Lightning's $1 million donation helps local causes in run to Cup Final

The Tampa Bay Lightning's run to the Stanley Cup Final has meant a $1 million donation to organizations and programs in the Tampa area that focus on racial equity and inclusion, social services and helping to improve police and community relations.

The Lightning Foundation and the Vinik Family Foundation have donated $400,000 spread out among eight Tampa-area groups during the Final. That is in addition to the $600,000 the Lightning donated as part of their pledge of $200,000 for each of the first three rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"We are pleased to present these Community Hero grants to eight very deserving nonprofits," said Jeff Vinik, chairman and governor of the Lightning. "Each is working to build a more inclusive Tampa Bay while focusing on issues such as racism, equity and reform, initiatives we wholeheartedly support."
As part of the $400,000, the Lightning Foundation and Vinik Family Foundation have committed to programs and organizations that focus on education, improving workforce development/economic empowerment, police and community relations and social services/humanitarian assistance in the Tampa Bay region.
The $50,000 to the eight groups are an offshoot of the Lightning's Community Heroes program, presented by Jabil. Established in 2011, the program honors a volunteer at each home regular season and playoff game who helps those less fortunate in the community.
Each honoree receives $2,000 toward his or her favorite charity and a scoreboard tribute during games at Amalie Arena.
"We've always had a packed building and been able to tell that person's story to 20,000 people and really give them a moment with their family and their friends," said Elizabeth Frazier, senior vice president, philanthropy and community initiatives and executive director of the Lightning Foundation. "With the playoffs, we knew that the Community Hero program is such a signature part of who we are ... we knew we wanted to do it but wanted to do it to a way that was relevant and recognizing that we're in 2020 and things are a little different right now."

Instead, the Lightning decided to make donations in four impact areas during the playoffs: social justice/community heroes during the first round; health care heroes during the second round; education heroes during the conference finals; and social service/humanitarian assistance during the Final.
Vinik and his wife, Penny, were so excited about the Lightning reaching the Final, they suggested the $200,000-per-round donation be doubled and the money go toward local diversity, equity and inclusion causes.
"Ever since [the death of] George Floyd," Frazier said, "and we've all learned a lot in the last 10-12 weeks about educating and listening and what we can do to help be a part of the movement to make life better for everyone and insure equity -- we thought it was important to acknowledge not only with significant donations but also the awareness that this is something that we felt strongly about."
Floyd, a Black man, died while in custody of the Minneapolis police on May 25.
The Community to Develop Communities of Tampa and the Pinellas County Urban League each received $50,000. The money received by the urban league will help its Workforce Development Council's mission of assisting the area's "hard-to-hire" population through skill development and lifelong learning.
The Rev. Watson L. Haynes II, the urban league president and CEO, said the financial gift is a godsend for an area that has experienced a surge in unemployment because of the coronavirus.
"We've gone from 125 people a week to 400 a week, job hunting, needing jobs and needing to be redirected," Haynes said. "We don't have the staffing capacity. What we were doing is Zooming people and all that. But this gives us an opportunity to really work 1-on-1 to help develop a case management system for these people who are unemployed."

The funds will help the CDC of Tampa's Workforce Development Center's mission of aiding job seekers and employers throughout the region.
"Many times, people always talk about the problems, but they don't come up with the solutions to overcome those challenges and problems," said Ernest Coney, CEO of the CDC of Tampa. "The Lightning are ones that really invest in organizations and invest in communities so that we don't have to have the same conversations over and over again. We can start moving toward practical solutions."
The Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg, Florida, police departments each received $50,000 to support training and education toward improving community relations in those cities.
Chief Anthony Holloway of the St. Petersburg police said the money his department received will educate officers on the history and heritage of the city with an emphasis on the contributions of people of color and creating a mentorship program for junior officers.
"We've done a big hire here where about 30 percent of our officers have less then five years of service," Holloway said. "Anyone under five years of experience, they're going to have to mentor until they reach five years of service. A lot of younger officers don't live in the city, so they patrol that zone, but they're only handling emergency calls or problems. We're saying, 'You're going to become part of that community.'"
The Lightning donated $50,000 each to the University Area Community Development Corporation and the St. Petersburg Free Clinic, which have been on the front lines of the pandemic.
The development corporation intends to use the funds to help usher economic improvement, job creation and increased transportation to the area near the University of South Florida's Tampa campus.
The free clinic, which recently opened a new health education center, provides food, shelter and health care for people in Pinellas County.
Working to improve access to education, the Lightning donated $50,000 each to the United Way Suncoast and R Club. The United Way gift will help support its Reading All-Stars program, and the R Club's money will help fund its Early Learning Academies, which serve children between 8 weeks and 5 years old.
The Lightning Foundation has granted $21.45 million through 876 donations to 537 unique nonprofits in the greater Tampa Bay area since the program began.