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Seventh grant announce See the press release for more details.
CART Fund Day proclaimed
CART Named SC Angel
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This makes the total CART grants $1,600,000.
Mark Sanford
Governor of the state of South Carolina
Above, Rotarians from District 6920 join CART grants chairman Jack Bass in presenting Dr. Small with UCLA's check.
On Friday, July 23 a
delegation of six Rotarians from the Carolinas and Georgia plus four of
their spouses attended a Symposium honoring The CART Fund in
Philadelphia.
The event was scheduled to follow the closing day of an International
Conference on Alzheimer's Research so that the scientists participating
and/or attending could be present. "It was for me one of the most
memorable events of my almost 38 years in Rotary," said CART
Treasurer Roger Ackerman. It was planned by and CO-chaired by Dr. John
Trojanowski and Dr. Sam Gandy with assistance of four of CART's
grant recipients.
The Symposium included research reports from eight of our nation's top
Alzheimer's scientists who all were generous in their praise of The CART
Fund. Many of the comments explained how their research would not have
been possible without CART funding.
A luncheon in honor of the CART representatives followed the
presentations and then the group toured Dr. Gandy's extensive laboratory
at the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University
of which he is the Director.
"I just wish all of you could have shared this special day with us.
It would have made you even prouder than you already are to be a
Rotarian. Your generous support of CART has truly made a
difference," said Ackerman.
May 4, 2004 -- At the annual meeting of the CART Board of
Directors in Columbia, SC, the University of Connecticut Health Center was
announced as the recipient of its fifth grant in the amount of $250,000.00 for
research that will take place over the next two years.
Dr. Robert Reenan, principal Investigator of this research, was on hand to
receive the award and check.
The University of Connecticut was the unanimous choice of the three scientists
who reviewed all of the applications and reported their findings in a conference
call with the CART Grants Committee chaired by Dr. Jack Bass of the Hilton Head
Rotary Club. Initially their were 34 research centers who applied by submitting
a synopsis of their proposal. The advisory group of scientists chaired by Dr.
Sam Gandy selected 12 of the 34 institutions to receive invitations to apply and
from these Connecticut was the clear choice. Dr. Gandy stated that the
applications were outstanding.
This brings to $1.1 million total grants made by the CART Fund.
Above - left to right are: CART President Von Starkey, Dr. Robert Reenan, Dr. Jack Bass, Grants Chairman, CART Secretary Karen Shore, Past District Governor Jim Puryear, CART Treasurer Roger Ackerman, and Past District Governor Bruce Baker.
The Cart Board of Directors meet in Columbia, SC.
November 19, 2003 -- South Carolina Secretary of State Mark Hammond announced the 2003 Angels and Scrooges List at a news conference held at the State House Auditorium in Columbia.
The annual designation of the best and worst charities as Angels or Scrooges has become a South Carolina tradition, receiving national recognition from news organizations, such as "Fleecing of America" on
NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.
Secretary Hammond stated, "As your new Secretary of State, I am happy to continue this nationally recognized South Carolina tradition One of my duties as your Secretary of State is to guard the dollars you give to charity, and I want you to know that I am very committed to protecting charitable solicitations in South Carolina.
“The Scrooge and Angel lists serve as educational tools for you, the public, and also as a reminder to check it out before you write the check. It is regrettable that stingy organizations seek to take advantage during this time of year, when people's hearts and minds turn to helping those who are less fortunate.
“That is why I feel it so important to remind our citizens to utilize available resources in order to make informed, educated decisions on how to donate their dollars."
Secretary Hammond said the 2003 Angel List recipients were selected because "these organizations were found to be extremely effective at giving a high percentage of their total expenditures directly to programs for their designated cause, their compliance with the S.C. Solicitation of Charitable Funds Act, and their high use of volunteers in their fundraising efforts."
The 2003 Angels List recipients, as announced in alphabetical order, with the percentage given directly to their cause are:
The Rotary CART Fund, from Sumter 99%
Cold War Submarine Memorial Foundation, out of Charleston 98%
Gullah Festival of South Carolina, Inc., from Beaufort 98.6%
My Sister's House, Inc., also from Charleston 86.4%
National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, from Maryland 95.9%
Newberry Opera House Foundation, from Newberry 93.3%
Pickens County Sheriffs Office Foundation 99.7%
Smile Train, Inc., from New York, New York 91.3%
SOS Health Care, Inc., out of Myrtle Beach 87.8%
South Carolina Children's Theatre, from Greenville 89.2%
St. Luke's Free Medical Clinic, from Spartanburg 84.4%
"To all of our Angels, on behalf of the people of South Carolina, I want to say thank you. Your tireless efforts enrich the lives of those in your community, and inspire us to keep a generous and giving spirit year round," said Hammond.
The annual Scrooge List is based on the charitable organization's failure to spend a decent percentage of their expenditures on actual programs, their high use of paid (professional) fundraisers, and their presence in our state.
The 2003 Scrooge List, as announced in alphabetical order, with the percentage of funds actually given to the causes they represent:
A Child's Wish, of Sarasota, Florida 4.1%
American Association of State Troopers, Inc., of Tallahassee, Florida 15%
American Relief Association, of Phoenix, Arizona 2.1%
Children's Wish Foundation International, Inc., of Atlanta, Georgia 38.5%
Committee for Missing Children, Inc., of Lawrenceville, Georgia 9.5%
Disabled and Retired Police Officers Educational Fund, Inc., of Niceville, Florida 1.2%
Humane Society of the U.S. Wildlife Land Trust, out of Washington DC 17.3%
Shiloh International Ministries, of Laverne, California 8%
South Carolina Police Officers Association, out of Conyers, Georgia 0.8%
Vietnow National Headquarters out of Rockford, Illinois 4.7%
July 14, 2003 -- CART Treasurer Roger Ackerman calls July 14 a "red letter day" for CART, as The CART Fund exceeded $ 1 million in receipts.
"In anticipation of this major accomplishment, the CART Board of Directors at their annual meeting informally pledged to raise the second million much faster than the first," said Ackerman.
The Board of Directors guarantees that 100 percent of CART monies goes to research. Board approved expenses are paid from interest income, operating much in the same manner as The Rotary Foundation.
"We have incurred expenses of only $6,395 since July 1999, which represents only 14 percent of the interest income we have received," said Ackerman. "The remainder of our interest income has also gone to research. Individual members of the Sumter (S.C.) Rotary Club provided approximately $5,000 in cash and in-kind services to cover start-up costs in the initial three years of operation."
April, 2003 -- Each week, Rotarians from clubs throughout North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia empty their pockets of loose money in the hopes that their individual donations will, collectively, bring about a different kind of change. Recently, officials from Rotary districts in the three states awarded a research grant of $250,000 to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine for their work on the prevention of oxidative stress damage — "brain rust" — present in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease.
With the award of this grant, Rotarians will have given over $850,000 since 1999 from their Coins for Alzheimer's Research Trust (CART) fund for the research and cure of Alzheimer's and Alzheimer's-related diseases.
"Funding from sources like the Rotarians allow us to jump-start scientific research on the many targets that we think are the molecular pathways to curing Alzheimer's," said John Trojanowski, MD, Ph.D., director of Penn's Alzheimer's Disease Center. "It is remarkable that just a few citizens can band together to recognize a need and, with deliberation and foresight, deliver major awards on the level of a large foundation or government agency."
According to Trojanowski, Penn received the award primarily because of the work of Domenico Pratico, MD, assistant professor in Penn's Department of Pharmacology. His work on isoprostanes, fatty acids that are formed as the result of free radical damage, have opened up a new avenue of promising research in which drugs created to prevent oxidative stress may halt Alzheimer's.
"Funding is a real limiting factor, and the Rotarians are indeed taking a visionary approach in seeking out funding projects at the preliminary stages of research," said Trojanowski. "While I cannot say just how much it will cost to cure Alzheimer's, research in the last decade has identified many compelling and novel drug targets. And the faster we pursue each one through increased investment in drug discovery, the faster we will get to meaningful therapies." - Article abstracted with permission of Greg Lester; Science Writer at the Department of Public Affairs PENN Medicine
