Welcoming 2017

The AFF hosted 175 guests at our December 22nd Social Event, in which we partnered with The Red Hook Faculty Association, The Red Hook Harvest Group and The Red Hook Public Library. Together, and thanks to the generosity of so many within the Red Hook community and beyond, we fundraised $9765 for the underserved youth of the community and set the stage for an engaging, uplifting, and relationship-building 2017. We look forward to how our relationship with the Community Center, the venue for December's event, will provide future opportunities for local giving initiatives by the AFF, as well as the general collaboration of many engaged Red Hook residents and community groups. We look forward to a yearly event that will allow us to celebrate the bonds formed in our community, and fundraise for those most in need. 

Our list of goals for this coming year include partnering with the Community Center Board in assisting their program development for elder needs in Red Hook, as well as strengthening our ties with our partner organizations listed above. An important area of our mission still left relatively untapped, we are most interested in establishing a transportation initiative that will bring programs to the elderly in assisted living facilities, or bringing the elderly to programs developed by the Community Center Board or other organizations, such as the Public Library. We encourage those in the community to reach out to us with your ideas about how best to meet our mission locally and what needs are most pressing or overlooked.

To our class of 2015 ambassadors, we extend enormous thanks for initiating the foundation's footprint across the country. Our inaugural class of ambassadors have been exemplary in their personal advocacy for the past two years, and many will oversee the implementation of grants into 2017. Our 2016 and 2017 ambassador classes (15 in individuals) will follow in the original ambassadors' footsteps, and over the next year establish connections with local agencies for which they will advocate for come the fall. We look forward to seeing the new connections and advocacy roles that these classes of ambassadors take on all across the country. 

Delivering on our mission statement has been a sizable task, and will continue to be, but with our early successes in 2015 and 2016, there is every reason to believe we will deliver again in 2017. There is so much more that any group or organization must contemplate in reaching its full potential - we are no different. We rely on all of our personal and connected bonds with Red Hook, its community members, and our ambassadors to embrace all our potential for giving, advocacy, and growth within the next year. 

The Year Ahead: Fall 2016 Updates

The Ascienzo Family Foundation is happy to have Barbara Rhynders, a second grade teacher from Mill Road Elementary School, join our Board of Directors. She brings valued interest in the Red Hook community and a deep commitment to excellence in education to our foundation. We look forward to her contributions in coordinating plans for our future growth.

We're excited to display a new feature to the website that focuses on our grants extended last year. Aside from the formal Final Grant Reports that each grantee organization is required to file with us, our Ambassadors will be including some thoughts on their advocacy and photos of those impacted by our grants. The AFF is proud of the advocacies carried out by our class of 2015 ambassador group. Their stories and some grantee images will illustrate the connections that make our foundation unique.
Please check out their stories as we share them on our website.

Beginning November 1st, the Class of 2016 Ambassador Group will be sending us applications for grant causes in their neighborhoods. As with the initial grant cycle last year, the Board of Directors is looking forward to reviewing those possibilities. We also anticipate that many members of the 2015 Class will apply for grants this cycle as well, perhaps continuing their involvement with organizations they advocated for in the past, or coming to the Foundation with new programs and goals. The number of communities we now impact is growing, a large number in the northeast corridor and a few out west. We take pride in the great work that our volunteers have done, are doing, and are looking to do in the future.

The local BackPack Program that was initiated last year in the elementary schools at Mill Road has been extended this year to include both the Linden Avenue Middle School and Red Hook High School. Some 45 students from all schools in the Red Hook District during the year will be served. Finally, we're excited to partner locally with a number of wonderful organizations in creating a Community Social at the end of the year on December 22nd. We're thrilled to plan for an event that will serve a number of purposes:

• i) Embrace the spirit of community;

• ii) Highlight approved grants from our 2015 and 2016 Ambassador classes while introducing a new cohort of Ambassadors for 2017;

• iii) Raise monies for local RH programs that local advocacy groups are presently supporting - or are creating - that share in our mission's spirit. Those groups include the Red Hook Faculty Association, a local advocacy group known as the Red Hook Harvest, and the Red Hook Public Library.

The Community Center that will host this end-of-year social is being created to coordinate inter-generational programs bringing together the youth of RH with the elder population. We can't think of a better way to assist in the promotion of such an endeavor than with the event as described above on December 22nd. The AFF is underwriting the cost of the evening, as plans are ongoing for donor participation and the evening's activities.

As always, We're Thinking of You and how you make a difference,
The AFF Board of Directors

A Year in Review: Looking to 2016

The Ascienzo Family Foundation is proud to announce the distribution of over $53,000 to agencies and organizations throughout the United States thanks to the advocacy of our core of Ambassadors, as well through those local partnerships we created in the fall of 2015.

At the heart of our mission are those individuals whose volunteerism and/or support for community building was addressed this past December. Ten of our ambassadors applied for and were granted funding for a wide range of educationally based programs that will serve the needs of many in 2016. Most of them were present at our 2nd Annual Dinner held on December 22nd at which they outlined their grant application amid a guest crowd of some 50 people. In addition, we celebrated our partnership with the Red Hook Central Schools and the BackPack Program serving the food needs of 21 students from the Mill Road Elementary School.  And finally, representatives of the Red Hook Faculty Association were present to commemorate the funding of food vouchers for those needy families that were assisted during the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday Seasons.  

The Directors and I are thrilled to have made such a commitment in our first year and anticipate an equally dynamic year in 2016 on a number of fronts.  As we study the efficacy of the 2015 grants with our inaugural group of Ambassadors, we will coordinate with our new Class of 2016 Ambassadors policy and protocol that will allow for a similar set of grant experiences that the Class of 2015 enjoyed. The Class of 2016 was introduced at the December 22nd awards dinner, each speaking of their excitement in working with the Ascienzo Family Foundation. We will continue to network locally, attending civic meetings, establishing contact with both individuals and professionals interested in our mission, particularly in the area of elder care. With 20 active Ambassadors, our goal in 2016 is to expand our reach in sustaining our mission, both in the communities our ambassadors reside, as well as in Red Hook.

Thinking of You,

Nick A.   

New Updates for a New Season

Almost a year since incorporating, the Ascienzo Family Foundation is anticipating the culmination of its first grant cycle. We will act on reviewing those grant applications in November 2015, extending grant awards and recognition during the month of December and at our 2nd Annual Foundation Dinner.  Our first ambassador group is currently submitting their requests based on affiliations, civic engagement, and advocacy within their respective communities.

In addition, we have pursued an initiative close to our hearts and our beginnings - local partnerships in the Foundation’s home community of Red Hook, NY. Partnerships with the Regional Food Bank and the Red Hook Faculty Association will assist in providing meals for both children in our schools and families within the Red Hook community. Efforts to assist the elderly and to establish/support programs in pursuit of our educational goals are ongoing.

As we look forward to solidifying those local initiatives as 2015 closes, we’re just as eager in preparing to extend 12 invitations to prospective ambassadors for the 2016 grantmaking year. The 25 or so ambassadors hopefully working with us next year will enable a greater reach of our mission in assisting those in need. Ideas, comments, and suggestions are all well received. Please email those thoughts to ascienzofamilyfoundation@gmail.com.

A listing of grant recipients will accompany our next update in late November. We extend our gratitude to all who have shown support and interest in our mission over this exciting, evolving first year!

Thinking of You,
Nick A.

Background: Inspiration Behind the Ascienzo Family Foundation

Each spring for the last 20 years I've challenged my graduating seniors to compile a list of goals to share with friends and loved ones for motivation and guidance in reaching those goals. I took my own advice in the spring of 2014 and began the formation of a family foundation. That advice was buoyed by the significant influence of two former students; “daughters I never had” who unwittingly shaped my vision in the foundation’s birth.  

Additionally, whether through friendship, a professional relationship at school, or through the dynamic of other student-teacher interactions, I've also been energized by many other people who’ve made a difference in this undertaking. The impact of personal connection is a driving force in any vibrant community and those connections I’ve experienced over the years in Red Hook have been numerous, enriching, and engaging. In an effort to maintain both personal connection and community prosperity, I’ve envisioned an ambassador affiliation with my foundation that will serve local communities. Former students, acting in their ambassador roles, would appeal to the foundation for grants to assist their local agencies/organizations in poverty alleviation, educational needs for the less fortunate, or elder care. The Red Hook Community has played a significant role in who I am and has been the home of many outstanding students throughout the years. Their good standing in their own locales will be called upon to foster my foundation’s mission.

 I’m humbled by the efforts, time commitments, and generous monetary contributions so many of us every day are involved with, as we make a difference. My ultimate goal is to provide resources for others in various communities through my ambassador group, that with appropriate guidance from my Board of Directors, may continue in perpetuity. Making a difference in anyone's life is easier when you have the encouragement from those around you. I trust that my student ambassadors, directors, and other contributors will motivate me and The Ascienzo Family Foundation in serving their own communities in countless ways.

- Nick A.