Coming off a difficult funding year for all nonprofits amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Boys & Girls Club of Noblesville got a huge boost from Ascendium Education Group and Duke Energy Foundation.
“We’ve been adopted by Ascendium, if you will, and it has been a great supporter of ours for a couple of years now,” BGCN Executive Director Becky Terry said. “We’re thrilled to have the support from each of these groups in these times. It’s important to have this kind of support where other funding sources we’ve had have been crippled. To be able to count on Ascendium and Duke Energy is the best-case scenario for us.”
Ascendium Education Group, headquartered in Madison, Wis., upped its annual giving this year with a 3-to-1 corporate match for every employee donation, resulting in a gift of more than $11,000 to the Noblesville club.
Terry said Ascendium asks the club what the needs are for the children.
“Not only did they make the $11,000 donation, but they’ve also done supply drives, snack pack drives and suppled us with hats and gloves for the kids this winter,” Terry said. “Their involvement and dedication for the things we do is wonderful. Of course, that $11,000 comes in a year where everything has been turned upside down by COVID. That donation has helped to keep us in a great position to make sure the kids have what they need while they are here as far as supplies, allowing us to maintain staff levels and help us with extra costs that we’ve incurred when it comes to cleaning and safety as it relates to COVID.”
The club received a $2,500 sponsorship from the Duke Energy Foundation to increase STEM opportunities to underrepresented youth. The grant allows BGCN to offer programs such as claymation, coding, Robotix and Summer Brain Gain.
Terry said the support is new from Duke Energy.
“It’s definitely important we’re increasing those types of opportunities for our youth because we know that’s important, and the focus for a lot of jobs, not only now but probably further in the future,” Terry said. “So, we want to make sure our kids have opportunities now that will lead them to do bigger and better things and potentially lead to career paths.”
