Arts and Culture

The Academy at Civic Theatre (A.C.T.) Live! youth program will change lives, with your help. Youth of our community will dive into all aspects of theatre production, including writing, choreographing, directing, and performing their own World Premieres before a live audience, all in a short 2 week time. With your help, we can offer this to children in our community for free. Here's the best part: you can see the fruits of your donation at the Waukesha Civic Theatre on January 26th for free! Whether you come see for yourself or not, your donation will leave a lasting impression on bright young stars of our community. Thank you!

Education

READ to Me is a program in which Certified Therapy Dogs visit area elementary schools for reading sessions. Through this program, students develop a joy for reading, improve their reading skills, and foster an empathy for animals. Our Elmbrook Humane Society volunteer therapy dog teams regularly visit three schools for reading sessions throughout the school year, with plans to expand our program reach. Having a canine visitor come to a child's classroom reduces the pressure of reading aloud and serves as a special treat and privilege for the entire class. Your generous donation will help fund materials and supplies for 25 Certified Therapy Dog Teams (people and dogs!) and recognition items for 6 classrooms (approximately 150 children) throughout the school year.

The La Casa de Esperanza Charter School opened in the fall of 2015 serving grades K4 and K5. In the fall of 2019, the school will be adding fourth grade. We are respectfully requesting support, in the amount of $5,000, to equip the newly-opened classroom with a smart board and to purchase five Chromebooks for the fourth grade students to use. All of our other classrooms are equipped with this technology, which has proven to be valuable for students not only to learn about technology, but as tools for teachers and students to support classroom instruction and learning activities.

For those with sensory needs, libraries can sometimes be quite overwhelming (despite the fact that libraries are often viewed as quiet places, this is most definitely not the case). Lights, chatting patrons, and wide-open spaces can potentially all be triggers and make the library environment overstimulating. The library would like to create a sensory space that would be divided into two sections. One section will offer tactile objects providing physical interaction (interactive balance beam, musical vibration bench, and touch-sensitive walls). The other space would be a relaxation area full of soothing colors, dim lights, and optical illusions. Essentially this sensory space would be designed for the special needs community, but all patrons and the entire community would benefit from it. We'd also partner with local schools and the local hospital to provide educational courses and curriculum.

Every year, Waukesha Education Foundation receives high quality requests from district teachers we cannot support due to funding limitations. With your help, we can fund an additional $5,000 in requests and ensure teachers in the School District of Waukesha receive support for their innovative, creative, and enriching projects to benefit our 13,000+ students. However, many impactful projects were not able to be funded - they met our funding criteria, but we simply did not have enough resources to meet the need. With your help, we can fund the next five in 2020. Please consider a gift to the Waukesha Education Foundation to immediately impact the teachers and students of our district.

Health and Human Services

Our mission is to mobilize communities, individuals, and resources to provide food on the weekends for elementary school children in Waukesha County who might otherwise go hungry. Through its dedicated volunteers and community partners, the impact of the hunger-free weekends provided by Blessings in a Backpack goes beyond easing hunger pangs. Better test scores, expanded reading skills, improved health, and increased attendance have all been attributed to consistent childhood nutrition, such as what Blessings in a Backpack helps provide. Our over-arching goal is to expand our program each year to reach approximately 4,600 children in Waukesha County that are at-risk for weekend hunger. In Fall 2019, we will introduce the "Sponsor A Classroom" initiative, whereby donors may commit to sponsor food for all eligible children in one or more classroom(s) at a specific school for the entire school year. A contribution of $5,000 would sponsor two classrooms with 25 needy children each for the entire school year.

The Bryon Riesch Paralysis Foundation's Charitable Grants program offers assistance to people with paralysis and neurological issues. Every week, the BRPF receives phone calls from individuals within Waukesha County requesting financial help to make their daily lives easier. While the BRPF works diligently to find funding for these requests, the Foundation simply does not have enough money to help each of these individuals who deserve assistance. The life of someone with a spinal cord or a neurological injury is continuously dependent on others. It is easy to take for granted the independence able-bodied people experience each and every day. The BRPF does its best to offer as much assistance to these individuals as possible. BRPF Charitable Grants come in the form of an adapted bed, a shower chair, a ramp, a wheelchair, or van adaptations.

Through our annual county-wide Toy Drive, we are able to help provide parents give Christmas gifts to their children. Many of our clients do not own a single book for their children. Every child that is shopped for at Toy Shop receives at least one book. We want to increase that number to 2 or even 3 books if possible. Children who come from homes where they own books have greater education advantages. Literacy helps families escape poverty.

Easterseals parking lot is in great need of repair to ensure that clients and family members can safely enter and exit the Adult Day program every day. Many clients have mobility concerns and so a smooth, upgraded surface is needed to support their safety in transferring into the center each day.

The Holiday Giving for Homebound Seniors and Adults with Disabilities Program will assist up to 350 Waukesha County seniors and adults with disabilities living on a fixed income through the gift of a self-sufficiency care package. The Holiday Giving Program will assist in maintaining our recipients' current level of independence by providing help in purchasing groceries and other needed self-sufficiency items. Your generosity will allow us to purchase 350 $10 Pick 'n Save gift cards to help participants purchase groceries and other basic needs items.

It is not uncommon for established shelters for the homeless to ask guests to vacate during the daytime hours so that they may prepare for the next evening and night. This would mean that those in need of day shelter and food would be “on their own” to find warmth, comfort, and food during the coldest time of the Wisconsin winter. The Winter Weekend Project (WWP) is an extension of the Day Center program. WWP is an effort to feed and provide a warm and safe place for the homeless and those living in or near poverty in Waukesha County. Beginning November 1st 2019 and continuing until April 30th 2020 Hope Center staff and community volunteers will provide a breakfast and lunch for those in need. For the weekend project period November 1, 2018 to February 28, 2019, we will serve a total of 3,230 breakfasts and lunches by Hope Center volunteers and staff to women, children, and men living in Waukesha County.

LindenGrove has senior living campuses in four locations across Waukesha County. We believe that loving pet companionship is the antidote to loneliness. All campuses embrace this concept and provide pets of all varieties and sizes to improve the lives of our senior residents. They provide emotional support, entertainment, stress relief, activities and love every day. We are seeking a total of $4,800 to support pet care, food and daily needs.

The Women's Center's mission is to empower all impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and trafficking. We operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Such high volume and need for our services each year leads to general wear and tear of appliances throughout our emergency shelter, transitional living units, and campus at large, and upgrades and/or replacements are needed to efficiently and effectively support our clients. Your generosity will make it possible for us to replace the two sets of washers and dryers available to our residents, replace the television in our Group Room used to show supportive content during workshops, and upgrade to a commercial grade refrigerator in our food pantry.

The Waukesha County Community Dental Clinic (WCCDC) is the primary resource for low-income youth in our region who struggle disproportionately to find affordable, accessible, and quality dental care. Without WCCDC's two clinic locations in Waukesha County, this basic and crucial healthcare need would be unavailable to thousands of area youth who are state insured or uninsured. Just $150 helps cover the costs of a preventative or restorative dental appointment at the WCCDC for a low-income child. We are seeking to support 30 youth with a total funding need of $4,500.