TAMPA, FL – The Tampa Bay Lightning honored Michael DiBrizzi as the Lightning Community Hero this evening during the first period of tonight’s game against the Boston Bruins. DiBrizzi, who received a $50,000 donation from the Lightning Foundation and the Lightning Community Heroes program, presented by Jabil, will donate the money to Camelot Community Care.
DiBrizzi always knew he wanted to work with and make a difference in the lives of children, and he has done so over the past 29 years in Tampa Bay’s child welfare and mental health system. Over the years, he has worked to improve the lives of abused and neglected children and struggling families through developing new programs, growing funding, improving services, and bringing together stakeholders to focus on the needs of children in the community. Since 2007, DiBrizzi has served as the CEO of Camelot Community Care, a nonprofit whose mission is to serve children and families experiencing abuse, neglect, behavioral health, and substance abuse issues. During that time, he has developed programs that have led to over 3,000 children being adopted and thousands of foster children being safely returned to their biological family.
The funds from tonight’s grant will be used to continue to further and expand the mission of Camelot Community Care. Specifically, the funds would be used to support the Fair Futures Mentoring Model, an impactful mentoring program for former foster youth. Camelot Community Care has developed in-house programs to recruit, train and support mentors so they can effectively serve as mentors for former foster youth. Over the next 18 months, their hope is to recruit 25 new mentors.
DiBrizzi became the 557th Lightning Community Hero since Jeff and Penny Vinik introduced the Lightning Community Hero program in 2011-12 with a $10 million, five-season commitment to the Tampa Bay community. Through tonight’s game, in total, the Lightning Foundation has granted $30.22 million to nearly 750 unique nonprofits in the Greater Tampa Bay area. During the summer of 2021, the Viniks announced that the Community Hero program will give away another $10 million over the next five seasons.
