The Upstate NY Empowerment Fund’s 2008 check distribution event yesterday was highlighted by the announcement of top-earning charities. Taking first place by earning back $40,315 from ticket sales to The Turning Stone Resort Championship was the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund of Central New York, Inc. Empowerment Fund Chair Ray Halbritter, right, presented the amount to Carol M. Baldwin, founder, left; and Elizabeth Baldwin, executive director. In Second Year, Championship Helps Raise $228,885 For CharitiesFor the second year in a row, the Turning Stone Resort Championship, a PGA TOUR® event, provided a big boost for almost 100 regional charities through the Upstate New York Empowerment Fund, a community initiative together with the Oneida Nation. The outcome of the second “Tickets for Charity” program was announced at a celebration and check-distribution event held Wednesday, November 12. The charitable component of the Championship, now in its second year, was again one of success, participation, enthusiasm and “good numbers,” according to Empowerment Fund Chair and Nation Representative and CEO Ray Halbritter. This year, the efforts of charity volunteers raised $228,885, Halbritter announced. Those funds, according to charity group estimates, will reach more than 200,000 individuals. A total of 99 charities participated in the ticket-sales program, and the reach of the effort broadened to include organizations across eight counties of Upstate New York, Halbritter said. Together with the amount raised in the first year ($241,804), the Turning Stone Resort Championship has generated close to a half a million dollars ($470,669) for charities, Halbritter noted. While the cash infusion provides nonprofit organizations with much-needed immediate funding, the true measure of the initiative’s success will be illustrated in much more human terms, Halbritter noted. Especially with economic challenges as they are now, the funds will help fulfill vital human services and critical programming. Halbritter noted the money is being used by the charity groups for a variety of uses, including filling food pantries, providing scholarships, building homes, supplying books and materials for early-learning and after-school enrichment programs, and for research dollars and medical services. “These are the things that matter most in communities; taking care of each other, helping our neighbors, making sure that dollars become dreams,” the Nation leader said. The Oneida people “are pleased to be central to this far-reaching community partnership that illustrates how the people of this region benefit most when we find ways to work together,” Halbritter added. Charities enrolled to sell tickets to the event, and, following the end of the tournament, received back 100% of the face value of every ticket they sold following the event. The Top 10-earning charities of the 2008 season are:
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