hi and welcome to commissioner's corner i'm commissioner lose out part and my guest today is lucy in the can dream who's the executive director of sun coast charities for children and welcome lucy thank you for taking the time to be with me here i member was right out of college and came to sarasota i love the town i visited here started a career in banking and after twelve years of mergers i used to help organize a lot of walks in the charitable events with the bank winter the not for profit industry started with united way here in sarasota was with them thirteen years and then went to the floor center and now with some coast charities for children because i really enjoy the not for profit field here in the community so tell me about suncoast charities for children what is it how long has it been in existence well it began in one thousand nine hundred six at the time it was known as sun coast foundation for the handicapped and we rebranded our name to sun coast charities for children right around two thousand and four and over the years since one nine hundred eighty six we've constructed over twenty million dollars worth of facilities in the area our mission is to provide programs and services to special needs children teens and adults so we constructed buildings in north port that are occupied by the florida center we built the whole sarasota county special olympics campus down in venice we have a building for and first down in venice and then in sarasota we have facilities that we constructed for community haven and the florida center for early childhood and also loveland center down in venice as well so from northport to sarasota  we constructed the buildings and these agencies occupy them for a dollar a year which enables program and service money to go straight to the clients so what suncoast charities for children does is construct facilities to rented out by other non profits to do things or explain them correct well let me back up a little in one thousand nine hundred eighty six the reason the charity was initially formed was because of the sarasota powerboat grand prix festival there were a group of gentlemen primarily in the construction industry that always every year would do an annual picnic for you know with people with special needs and take them to the beach where they could be children teens and adults and that in will picnic turned into one of the members that was involved  in this group said i really want to do an offshore power boat race and the idea was born but the group of businessmen said we wanted to go to a charity so that's what started everything and as buildings were built agencies could apply to occupy those buildings they were the ones i just mentioned and it really has grown over the years of the monies that are raised now through all the different special events we do because our revenue source is one hundred percent off of special events that goes maintain these facilities because as they age air conditioners need to be replaced carpeting repainting that way the agencies don't have to spend their money to do that we can go in make those repairs and also come in we just did a  multisensory room down at loveland center down in venice they needed a new classroom so they can also apply for some classroom needs or other funding that they may need if they have a deficit somewhere too so how do you decide who gets to run the facilities what what her he comes in that's really c three ok that's really our board of directors we have a board of directors that is with the chair at suncoast charities for children and annually they will review all the net proceeds that were raised and at the same time we do a survey with the agencies to find out what needs they have and then the volunteer board will decide where the biggest need is what's the most time sensitive the most urgent and then make their decision from there so do they have a criteria though that it has to serve the mission of suncoast charities in terms of serving disabled children or yes yes that it has to serve either children teens or adults with special  needs or developmentally delayed and they also have to provide us their five a one c three we have to see their nine ninety to make sure that physically they're sound so there is a checklist of things that those agencies need to provide a senior way that the board will review and do you then you go oversee it then every year make sure they're still performing their mission and so the facilities in sarasota really tell me what those are again i'm also take it from south northport the florida center for early childhood and what they already do there they do early childhood education so it's primarily pre k it could be children that have experience of developmental delay and have been diagnosed with a developmental delay or we also have parents that really don't know where to turn sometimes and may notice some unusual behavior in their child so they offer free testing as well so they their clients are based on a physician referrals  parents may not know and just watch i'll be tested or a child that is born with a disability then we move up into the venice area and you've got serious accounting special olympics they have a huge f let it disability and running track and they have roughly over one hundred fifty clients that are service from their facility next door to that is a building that the children first center occupies and whil first for those that are familiar with head start are plugged into the head start program so one of the things that they pride theirself on are two big programs down there they have their nurturing dance program which is if families want to become a better parent the debts can go to a class of children maybe on a reduced or very low income scale they make sure they're provided a meal early education they get the skills they need to be school ready by the time they reach can their garden so that's extremely important it really is liz and in the south county area there is such a wait list children first has a facility in sarasota but there was a big need identified in the north or south county area so they've really filled a void there just making sure children receive proper nutrition the early education and then all the parenting classes that go along with it loveland center is a great place all the agencies are great and i and i encourage anybody watching if they ever want to see where the money goes to take a tour and they can call some coast charities for children just go to our website put a request in some course charities for children dot org when you go to loveland center there are various buildings that are group homes you have clients there that range from late teens to in their eighty's and they are able to live on campus and they have a big construction project underway right now for apartments that are going to be specifically to how these clients with special needs what's happening is a lot of the clients with disabilities are living their parents and when their parents you know are deceased they have nowhere to go right so this provides the parents early on an infrastructure to know that if something should ever happen to them their child teen or a dull moment over the age has a safe place to live  and it's onsite group homes and this new facility will be completed this summer it's going to because there's this i think there's approximately one hundred and fifty units in there and it's ninety five percent already occupied or you know for occupation are in so again serving a big need for a problem that's been identified in the community what other you know do you have plans for the future or some other projects but you're looking to take on if you can raise the money for it absolutely and again that's generated by the surveys that the charity submit to us we you know we will we meet face to face with each agency executive director and we'll say to them what capital expenditure are you looking for meaning you know do you need a new building do you need a new roof do you need something what's the next life expectancy of that how soon do you need it and then on the flip side ok what are the immediate needs is there anything in your classroom we have requests from new playground equipment to sunshades over playgrounds to physical therapy and occupational therapy equipment so the range is fast on the requests that come in to  us and then moving up from venice you've got the florida center for early childhood with another location in sarasota and then a community haven for adults and children with disabilities which is also in sarasota very similar to the loveland center only in kind of money you can raise from doing it well we're pretty much a one stop shop there's there's two of us that work in the office that are the only paid staff myself and i have an assistant and sponsorship is the key you know over the years of doing so many different special events in town if you don't have the sponsorship base to cover what you're into supported expenses are right out of the gate you shouldn't even be doing the event because we all know weather can affect attendance you know a lot of things can affect attendance so make sure your sponsorship covers your expenses i really over the last six years try to focus a lot more on national sponsors that have corporate offices out of the area because that's where the bigger budgets are and there's also a lot of competition in sarasota i think we have something like one hundred eighty special events a year of all different kinds so the chase for the dollar so to speak becomes difficult and you have to reinvent yourself and try to figure out where knows resources are differentiate yourself and be able to show people where the money goes that's key because the first thing i will do when i approach a sponsor is say to them have you heard about us just like you asked me to do you know our impact here in the community and how it stays local and most of the time that's your best sales tool right there and and what are some of the events and what are the expenses that are involved in putting on ok let's say i think pre we're going into our thirty second year this year and again that was the first event started in one thousand nine hundred six by the charity what goes involved we've got fifteen different events within nine days and it started as a boat race and as it grew when i got involved it was right around two thousand and nine and when i was approached they said we need some infrastructure in this well the first thing i did is that everybody may enjoy boat racing so you got to inject other events that the community can enjoy and they can enjoy most of it pre of charge so we organize a golf tournament a car show a fun run on the water we have a motorcycle ride we do it a ticketed event hundred dollar ticket event but then we have a great downtown block party and two days now of racing that's going to be off of lido beach that the entire public can enjoy for free so and we also pulled a permit and secure the funding for the bayfront we have to secure the funding the permits under the charity and then we work closely with marina jack and sponsors and vendors that they know but that's roughly about a fifty thousand dollar expense because the fireworks alone are forty thousand well now you've got fencing you've got porta lets you've got permits you've got security you need to hire there's a lot of things a lot of steps along the way so when people say well what do you do first well first you got to put your permits and with the races you've got a coast guard permit that has to go in one hundred thirty five days before the event with a plan you've got street closure permits you've got liquor permits so there's a lot of permitting and then you have the whole environmental protection side because we have to be environmentally conscious with the race that's going on so we work closely powerboat p one has a marine foundation that is getting involved more and more to educate the community because  year's eve correct we do new year's eve from fireworks yes ok that's not as labor intensive then we do the holiday but parade as well in december that's out on the water so those are two smaller events we do that are free for the public to enjoy that are staples of the community family friendly we invite people to come out and then in january we go right into thunder by the bay which now is entering its one thousand three year so that's right behind the the grand prix festival wow and all of the money that you raise for this is from the sponsorships and that is not what you take for insult take both festivals you take the grand prix festival we raise money through the golf tournament and her kickoff party that's our primary revenue source and sponsorship more than the sponsorship well the sponsorships will cover expenses and then we always make sure we get more than we need and that's gravy on the top after those two events are held funded by the bait how we get revenues from that is from our vendor fees sponsorships are key we have a couple bike shows we have a charity ride that goes on but again those sponsors are key and that's gravy on top and both  vents you know average on a good year both of us will average about one hundred fifty thousand each if we have a really good year sometimes more than that god forbid we don't want to go backwards with sometimes we gave years that were a little less than that but even bigger it's not just the net revenue to the charity it's the economic impact funded by the bay is an eight million dollars economic impact to the community roughly six thousand room nights and the sarasota powerboat grand prix is a thirty two million dollar economic impact with over fifteen thousand room nights and and these are all research data reports that we pay to have done from a research firm out of tampa and they come in and run those force every year or so so it brings a lot a lot to the communities for not only to the charity but for the economic impact that it has right and then you know you have to look at the return business to home if they're here people that attend these events and they visit and they like the area i've seen people purchase homes and condos move back come back and visit find out about other events a lot will extend their vacations with both festivals to enjoy the attractions they will go to ringling they're going to selby they'll catch a play they just love the sarasota because of everything that it offers right yeah right now and in planning these things you know what are the kinds of things that you're looking at for instance when you're planning thunder by the bay and you know going into the downtown or you know the obstacles what what do you try to i guess plan for well first thing i'll say is i don't care what type of event you do you're always going to have some obstacles if you don't you're lying  you can't keep doing the same thing the same way year after year you've got to reinvent the event sometimes you have a zig when you have to zag and and the demographic changes i mean right now downtown you've got more residential  going up you've got hotels that are coming into into play so you've got to be a good listener you know you never want to turn a deaf ear you have to listen to what the concerns are and then take those concerns always address them whether you agree or disagree and always try to compromise without compromising the event you can compromise on certain things and then other things may not be possible because it's going to compromise the success of the event and lot of it has to do with set up time in the midst of people coming into town but we try to listen to the concerns and the response of whether it be a parking issue whether it be a noise issue you know our hoteliers i'm happy to see more hotels coming to the area because you know between both festivals we're maxing out on the amount of hotel rooms that are available so you know we always have to be a good listener and try to compromise and that should work on both sides and if you do that most of the time you can work things rules so that people can't take their stuff out on to the beach until sunrise to protect the terminals right for that for that week right that's involved do you have any other things that that you see is problem really and even then it's not a big it's not a big issue in the community it's first of all we have to do a good job of making sure communities aware of that second thing we have to do is make sure the community is aware of why that decision was made and it's for the betterment of everything in it in order for the race to continue off of our beaches during a high turtle nesting season there are certain things we have to pay attention to and that's one of them it's not going to it's not going to kill the day if the beach chair doesn't go out till after sunrise but you do have spectators that are creature of habit that want to get out there at three am and wait till it opens at five am so i think just getting the message out and then saying why the decisions made in that we're all working together between mode and the city and the charity it's a decision that's now again going to compromise the event and we just need to tell people why we're doing that other than that there's not going to be really any big changes i get the phone calls all the time make it by the roundabout it's the answer that yes you know the boats can make it around the roundabouts the exciting change this year for us is fox sports is going to broadcast around the world one hundred one thousand countries the races really work site and we've also added jet ski racing and what they call superstock boat racing which are smaller boats so one saturday when you go to the beach are going to see jet skis and these open canopy boats that mean the canopy doesn't come down over your head but on sunday you'll see one final round of both the jet skis and the smaller boats and then you can see all the big boats run on sunday to which of the high powered power is not going to be a trolley again out to lido i took that last year from the avenue parking garage i thought that was wonderful a wonderful way to get out to the event not have gary about parking but i didn't see a lot of people to taking it out and i don't know if it was because people weren't aware of it  we tried to make them aware but i have to think the downtown improvement district they are the ones that sponsored that that was one more thing we couldn't take on as an expense because of everything else in our budget to produce just the races two hundred thousand dollars  expenses and that's everything from helicopters to cranes to insurances so we haven't had that conversation what i'm hearing back then a lot of people took advantage of it so i had to say at this point it's not planned but we is that right now we tell people to carpool out and now i think with the two days of racing that people can plan around there and they're going to see stuff going on a full two days not just one day how do you communicate with the public about what you're doing as you said you know you need to educate them about not going out to the beach how do you get this message out and and and also then you know how are you listening you know where you're getting that feedback well we have a we have a tremendous amount of media sponsors so we make sure that's part of our media plan that goes out with them social media between facebook and our websites we communicate it that way but i also work closely with the public information officer at the service of the police department with the  county and any public media person with the city to make sure that it's going out from a number of sources so if it necessarily doesn't get picked up with what i found out we have some other people that are sending it out too but we have the same message that's going out so we have some very and i was part of my work ethic is no matter what email i get i respond to it you can't ignore you know you could always agree to disagree and that's the philosophy i go by and i just try to let people know hey i understand your concern this is why we made a decision or this is why we're doing this nine out of ten times i get a thank you thanks for responding prescience getting back to me  that's the important thing you've got to again you've got to be a good listener and sometimes that works to our advantage and that we're able to educate some people that i receive emails and calls from that weren't aware they weren't aware that the charity is producing the fireworks or the charities behind the boat races or thunder by the bay and it helps instill that there's a charity a local charity that's producing these big events it's not a promoter that's running it and oh by the way we're going to give a donation to a charity you know what the charity does like we talked about at the beginning of the segment here yes what we do especially in our marketing you know we'll provide testimonials from parents that have a child or a client that's been served we communicate those messages on our website we have what i call the one page elevator snapshot that will take you through the years and all the projects that have been done with monies that have been raised and that seems to be very effective i could sit here all day and say we raised you know we built twenty million dollars worth of facilities but when you start reading what facilities were built and what services they provide and then you had how many clients or service two year you start scratching your head thinking wow  those agencies weren't there where would these clients be going and you know another big thing is mental health we all know that's a hot topic right now yes and when we talk about the florida center they  have early childhood mental health section but they will do evaluations of mental health from children from birth to six to see if there's any mental health inadequacies or sometimes just a case that the child may need some occupational therapy or not be a full time my ass room you know service but could come in for therapy service so early childhood mental health is big it's big with the florida center i was happy to see that because i think if you can catch it early on you know the future looks bright not only for that individual but for the community right because you know i think the early childhood education as well is extremely important because if they have that then they're prepared to do well in school and then they will keep doing well if the child goes in and they start feeling inferior because they're not doing well because they didn't have the the background and the training from you know maybe from parents that should have been there they start out behind the eight ball and then they always remain married so i think you know that's important  and the mental health obviously we need that yes and you'll see more and more of that coming out but you know we do everything service wise amongst the agencies we support from a group homes to like patient therapy physical therapy early education it's great and we touch all ages which is great as well when we only have just maybe like a minute powerboat grand prix dot org but if you go to the charity website you'll see all the events listed there i'd be remiss if i didn't think you list for your leadership and the city support because the city has been a sponsor over the years for many years for both events in what helps support us and be able to conduct what we conduct out there in the communities so well the city of sarasota as well well not only does it benefit sun coast charities for children by it certainly does benefit the city in the impact that it brings so i think it's a win win situation it and it is for all of us so anything exciting coming up that you were like got in the works that you don't want to talk about or the national t great with with the rays and you know we're getting more and more people from outside the state of florida coming in for thunder by the bay that's become now a destination event so i think between thunder becoming a bigger destination a vent for people around the world not just in the united states but in the country and the grand prix now taking the national t v on with fox sports and regional with fox sports on for the cross which of the jet skis between the marriott coverage of the worldwide exposure on both  you for being here today and you know thank all of you for joining us the commission