Net proceeds to benefit the Bonita Springs Assistance Office and the Music for Minors Foundation, Inc.

Please join us to celebrate the Blues on March 12th and 13th, 2010 your community needs your help! The Bonita Springs Assistance Office provides assistance to those in our community who are less fortunate, and specializes in working with elderly residents, and families with young children. Over the years, these emergency programs have helped thousands of residents get back on their feet. Your generous sponsorship will help provide emergency relief for community residents, to lessen the impact of financial and personal crises.

The primary purpose of the Music For Minors Foundation Inc. is to provide musical instruments for children. Studies have shown that music learning and practice also benefit mental and behavioral processes, including cognitive development, language learning, reading ability, creativity, motor skills, and personal and social adjustment.

Learn more about the charities the Bonita Blues will be supporting from the overview provided below or by visiting their websites.

For over twenty five years, the Bonita Springs Assistance Office has served as a primary social service agency in southwest Florida. The Bonita Springs Assistance Office are proud of the fact that they have been able to have helped thousands of area residents at a time of crisis

The objectives of the organization are to:

• Provide emergency relief for community residents to lessen the impact of financial and personal crises.
• To help others recognize their own capacity to help themselves.
• To cooperate with all agencies interested in various phases of social work in the Bonita Springs area.

Services Provided

Community residents who apply for emergency assistance are carefully screened to determine need. Many residents find themselves facing financial disaster due to major illness, job layoff or death of a family member. The program enables them to get back on their feet. Services available to those who qualify include:

• Food from our Pantry
• Rent/Mortgage payment assistance
• Utility payment assistance
• Prescriptions and other medications
• Dental care
• Gas vouchers
• Clothing School supplies
• Information and referrals
• Emergency miscellaneous needs

Philosophy

The Bonita Springs Assistance Office believes in providing a “hand up” and not a “hand out”. We extend the helping hand of assistance, while their clients to retain their dignity. The Bonita Springs Assistance Office show clients who are able to work how to locate jobs and become productive members of the community. They specialize in working with elderly residents and families with young children.

What?

Who?

The Foundation works closely with the school system to identify qualified youngsters.  Students then make application and are interviewed.

Seventh grade students who have had a year of band or orchestra are ideal candidates for our program because they have had some training and possess some knowledge of music and have developed a feel for the instruments. Though technically beginners, students at this level are usually able to identify the instrument they wish to play.

It is the intention of Music for Minors to follow the students' progress through tenth grade, at which time a certificate of ownership will be presented and the instrument becomes his/hers for life!!

How?

Where?

Why Music?

Studies have shown that music learning and practice also benefit many mental and behavioral processes, including cognitive development, language learning, reading ability, creativity, motor skills, and personal and social adjustment.

Improved school progress added to the joy of becoming an accomplished musician who can perform with either the band or the orchestra at school and the development of a lifelong skill equals a win/win situation.

It is the hope of the Music for Minors Foundation, Inc. that someday every single qualified child in Collier and Lee Counties who wants to learn to play an instrument will receive one from the Foundation.

Students who stay in the music program into High School and become proficient will receive a certificate of ownership for the instrument.

Wounded Warrior Project began when several individuals took small, inspired actions to help others in need.

One night while watching the evening news, a group of veterans and brothers were moved by the difficult stories of the first wounded service members returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq. They realized then and there that something needed to be done for these brave individuals beyond the brass bands and ticker tape parades.

The resulting objective was to provide tangible support for the wounded and help them on the road to healing, both physically and mentally. What had been initially viewed as a small contribution (compared with what the warriors had sacrificed while serving our country) has become WWP's signature program:"WWP backpacks delivered bedside to wounded warriors."

We are donating the 50/50 money to the Wounded Warriors.