Each year, the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation provides grants that support its four pillar areas of focus, including pediatric cancer causes, reading, fitness through play and the growth and development of amateur hockey.
The foundation announced the investment of $334,000
to local charitable and youth hockey organizations last Monday at Nationwide Arena in conjunction with the game against Dallas. This year's grants push the Foundation's cumulative support of youth health and wellness initiatives in Central Ohio to $11.9 million since its inception in 2000.
During a pregame reception, the Blue Jackets Foundation announced grants awarded to 25 Ohio-based nonprofit organizations, including three new partners. In addition, for the first time, the Foundation is supporting children's mental health.
Grants from CBJ Foundation do a lot for Central Ohio community
Such organizations as Nationwide Children's Hospital, South Side Early Learning and the Boys and Girls Club among those that benefit
The following stories show some of the impact the grants can make in the community.
Nationwide Children's Hospital
When Nationwide Children's Hospital launched its On Our Sleeves movement to put a spotlight on children's mental health, there was a question of just how much it would take off.
Three years later, it's easy to say it's been a rousing success. Embraced by such entities as Ohio State football head coach Ryan Day and the Columbus Crew and now the Blue Jackets Foundation, On Our Sleeves has added an important voice to the community by spotlighting what traditionally has been a sensitive subject.
Maggie Igel, who works in development for the Nationwide Children's Hospital Foundation, said the organization has been grateful to see such a positive response.
"It really has taken off," Igel said. "We knew there was a need, but we weren't sure how the community was going to respond and how corporate sponsors would support it. We just weren't sure, but this is all so important to talk about. And to see how people have responded has been a blessing for all of us."
Nationwide Children's has been a longtime grant partner with the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation and also a huge part of the organization's annual Hockey Fights Cancer initiatives, but the $25,000 grant to On Our Sleeves represents a new path, as it is the first time the foundation has added a focus on children's mental health.
With this grant, the program will work with Columbus' youth hockey associations to give kids and coaches an avenue to start the conversation around mental health issues.
"I think coaches have a real impact on kids, as well as teachers," Igel said. "I think giving coaches some of these tools and resources will be really impactful because I know growing up, I really relied on coaches as role models. It's really important they have some of those resources to provide to kids who might have mental health concerns.
"Previously, (coaches) might not know how to start the conversation, but now hopefully this will encourage them to do so and encourage kids to better understand how they feel."
South Side Early Learning
At South Side Early Learning, the belief is that that every child deserves a holistic, high-quality early education. The new grant partner of the Blue Jackets Foundation, who dates back to 1922, accepts children from six weeks old through 5 years old into a program that puts families first and allows children to thrive from a young age.
In partnership with Columbia Gas, the $50,000 grant from the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation will allow SSEL to create a natural playground and establish a sensory garden area for children with sensory differences.
"We have a really cool playground, but we noticed that play tapers off," chief executive officer Colin Page McGinnis said. "It's not as vigorous, it gets a little bit stale. You can only play on the playground in so many different ways. We really wanted to think about, how can we make play more active? How can we make play safer? And how can we make play more creative? And during that research we stumbled into this idea of these natural playgrounds."
The natural playground concept is popular overseas in places like Norway, Page McGinnis said, and will fill a need that staff has noticed in recent years. In addition, nearly half of the students that South Side Early Learning serves have sensory differences, up dramatically over a few years ago, meaning the sensory garden is a much-needed addition as well.
At SSEL, the educational approach is about rethinking what can make a difference for kids, and much of their work is backed up by research and data-driven processes that show the impact their educational tools can have. That's one reason Page McGinnis is so excited about the project, as the hope is the project will encourage others to make similar investments in their community.
"It's very exciting," Page McGinnis said. "It involves our program team, our education team, it also involves our resource center. Because it is so different, we want to be really intentional about, did it work or not? There is a whole research component that is going on. It's pretty much all the teams at South Side coming together during this project."
Boys and Girls Club
When the coronavirus pandemic left schools, community centers and so many other places closed in the summer of 2020, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Ohio was looking for a way to open in a safe manner to fill a hole in the local community.
A grant from the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation allowed the club to continue its summer programming at the J. Ashburn Jr. Clubhouse in the Hilltop area of Columbus, including educational opportunities as well as a place to go where childcare was available amid the pandemic.
"The Blue Jackets Foundation is the reason that we could stay open," said Addie Natalie, corporate and foundation relations manager of the club. "We opened our summer programming just a few months after the pandemic started, and we were able to say, 'Yes, we can support you,' because of grants like the Blue Jackets Foundation.
"Last school year when we had to open during the school day because the kids in Columbus were 100 percent virtual through March. We had kids come to the clubs here locally and receive two meals and two snacks a day, receive access to technology, and that was because of organizations like the Blue Jackets Foundation."
Ohio State Sen. Jay Hottinger has seen the impact grants like these can have on the community. The Senate's President Pro Tempore serves an area that includes such cities as Newark, Coshocton and New Philadelphia, and he was at the grant reception to help lend his support to an organization he knows makes a difference.
"Particularly with the Boys and Girls Club, they're not always at-risk kids, but they are overwhelmingly at-risk kids, so they are providing a service that gives them a place after school," Hottinger said. "It's providing extra help for academics and just giving them a sense of belonging. I have seen first-hand how it's tremendously impacted young people that I know personally.
"And again with the pandemic and being shuttered for a while, fundraising has been a challenge for nearly everything in the last 18 months. A dollar is a dollar. It's always important but in the last year and a half it's been critically important."
