VyStar Foundation is now accepting grant requests for its youth initiative. Funding priority will be given to nonprofit organizations that support youth by creating access to nutritious meals and stable housing; building workforce experience, skills and education that lead to long-term career pathways; or providing learning environments that encourage creativity and positive development.
The foundation will consider youth grant requests up to $20,000 and will fund a total of $200,000. The board of directors may vary funding amounts and the number of awards depending on the quality and number of applications received.
VyStar Foundation grant application information sessions will be held virtually in August and September:
- Monday, August 28 – 3-5 p.m.
- Thursday, August 31 – 9-11 a.m.
- Wednesday, September 6 – 12:30-2:30 p.m.
The youth program applications are due by 5 p.m. on September 30, 2023. For additional information about eligibility and how to apply, view the Notification of Funding Opportunity or visit vystarfoundation.org.
This sounds like a great grant program. Congressman Aaron Bean now makes about $175,000 / yr. He gets it for life. He has at times emphasized his dedication to public service. He should donate 1/2 of his salary to the VyStar fund – or some other worthwhile charity. That is what I would do if I was elected to congress. One half of $175,000 is still a tremendous amount of money isn’t it?
But you haven’t been elected to Congress so it’s really his business and not yours. If you lived in the D.C. area you’d realize it is incredibly expensive (housing-wise particularly) and if maintaining another home here … $175,000 is a pittance. Yes, it’s a great program. If you think so you should donate. But I personally think it is out of line to be telling someone else that they ought to be offering up half their salary just because they are an elected official. A lot of federal workers have pensions more than half of $175,000. I think Congressman Bean can make his own decisions on his personal finances … and they are HIS personal finances.
Mr. Cain, respectfully the salary of a congressman is public info. So are their corporate sponsors.
Mr. Martin … respectfully you miss the point. Of course his salary is public information … how he chooses to spend it is HIS business … not yours. I don’t think he needs your input on his personal finances and once the salary is paid to him it is no longer “public information” on what he does with it.
Richard, please, I have never suggested that we need access to Bean’s checking account statements are anything like that. Bean’s personal finances are a different ball of wax. What I am saying is that congress critters get a whole lot of taxpayer dough. Bean is a Pfizer funded career politician who has emphasized his dedication to public service. With the kind of money he will receive for the rest of his life he has a sterling opportunity to give some real assistance to the citizens of Congressional District 4.
Mr. Martin … stop already. You have turned this nice feel good article into your diatribe about what Congressman Bean should do with HIS money. Note: HIS money. You specifically state “half his salary” … elaborate that it is $175,000/year … and suggest he cough up half of it to a charity of YOUR choice. That is PRECISELY what you wrote. His salary and what he does with it are his personal finances which you seem to feel entitled to suggest how he should spend it. Your pithy “Pfizer-funded” comments are way out of bounds. And again … why are we discussing a private individual’s finances in the context of this article? I think you have some kind of freakish obsession about the congressman and perhaps you need to deal with that somehow and somewhere. It’s very sad actually. And show some respect … he’s not a “critter”. He’s a congressman. Enough.
Mr Cain, I am sorry. I do not perceive Aaron Bean as a politician dedicated to the public good. When he was a state Senator I could not get him on the phone. I called about a Fraudulent Account Statement issued by a state chartered institution. One of the recipients of that statement was a vulnerable senior citizen who is resident of his district. Bean is funded by Big Pharma, and also Big Banking. FALSIFIED ACCOUNT STATEMENTS UNDERMINE THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM..
And there we have it. I’m glad you’ve admitted your obsession and that basically you are a fraud yourself. Once again we have someone posting some rant comment … TOTALLY UNRELATED or barely related to the article they are responding to. Looking for some forum to post their unhappiness or attack someone or just to publicize their often leftist views. This is sadly a frequent occurence in the Fernandina Observer. So there … now you’ve had your forum to attack Congressman Bean. I hope you feel better now after your big purge. Next time there will be a review of a local restaurant and you can comment that we aren’t doing enough to fight climate change or even better … that there are hungry people in Nassau County. You’ll call for residents to stop eating out and donate all the savings to YOUR favorite food bank ….
Well Richard – if you got a false account statement and found that pretty much all the elected officials you complained to were funded by the people you were complaining about – what would you do? By the way I do not believe in man made climate change or the efficacy of mRNA injections.
Ben … you have turned this article into a list of comments back and forth between us. I don’t care what you do about your “false account statement” issue or your problems with elected officials. The problem here is that you take your issue/problem/complaint and inject it into a really totally unrelated article in the Fernandina Observer. What does this have to do with the VyStar Foundation grant program? What do Congressman Bean’s finances or actions have to do with this Foundation? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You are looking for a forum with perhaps a large audience to attack, vent and complain about somebody. I’m embarrassed for you. It is borderline psychotic. What’s next? An article about the Tropical Storm gets a comment from you that Bean should donate half his salary to hurricane relief? An article about saving trees gets a comment that Bean should donate half his salary to a local tree hugger group? I can explain this to you … I can’t understand it for you.
“Sunshine is the best from of disinfectant.” – Louis Brandeis
Richard – your idea about 1/2 of Bean’s salary for Hurricane relief is a good one. It has merit. It really does.
CORRECTION – A CONGRESSMAN DOES NOT GET HIS SALARY FOR LIFE ACCORDING TO BETTER SOURCES. ACCORDING TO WHAT IS NOW UNDERSTOOD THEY GET A VERY GENEROUS PENSION. BUT THEY MUST BE IN SERVICE FOR AT LEAST 5 YEARS.
https://perry.house.gov/how-can-scott-help/myths-about-congress.htm
OK, guys. This is getting to be like the Gunfight at the OK Corral. It might be good for your egos, but it’s really rather juvenile. So knock it off! –Mike Phillips, editor