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LHCF Beneficiaries

$1.5 Million in Funding Distributed Directly to Seacoast Community Projects and Programs

Fourteen Years of Impact - 57 Beneficiary Organizations

Wentworth Marina’s Striped Bass Tournament, the fundraising event directed by the Little Harbor Charitable Foundation (LHCF) has generated over $1.5 million for 57 impactful and productive programs and projects in the Seacoast community. Each beneficiary organization has excelled in their commitment to enhance, support, educate and empower the lives of children they service. While the programs and projects vary as much in scale as they do in services provided, each is tied to meaningful and measurable results.

Among the list: advocates for abused, neglected and homeless children, educators in science, art and literature, caregivers and mentors:

• Artists in Residence (AIR): AIR uses the arts to guide and nurture teenage girls who suffer from economic disadvantage, face family or personal trauma, or cope with learning disabilities, in their search for self-acceptance. In “Creative Approaches to Creating Stories” guided by professional staff and experienced local artists, the project increased literacy skills and personal growth through creative activities that uniquely address teenage issues and concerns. Many of the activities incorporate reading, writing or critical thinking and integrate self-awareness through studies on narrative character, conflict and resolution.  Other AIR programs funded by LHCF included “After School Literacy -The Poets of Air” and “Let’s Experience Arts Performance” (LEAP).

 

• New Heights: “After School Teen Center Supplies and  Additional Instruction Services”.

 

• Families First Dental Center: “Preventative Dental Care Oral Health Supplies“.

 

• Children’s Museum:  “Museum to You” Funding supported the launch of an outreach initiative creating a free temporary children’s museum experience for families and children where art, science and cultural opportunities are not readily accessible. Remaining 4-6 weeks at each location, the traveling museum included 15 hands-on exhibits, family performances and artists’ workshops. LHCF also funded an “Exhibit Creation Program” and “Kaleidoscopic” A permanent interactive, hands-on science exhibit where visitors discover the fascinating phenomena of reflection and symmetry through natural and man-made examples. The main attraction is a wonderful life-scale three-sided kaleidoscope you climb into for a first-hand experience in imagery.

 

• Seacoast Hospice- Bridges Program “Parenting Grieving Children” developed as a grief support program for children, teens and families who have experienced the loss of a loved one.

 

• New Outlook Teen Center: “Listen to Her Sing” and “Trailblazers” programs.

 

• Cornerstone school: “Climbing Wall”.

 

Seacoast Big Brother Big Sister: “School Based Match” Grant funds implemented a new area of BBBS school based programs, creating and expanding access for 350 at-risk youth. Funds supported the recruitment and training of volunteers. Among several other BBBS programs supported by LHCF “Deep Sea Fishing Educational Experiences”.

Court Appointed Special Advocates of New Hampshire (CASA): “Volunteer Recruitment” and “Training Expansion” The primary objective of CASA is to ensure that each child who has suffered abuse or neglect has a qualified and dedicated volunteer to advocate for their physical and emotional needs in the complex child welfare and juvenile justice system. Ongoing demand for CASA services in the Seacoast required a significant, focused recruitment effort in order to maintain a sufficient volunteer base in the area. Grant funds furthered the recruitment outreach and training campaign, as well as supported additional program materials and sessions to ensure that every child who has a case being heard in Portsmouth District and Family Courts has a CASA volunteer to speak on their behalf.

  

• Coastal Conservation Association (CCA): “Teach Kids to Saltwater Fish” Funds launched and supported CCA directed saltwater fishing instruction and conservation education in partnership with Big Brother Big Sister children and their matches.

 

• Red Cross: Funding provided scholarships to 255 youths who received certification in the “Babysitters Training Class” teaching safety skills and essentials in care-giving for teens providing primary care for small children at home or outside the home. LHCF also funded a “Licensed Nurse Assistant Instructor Training” Program along with providing other support to the Seacoast Chapter.

 

Richie McFarland Children’s Center: “Parent Support and Education” helped to meet critical needs of at-risk families coping with medically fragile babies, poverty, or the lack of a support system. Foundation funding also supported “Toddler Playgroups” providing a nurturing and therapeutic environment for children with disabilities as well as the “Parent as Teacher” program.

 

• New Hampshire Fish and Game Department: “Great Bay Cultural and Maritime Heritage Education” program at Sandy Point Discovery Center. Taught by interpretive naturalists, over 1,500 children participated in this program on the cultural and ecological importance of the Great Bay.

 

• A Safe Place:  “Children’s Services Expansion” Funds expanded and improved shelter services to children.

 

• Child and Family Service: “Transitional Living Program (TLP)”.

 

• Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve:  “Sandy Point Discovery Educational Center Programming”.

 

• Prevent Child Abuse NH: “Greater Seacoast Child Prevention Project”.

 

• Light House Kids: “Restoration of the White Island Lighthouse Landing”.

 

• Child Advocacy Center of Rockingham County (CACRC): “Supporting You in Supporting Them” Resource Material Development.

 

• Community Child Care Center: “Summer Education and Enrichment”.

 

• Community Diversion Program: “Prevention and Intervention Programming”.

 

• Maude H. Trefethen School:  “Science Inquiry Curriculum”.

 

• Summerbridge:  “Education for Youth at Risk”.

 

• Seacoast Science Center:  “EDALHAB” The world’s first mobile undersea habitat, EDALHAB (Engineering, Design, Analysis Laboratory HABitat), was built and tested by a team of undergraduate engineering students at the University of New Hampshire in 1968. While EDALHAB proved scientists could live and work undersea for prolong periods, technology, cost and safety concerns made sea habitats obsolete by the 70’s. With a three year funding commitment from LHCF the historic research vessel was rescued from the scrap pile, restored and placed on permanent exhibit complete with an interpretive video made from hours of original 16 mm file documenting EDALHAB’s deployment.  LHCH also funded “Seacoast Safari Summer Day Camp”.

 

• Seacoast Science Center: “Geo Adventurer: Assignment Gulf of Maine” the first interactive multimedia program on the Gulf of Maine for the Gregg Interactive Learning Studio located at the Seacoast Science Center. Since previewing in October of 2007 the Geo- Adventurer’s interactive educational experience has helped the Center’s 60,000 annual visitors gain a greater understanding and appreciation for the impact their choices and actions have upon the Gulf’s resources and inhabitants.  Instrumental in improving the health and sustainability of this most important body of water is the education of future generations of children as responsible stewards of the Gulf.

 

• Seacoast Science Center: Tofu: The Journey of a Humpback Whale - LHCF’s 2008 and 2009 Striped Bass Tournament for Kids funded the Seacoast Science Center’s newest exhibition, Tofu; The Journey of a Humpback Whale.  Unveiled June 18th 2009, the 32 foot hanging skeleton of Tofu is the only whale skeleton on public display in the region. The complete study of Tofu’s documented life helps young visitors understand big environmental concepts. Such as, how everyday actions and decision have consequences that can directly and indirectly impact the ecology of the Gulf of Maine. Tofu was part of the WDCS’s “Whale Adoption Project Family” having been monitored since birth. Named for her nearly white fluke (tail) Tofu was a 2 ½ year old female 10-ton humpback whale that was struck and killed by a marine vessel.

 

• Northeast Passage (NEP) was provided a new van to transport youth with developmental and physical disabilities around the Seacoast to introduce them to recreation opportunities within their community.

 

• Crossroads House: In 2009 Cross Roads House had 62 children under the age of six staying in the facility on average of 9 months. Budgetary constraints on formerly funded programs have significantly cut or eliminated all previously available options for childcare and other support services, limiting the single parent’s ability to seek job training or employment. The 3rd annual Wentworth Marina Striped Bass Tournament for Kids will address the needs of these children by providing funding for safe, appropriate childcare services as well as to address training opportunities for the parent in order to move the family more quickly toward independent, sustainable living.