The following is a guest column written by Carolyn Rogers, CFRE, a senior vice president and wealth services advisor for The Sanibel Captiva Trust Company.
At The Sanibel Captiva Trust Company, our mission is to prioritize what truly matters, with family being one of the most important aspects. That’s why we are aligning with Kathryn Kelly and her team at The Heights Foundation to sponsor the 17th Annual Love Your Neighbor fundraising event on Sunday, Feb. 2 at The Heights Center.
Kathryn founded The Heights Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, a quarter century ago to build strong, self-sufficient families in the Harlem Heights neighborhood of Fort Myers. Harlem Heights is a severely distressed community, a place where children live in poverty at twice the rate of the rest of Lee County.
Kathryn was inspired to start the foundation in 1999 because of a Thanksgiving outreach project in the community. Her consistent dedication, and the support of countless volunteers and supporters, has seen the foundation’s work grow significantly over the years.
The nonprofit’s first major project was to renovate a house and give it to a Harlem Heights family that was living in poverty and substandard conditions. That effort led to great improvements in living conditions for others. Infrastructure improvements and relocation of resources into the community have provided access to needed services.
A major milestone in Kathryn’s tenure at the helm of the foundation was the 2013 completion of the 14,000-square-foot Harlem Heights Cultural Arts and Community Center.
The Heights Center stood as a shell for four years during the real estate crash until the organization could raise the funds to complete it. The late John Boler made a $1 million gift that ramped up the campaign. Along with the outpouring of generous support by local donors matched by the tenacity and dedicated work of Kathryn and her Board of Directors, Advisory Committee, employees, volunteers, residents of Harlem Heights and the Harlem Heights Improvement Association, the center became a reality.
Seeing more gaps in services and education, Kathryn and her team are on a current quest to build a career center in the Heights community to support local students seeking training for jobs in the trades, much needed skilled workers in Southwest Florida.
Like other charitable organizations we have worked with over the years – Trailways Camps, SanCap Cares for Golisano Children’s Hospital, BIG Arts and more – we’re inspired by Kathryn and the work she is doing for the Harlem Heights community. We hope you are, too, and can join The Sanibel Captiva Trust Company and many others at The Heights Center for Love Your Neighbor. You’ll enjoy food, wine, spirits, music, and live and silent auctions. All proceeds benefit educational programs for at-risk children in the Harlem Heights neighborhood.
For more information, please call 239-482-7706.