GIFTS AND GRANTS
UCI Basketball
UC Irvine’s Chief Executive Roundtable has raised $101,000 for basketball scholarships, $26,000 of it thanks to 10 free-throw baskets scored by the university’s chancellor, Ralph Cicerone.
About 180 business leaders, including 50 men and women chief executive officers from throughout Orange County, converged at the Irvine campus’ Bren Events Center on Saturday evening for the basketball game and fund-raiser, said Kara Lane, associate director of the roundtable.
Lane said the entire amount will go toward scholarships for the university’s men’s and women’s basketball programs.
Hurricane Relief
Ingram Micro Inc. of Santa Ana has donated $30,000 to the Orange County Red Cross to help survivors of Hurricane Mitch in Central America. Last week’s donation brings the total raised by the Red Cross in Orange County for storm-relief efforts to $495,697, according to local agency officials.
Previous contributors have included the Sisters of St. Joseph Health Care Foundation, which donated $75,000 earlier this month, and the St. Joseph Health System, which gave $85,000. Both organizations are based in Orange.
Asthma Awareness
A philanthropic arm of Irvine-based Baxter Health Care and its sister health-products and services company, Allegiance, has donated $65,000 to provide asthma screening and education to children in 3,600 minority and low-income families throughout Orange County.
“It is gratifying to know that this grant will provide day-care workers and parents the tools they need to help the children in their care,” said Patricia Morgan, executive director of the Baxter Allegiance Foundation.
The two-year program is being sponsored through the American Lung Assn. of Orange County.
Breast Cancer Support
The Huntington Beach Community Clinic’s women’s center and breast-screening program has received a grant of $57,367 from the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
The center at 8041 Newman Ave. serves breast-cancer patients who lack insurance or financial alternatives and have been referred by cancer support groups from across Orange County.
After-School Programs
Girls Incorporated of Orange County has been awarded $50,000 by the Weingart Foundation to support after-school programs for about 500 low-income Orange County girls and boys.
Girls Inc. offers programs at its Costa Mesa headquarters and at local elementary-school campuses at the request of individual principals. Topics include hands-on math and science instruction, entrepreneurial workshops, sports fundamentals, personal safety and child-abuse prevention.
CHOC Care and Research
The Wynn Foundation has given $50,000 to Children’s Hospital of Orange County to support clinical care and research.
“This generous gift . . . will enable Children’s Hospital to extend essential medical services to more children and bolster our clinical research efforts,” said Kimberly C. Cripe, president and chief executive officer of CHOC.
The foundation is the philanthropic arm of Wynn International Inc., an Orange County-based supplier of automotive parts.
Social Worker Award
Judy Tanasse, director of economic and community partnerships for the Orange County Social Services Agency, will be honored Feb. 10 for her work linking the Adopt-a-Social Worker network with welfare-to-work programs.
The award will be given by the Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Center at a ceremony and dinner for local social workers.
Tanasse oversees county welfare reform, refugee services, volunteer coordination, employment and training and privatization services. She has been with the county agency since 1974, initially as a senior social worker.
Adopt-a-Social-Worker is a public-private partnership of religious and service organizations, as well as private companies, intended to help county social workers address client needs.
“Judy has been the catalyst for expansion of [Adopt-a-Social-Worker] and has brought it to the attention of county leadership,” said Robin Hoffman, AASW program manager for the abuse-prevention center. “Working together, we have proved that the program is effective in [moving] families off welfare.”