supporter of both Floridians for Solar Choice and Clean Energy.org.
As a founding member of Floridians for Solar Choice, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) has been leading efforts to bring more solar energy to Florida. Over the last few years, SACE worked with a broad and diverse coalition of groups to fight monopoly utilities and educate Floridians about the importance of opening the Sunshine State's solar market.
Together we have fundamentally changed the conversation in Florida, the Sunshine State SACE has helped to raise national awareness around the importance of clean energy and brought attention to the dirty tactics of Florida's big power companies.
August 2016:
The LongReach Foundation was pleased to provide a number of Back to School backpacks through the Salvation Army's "Apple Tree" Program for low income children in need.
2015
May 2015: The LongReach Foundation leaned on our company's background in the aviation industry and contacted major airlines and local businesses in the South Florida area and collected left over or unused amenity kits from Business and First Class airline cabins. We then took the contents to the Miami Rescue Mission and Camillus House to help provide much needed items for the homeless population of Miami.
April 2015: Each year in April, the LongReach Foundation supports Pay It Forward Day. This is a global initiative that exists to make a difference by creating a huge ripple of kindness felt across the world. Of course, our hope is that people pay kindness forward every day and make each day that little bit brighter. We believe that small acts, when multiplied by millions of people can literally change the world for the better — and each April we set out to prove it! International Pay it Forward Day (PIFD) aims to inspire over 10 million acts of kindness around the world. Please help to spread the word about this important day!
