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Out Of The Woods

Posted by Admin on Oct 28, 2016 in Families In Need, Helping Families, Special Events | 0 comments

Wednesday, November 9th from 4-10pm join us at Big Apple Pizza in Fort Pierce to help out St. Lucie Deputy Chief School Security Mark Woods. He was badly burned and needs out help. He has helped us, now let’s help him! 100% of all food & beverage sales including tips and salaries, auction items & raffle ticket sales will be donated to the Woods family....

Weaving a Web of Healing for Maddie Lane

Posted by The Vanduzer Foundation on Aug 8, 2016 in Current Events, Families In Need, Helping Families | 0 comments

Ten year-old Maddie Lane Demers loves Spiderman and the color purple. Until a few months ago, her world revolved around cheerleading with her pals from the Renegades, enjoying time with her family and friends, and loving Spiderman and purple. Then a diagnosis of a very rare form of bone cancer changed everything for Maddie Lane and her family. Now it’s traveling back and forth to Cleveland Clinic and a regimen of needles, blood tests, and treatments to battle multicentric osteogenic sarcoma and tumors trying to take over her tiny body. In addition to altering everything Maddie and her family knew as normal, this insidious disease is taking a huge toll financially for the family, and they need some love and support from the community. On Wednesday, August 24th, the Van Duzer Foundation will host an evening of fun and family to support Maddie Lane and her family at Big Apple Pizza in Fort Pierce at 2311 South 35th Street, directly across from Indian River State College. The fun will begin at 4 p.m. and go until 10 p.m., and there will be bounce houses, music courtesy of Traxx Entertainment, laughter, and loads of fun and support for Maddie Lane and this family enduring a difficult time. Maddie’s friends from the Renegades Cheer Team will be on hand providing personalized cheers for donors and the cheerleaders and football team will host a bake sale to help raise funds for the treatments to battle Maddie’s illness. And the awesome staff from Relentless Salon will be providing clipper cuts, bangs trimming and braiding to help Maddie and her family, too. As always with a Van Duzer Foundation fundraiser, one hundred percent of all food and beverages sold will be given to the family, and everyone working on the evening of a fundraiser donates salary, tips, and time for an all-volunteer evening to show the power of community support. You’re going to be hungry that night anyway – why not make your meal count for something special and show a little love and support for a family in...

Dolphins DB Michael Thomas Aims to impress on field and off

Posted by The Vanduzer Foundation on Aug 6, 2016 in Helping Families | 0 comments

DAVIE — The term professional football player describes Michael Thomas but doesn’t define him. It never will. He’s the type of athlete who holds a summer football camp that teaches kids how to score — on the SAT. His social involvement is such that Congress can’t agree on much but summoned him to Capitol Hill this summer to present him with the President’s Volunteer Service Award. Defensive back aims to impress on field and off photo Allen Eyestone Dolphins safety Michael Thomas, on violence by and against police: ‘It’s terrible. Nobody wants to see it.’ (Allen Eyestone / The Palm Beach Post) And even though Thomas, a special teams captain and defensive back, is fighting to impress a new coaching staff on the Dolphins under the broiling South Florida sun, it hasn’t blinded him from another battle. “Enough’s enough,” Thomas said of violence by and against police. “We’re tired of this.” It’s an issue close to Thomas through his role in philanthropist Scott Van Duzer’s The First Step, a movement whose service to underprivileged youth was working toward “bridging that gap” between kids and cops — even before this string of fatalities, Thomas said. Defensive back aims to impress on field and off photo Allen Eyestone Dolphins safety Michael Thomas (31) talks with fellow defensive back Isa Abdul-Quddus at training camp in Davie. (Allen Eyestone / The Palm Beach Post) His first step toward a solution: “It has to be both sides, getting in that community and creating a relationship.” Some athletes won’t touch such hot-button issues. Thomas can’t avoid it. “Just being a human being, period, seeing people getting mistreated or senseless killing, regardless of which side it’s on — that’s tough,” said Thomas, 27. “It’s terrible. Nobody wants to see it. Defensive back aims to impress on field and off photo This is the proclamation Dolphins defensive back Michael Thomas received from President Obama for his community service. “But I will say as an African-American man, just seeing either the profiling of people that look like me or are my age, and the senseless killings of people that look like me or are my age, that’s tough.” During a “whirlwind” summer that included earning an MBA from the University of Miami, Thomas attended the ESPYs in Los Angeles, where Dwyane Wade and LeBron James opened the program by imploring both sides to stop the violence. Now, Thomas has the spotlight. “As an African-American man — or any man who has a platform — you’ve got to speak positively,” Thomas said of why he chooses to speak out. “You’ve got to speak about things in existence. I have a great relationship with law enforcement. Obviously, I’m an African-American male, so anytime injustice like that happens in my community, I’m affected by it.” Defensive back aims to impress on field and off photo U.S. Rep Michael Thomas? The Dolphins’ defensive back tries out the office of Alcee Hastings in Washington. Gun violence hit close to home with the shooting death this summer of former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith after a traffic accident. Smith had participated in the NFL-backed MBA program at UM with Thomas. They did projects together, shared visions of the future together. The last time they spoke, Smith was urging Thomas to launch his...

Hometown Hero Takes the First Step

Posted by Admin on Jun 6, 2016 in Current Events, Press Room, Special Events | 0 comments

Jacksonville native Samuel Barrington has decided to take the First Step. Long known for his prowess on the field and his philanthropic efforts off it, the much-acclaimed linebacker for the Green Bay Packers who most-recently received the Pop Warner 2016 Humanitarian Award, is teaming up with a small, but mighty group of volunteers and community leaders in implementing a program that invites everyone in the community to take the First Step in creating a better, stronger, and more cohesive community. And you can join the fun and take the First Step, too, on Saturday, June 11th, at 1 p.m., at Justina Road Elementary School Park. State Representative Mia L. Jones will join Barrington, State Representative Larry Lee, Junior, St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara, Christina Phillips president of Precision Sports Management Group and a few surprise guests for a free afternoon filled with fun, games, and community-building. The First Step program had a humble start last year a couple hundred miles south of Jacksonville in Fort Pierce, Florida. In an effort to create a safer community in Garden Terrace, an area of Fort Pierce once known as “Little Vietnam” because of the violence, Scott Van Duzer, a pizza shop owner widely-publicized for bear-hugging President Barack Obama and St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara started visiting the Garden Terrace every Tuesday afternoon. The pair brought a football, a few friends, and a few pizzas. They asked for nothing except some company on the long-neglected playground. Before long, the pair had been joined by dozens of kids of all ages from the community and other community members who also wanted to take the First Step towards a stronger community. Click Here To Read...