Wycliffe Charities Foundation Treasurer Harriet Ross, Vice President Gale Horowitz and Past President Sue Webber.
Community Raises Money For Many Great Causes By Jack Lowenstein
The Wycliffe Charities Foundation has been a fixture for more than 20 years, putting one community’s philanthropic efforts to work for nonprofit organizations across the western communities and beyond. “The people of Wycliffe are very generous. They sponsor a number of events that we hold during the year,” Wycliffe Charities Foundation President Gerry Ranzal said. “It’s all very exciting. If you go to the different charities we sponsor, and you talk to the people that they help, and the love and respect and gratitude that they convey to you, it is a wonderful feeling.” Today, the Wycliffe Charities Foundation continues to honor the goals of supporting community nonprofits serving central Palm Beach County. The foundation has signature annual events it continues to hold in order to raise
money for the long list of charities it donates to every year. “That’s an ongoing thing all year, so even though the golf tournament is in March and the shredding is in April, and we have raffles in January, the tributes are collected all year,” Treasurer Harriet Ross said. “That’s how I started out on the board, just doing the tributes for about three or four years, and then I elevated to the treasury.” This year, the charity broke its record for annual money raised — $158,500. Sue Webber, past president of the organization, said the foundation has donated about $1.8 million over the past 20 years to the nonprofit organizations it supports. “We embrace the charities, and they embrace us,” Vice President Gail Horowitz said. The foundation’s annual golf tour-
nament continues to be its largest event of the year. The tournament hosts approximately 300 people who support the foundation’s mission. “It takes all of us,” Horowitz said. “It’s not one person. It’s not two people. It’s the whole community that does it, coming together and being able to pull it off… every year, and saying, ‘Are we going to be able to do it?’ ‘Can we do it?’ ‘Is it going to be ok?’ And, every year, it gets bigger and better.” The Wycliffe Charities Foundation has the world “charity” in it, but it’s the word “foundation” that speaks more to its mission. “We’re really not a charity. We are a foundation,” Webber said. “Again, making us unique, because it’s the community, and I have to say that the Wycliffe staff who work here are the most generous people. So, this is truly a whole comwellington the magazine | september 2017
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