Manes & Motions Raises $73K at Annual Dinner

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The 14th Annual Manes & Motions Celebrity Waiter Dinner & Auction held at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville recently raised $73,000 to support Middletown’s Manes & Motions Therapeutic Riding Center, a member of the Hospital for Special Care Community. With more than 200 riding sessions each year, the center provides cognitive and physical benefits to children and adults with a wide range of conditions including Autism, Down Syndrome, spinal cord injury, Spina Bifida, brain injury, Cerebral Palsy, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The event included silent and live auctions. Manes & Motions also serves U.S. veterans living with PTSD.

Jr. Apprentice Receives Comcast Grant for Teen Apprenticeship Program

Jr. Apprentice, a program of the Hartford Consortium for Higher Education, recently received a $1,500 grant from Comcast to support its 2013 Teen Apprenticeship Program.

The program selects Hartford Bulkeley High School Juniors and provides them with workplace and career-readiness training and matches them with a local employer for a three-month internship.

Jr. Apprentice seeks to connect Hartford youth with local employers in a teen apprenticeship program that provides exposure, training and career mentorship for in-demand jobs.

The goal is to help participants develop their interests and talents and identify how they can apply them to career opportunities.

Jr. Apprentice will also help to support Comcast’s Internet Essentials program, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive broadband adoption initiative for low-income families.

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Easter Seals Receives $71K Grant from CHEFA

Easter Seals Capital Region & Eastern Connecticut recently received a $71,200 grant from the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority.

The grant will provide support needed to further expand the comprehensive neuropsychological, behavioral, and communication-related services for the diagnosis and treatment of children with autism spectrum disorders and related forms of pervasive developmental disorders.

The CHEFA funds will enable diagnostic services to patients regardless of a family’s ability to pay.

The intensive diagnostic process generally entails 20-plus hours of testing, including cognitive assessment by a neuropsychologist, behavioral evaluation by a psychologist or occupational therapist, and a speech, language and communication assessment by a speech pathologist.

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Liberty Bank Foundation Honored for Summer Youth Employment Initiative

The Liberty Bank Foundation has received awards from the American Bankers Association and the New England Financial Marketing Association for its initiative in marshaling financial resources to support summer youth employment, following a cut in federal funding in 2012.

The American Bankers Association selected Liberty Bank for its Community Commitment Award from a field of 150 national entrants.

Liberty received the Gold Award for Philanthropy from the New England Financial Marketing Association, the organization’s top honor in that category.

Programs successfully operated by the Middlesex Chamber of Commerce and the Eastern Workforce Investment Board in 2011 were expecting that funding cuts would reduce the number of youth served in 2012 by up to 50 percent.

Liberty Bank Foundation sought community partners who were willing to work together to make up the funding deficit. Foundation representatives convened meetings with local government and potential donors in both the Middletown and New London areas to determine interest and availability of funds.g