Stories From Organizations

Silver Lake Integrated Preschool

The Silver Lake Integrated Preschool (SLIP) Program at Kingston Elementary School provides an enriching preschool setting in which children with disabilities are included in a classroom with typically developing children.

The children with disabilities who participate in this type of program are provided with same age role models for language, fine and gross motor skills and behavior development. Inclusion is learning to live with one another, including those with special needs and varied limitations. The program has over 100 students enrolled, of which 75 percent receive some form of specialized educational/therapeutic services.

At this time the school did not have a playground capable of meeting the special needs of their students. Many of the children who are enrolled in this program have physical and cognitive challenges that make it difficult for them to maneuver through typical play structures. The children often have braces or adaptations to their shoes that make it difficult to access the current play structure on the property.

This deficit in the program is one of the main reasons that the preschool program has not been able to receive accreditation from the National Accreditation of Educational Programs for Young Children (NAEYC).

The Foundation gave a one-time gift to the program to help them retain their accreditation.

A Plymouth Elementary School

An elementary school in Plymouth with 235 students where the majority of the children are below poverty level and are cold and hungry: “Converse has donated boxes of sneakers for the children, but food is a still a huge issue. Although they get a breakfast and lunch at school, they are not provided with snacks from the school and most homes don’t have enough food on the weekends. The cafeteria manager said that Mondays are the worst, they come to school ravenous.”

The Foundation was able to provide the school funding for snacks at school and to be put in their backpacks for home and the weekends.

Wigos for Kiddos

A request from one of the Foundation’s many friends: “On May 16th we are having our annual Wigo De Mayo event to benefit the kids at Boston Children’s Hospital. We have had so much fun at this event and it really makes a difference for these kids on a day to day basis. In addition to providing wigs for children when necessary to make them feel a bit more normal, we have been able to provide them with Chemo Ducks that help them understand their treatments, and numerous iPads, tablets, and PlayStation video game consoles that have been adapted to fit over the hospital beds.

We have of course been able to do this with the help of great organizations and people like you. We were hoping that if the Rizzo Foundation had some extra funds this year you may be able to once again contribute to this event. Please let me know if you would like to talk more about this or need more details regarding the event.”

The Foundation made a significant donation to support this event and has done so every year since they began in 2013.

South Shore Elementary Schools

Local South Shore elementary schools had many children who would not be receiving gifts at Christmas this year.

The Foundation was able to provide gift cards for each child to help them have a more normal Christmas. The message from the schools counselors; “This means that at least 105 children will feel the magic of Santa, all because of you! Thank you!!” says it all.

Plymouth Homeless Task Force

From the Plymouth Task Force that provides shelter and food to the homeless: We still had 2 months of providing a hot meal and sheltering homeless men in religious congregation sites before we close in early April. Although we have bought waterproof, insulated boots for a good percentage of the men, there have been several new people needing our support in the past few weeks.

As of today, we have had 53 different men seeking shelter, some for weeks, some for days. Since boots and socks will be much appreciated by our guests, and the meal costs for about 20 men per night is significant to our volunteers, we are asking the foundation to consider funding the Taskforce for the last 2 months of this winter season.”

The Foundation was able to provide funding for the last two months of the year so the task force could continue their much needed work.

My Brother’s Keeper

My Brother’s Keeper is an organization that helps families with furniture, food and supplies when they move out of shelters and into their own place. They had a good year this year which means that there were more people who needed assistance moving into their own places. We felt that the ability to provide families the freedom to start new with furniture and supplies and a sense of independence, was a very beneficial investment.

The Foundation gave them a donation to support families during their transition.