Lightning honor local educational foundations as Community Heroes

TAMPA BAY - The Tampa Bay Lightning, continuing its long-standing tradition of honoring those making local community contributions through the Community Heroes Program, presented by Jabil, at its games, has elected to donate $200,000 to local charities for each 2020 Stanley Cup Playoff round in which the team competes. For the Eastern Conference Final, the organization, led by owner Jeff Vinik and his wife Penny, is honoring education-focused heroes in the seven local counties and school districts in which our season ticket members live. The donation will go to each educational foundation to provide classroom grants and school supplies to ensure teachers and their students are prepared for the school year ahead.

The educational foundations of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, Manatee, Polk and Sarasota Counties will receive their respective donations from the Lightning Foundation and the Lightning Community Heroes program, to go towards providing micro-grants to teachers to help supplement the out-of-pocket costs they incur while keeping their classroom stocked with essentials. Teachers can end up spending hundreds of their own dollars, and with the impact of COVID-19 these expenses are only projected to increase.
These educational foundations serve more than 400,000 students combined and have hosted traditional, as well as virtual supply drives for the underserved students in their communities in preparation for the 2020-21 school year. Some have also opened a free teacher market, where three times per month, educators can pick up any necessary supplies for their classrooms and students. These foundations are providing funding and resources to make educational opportunities for their teachers and students possible.
Collectively, these educational foundations become the 409th Lightning Community Hero since Jeff and Penny Vinik introduced the Lightning Community Heroes program in 2011-12 with a $10 million, five-season commitment to Tampa Bay area non-profits. That initial pledge has since been increased and extended. Through today's announcement, in total, the Lightning Foundation has granted $21.05 million to more than 750 nonprofits in the Greater Tampa Bay area.