Foundation News
2023
August 2023
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The LongReach Foundation partnered once again with Operation BBQ Relief as they quickly went to aid those suffering after Hurricane Idalia went through the west coast of Florida on August 30, bringing severe flooding and 125 mph winds. Operation BBQ Relief was immediately on the ground feeding hot meals to people in need. Since their arrival, Operation BBQ Relief has provided over 1,200 meals for first responders and search and rescue teams. Please consider donating to this amazing organization or if you are based in central or North Florida, please consider donating your time and becoming a volunteer. Volunteers are urgently needed in Live Oak, Florida to help serve meals.
August 2023
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The LongReach Foundation was pleased to partner once again with the YFC Kix team this summer. We sponsored their youth group in attending Summer Camp and from the photos below, it looks like they had a great time! Thanks to Stacy and Omar Morales, and Jules Altidor from Kix for the amazing work they do each year helping and encouraging urban youth from the Homestead area.
August 2023​
Following the devastating wildfires in Maui, Hawaii and the destruction of the historic town of Lahaina, the LongReach Foundation was able to provide financial support to help Operation BBQ Relief deploy with a team to the island. OBR is providing over a thousand meals daily to first responders, relief workers, & residents impacted by the wildfires on Maui. Thank you OBR for bringing hot meals and hope to the people of Maui.
July 2023​
The LongReach Foundation was pleased to be able to support our local homeless mission here in Miami, The Caring Place, by recently providing five thousand sustainable and eco-friendly oral health kits manufactured by Swedish-based The Humble Company. The kits contained sustainable bamboo toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental picks, floss and cotton swabs. In turn, The Humble Company, generously donated 1,000 bamboo toothbrushes to The Caring Place. Two wonderful organizations that do such excellent work, each in their own way.
The Caring Place has been providing hope to the homeless and hungry in South Florida for over 100 years. The Humble Company, in business for ten years, is a health & wellness company offering reliable and innovative products that are good for us and kind to our planet.
April 2023​
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Global Pay It Forward Day is this Friday - April 28, 2023!
LongReach would like to encourage you to take part in creating a worldwide ripple of kindness! If you’re looking for a way to pay it forward, here are a few ideas:
Pay for the next person behind you in line
Tip your server or barista a little extra
Donate to a nonprofit
You don’t have to spend money to pay it forward. Run an errand for an elderly neighbor, help someone with their groceries, babysit for someone - a simple act of kindness can make someone's day!
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March 2023​
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The Foundation was once again pleased to support the charity, Fresh Water Friends, in their efforts to build another fresh water well in India. In honor of World Water Day, we were pleased to be able to help in a small way. To date, Fresh Water Friends has built over 400 wells and we firmly believe they are a charity with a mission that is well worth supporting.
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February 2023​
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The LongReach Foundation supported the American Red Cross to aid the victims of the Turkish Earthquake disaster. A 7.8 magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on Feb. 6 reduced towns and cities to mountains of broken concrete and twisted metal. Sadly the death toll has surpassed 50,000,
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2022
December 2022​
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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/
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November 2022​
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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.
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November 2022
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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
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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.
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July 2022
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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.
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March 2022:​
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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
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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:
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Once again, the LongReach Foundation was pleased to participate with the #GivingTuesday movement making donations to all of the charities that we support.
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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.
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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.
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 2020: 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 2020: 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.
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.
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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.