Preds Owners Make Family Commitment to Give Back to Nashville Community

When the Grane family made the decision to make a significant monetary impact in the Nashville community, it wasn't just the heads of the household who had a say.

Recent investors in Predators Holdings, LLC - and parents to Isabelle, William and Patrick - Bryan and Stephanie Grane wanted their children to play a role in the determination as to which local organizations should receive a life-changing gift.

On Tuesday morning, the Granes, in partnership with the Nashville Predators Foundation empowered by SmileDirectClub, announced plans to distribute $300,000 over three years to Middle Tennessee nonprofits. As the first two beneficiaries of the Grane family's generosity, Cottage Cove Urban Ministries and Harvest Hands Community Development Center will each receive $50,000 in funding.

"On behalf of our family, it was a really easy decision for us to join forces with the Predators Foundation," Bryan said Tuesday via video chat. "As a family, one of our core values is to help others, and especially those who are most vulnerable. As we looked at potential charities to partner with, both Harvest Hands and Cottage Cove certainly resonated with our family and our core values."

Isabelle and William then explained why the family felt those two organizations were most deserving of a gift, listing things like faith, education and sports focused toward young people, as items that were most important.

Cottage Cove Urban Ministries offers at-risk youth a safe, caring place to go after school or during school breaks with the goal of seeing children learn through educational instruction, spiritual guidance and unconditional love.

With the funding, Cottage Cove will improve and expand its food and educational material delivery to families, who have been impacted by the COVID-19 health crisis. Additionally, upgrades will be made to each of their two locations in preparation for a return to providing on-site learning opportunities, life skills and art classes and daily programs.

"We love that the Nashville Predators have been proactive, and as Bryan just expressed, the Foundation is second to none," Cottage Cove Executive Director Brent MacDonald said. "It's not just us going out and looking for someone to help support. This is a partnership, and we enjoy this partnership with Nashville Predators Foundation and just how active they are in the community. And we really couldn't do what we do on an every-day basis without people like the Nashville Predators and what the Grane family has done for us."

Harvest Hands Community Development Center is a Christ-centered, holistic community development working to further education, healthy living, spiritual formation and economic development in South Nashville. With the belief that neighborhood revitalization begins with investing in the lives of kids, Harvest Hand offers after school programs and sports, while also employing local high schoolers at their social enterprise coffee shop, Humphreys Street.

The Grane family's funding will support operating expenses for the Harvest Hands community center and coffee shop, wages for the students, who are employed by Humphreys Street, and the purchase of 15 laptops for high schoolers, who are studying remotely.

"One of the things that is essential for us is that we have partners, people, who provide a blessing," Harvest Hands Executive Director Brian Hicks said. "The partnership that we have with [the Preds] really multiplies our ability to reach our students and our families because we couldn't do that if the students didn't have the technology, didn't have those resources. We always talk about being on a journey together for wholeness, and the Preds Foundation has really wrapped their arms around the city… You all make an investment in those who are most needed, use the resources that you all gain to give back, and that's the way it should work. Giving away resources and investing them in the community shows that you put your money where your mouth is, so thank you all for doing that."

With the first $100,000 of the Grane family's donation being split between the two charities, $200,000 is set to be allocated over the next two years to continue to help those in Music City who need it most. And now that their family is a part of the Predators family, the Granes intend on giving back as often as they can.

"We've been very blessed as a family, and I think very early on we realized that blessings can be null if you don't share with others," Bryan Grane said. "There's a commitment, both to my wife and myself, to truly be benevolent and to care for others as we've been cared for in our lives, and we've seen the positive impact of family and our family members. We also have been through tougher times in life, and we've benefited from others extending a kind and considerate and a hopeful hand to us. Through those tougher times that we faced as a family, we've now been able to see some blessings and see a sun come out around the horizon. It's something that's etched in our memory, and that compels us to continue to give.

"For us, to play a really small part in the local community's efforts to bridge between persons, and to again be a force of good, it was a really easy decision for us to partner with the Predators Foundation."