Atlanta Braves Foundation Awards Nearly $90,000 in Grants to Local Non-Profit Organizations

The Atlanta Braves Foundation awarded grants totaling $87,000 to the following non-profit organizations prior to Friday's Braves game vs. the New York Mets: Atlanta Community Food Bank, Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, Atlanta Track Club, Canine Companions for Independence, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Cobb Christmas, Inc., East Lake Foundation, Latin American Association, L.E.A.D., Inc., Metro Atlanta Project, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Ga., North Metro Miracle League, READing Paws, Inc., Star Struck Foundation, The Auditory-Verbal Center, Inc., The Ron Clark Academy, Tomorrow's Champions, Villages at Carver Family YMCA, and YES! Atlanta.

The Atlanta Braves Foundation grants funds to youth-serving organizations that focus on health, education, and recreation; that have sound financial practices; and whose plans for the requested funds will have a significant impact upon the individuals served by the requesting organization.

Friday night's grant ceremony caps another successful year for the Atlanta Braves Foundation and its community outreach programs. The Foundation was successful in its fundraising efforts in 2008 thanks to the generous support of thousands of fans and community partners. Marquee events and initiatives including the Legacy Brick Paver Program, Atlanta Braves Foundation Weekend and the Third Annual Atlanta Braves Foundation Golf Classic experienced tremendous support and success. Annual fundraisers and ongoing programs including Jerseys Off Our Backs, Brown Bag Bonanza, the 50/50 Raffle and game day silent auctions helped provide additional funds to support the Atlanta Braves Foundation's outreach efforts.

Metro Atlanta youth baseball and softball programs benefited in 2008 from the "Pinch Hitter Grant Fund," an initiative to assist youth baseball and softball organizations in need. The Atlanta Braves Foundation made $12,000 in financial contributions to 12 organizations to help provide relief for lost or stolen equipment, damaged facilities, and uniform shortages.

The Atlanta Braves Foundation is the non-profit arm of the Atlanta Braves that actively supports community organizations and their programs within the metro Atlanta area. Since its inception in 1992, the Atlanta Braves Foundation has provided support to thousands of metro Atlanta based organizations and has contributed more than 2.7 million dollars in financial assistance to the community. Through the generous support of Braves players, employees, sponsors and fans, the Atlanta Braves Foundation continuously strives to improve the quality of life for our youth.

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Students' Project Becomes Georgia Law

When businesses and nonprofits work with Georgia agencies to coordinate relief efforts in times of crisis, they can now be assured some level of liability protection thanks to new legislation that got its start in a Georgia State University College of Law classroom.

The Corporate Good Samaritan Act, as it's informally known, was signed into law earlier this year by Gov. Sonny Perdue as part of House Bill 89 and went into effect July 1.
The provisions of the good Samaritan portion of the law began as a project in Assistant Clinical Professor Sylvia Caley's year-long Health Legislation and Advocacy class in 2006. The law is designed to encourage businesses and nonprofits to coordinate relief efforts with state agencies in a time of emergency, such as widespread storm damage, flooding or disease outbreak. The idea was championed by Gene Matthews, a long-time legal advisor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and, for two years, a faculty fellow at the College of Law.

In Georgia, as in many other states, good Samaritan laws that limit an individual's liability when they render aid in an emergency didn't extend to the business and nonprofit communities. With a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Matthews has sought to change that, setting up the Public/Private Legal Preparedness Initiative at the North Carolina Institute for Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is a senior fellow.

"What I was interested in doing was building partnerships with the private sector around legal preparedness issues," said Matthews. "Without Georgia State's College of Law, this important improvement in preparedness law in the state of Georgia would not have happened," he said.

As part of Caley's class, students work with a nonprofit or government partner to craft legislation that fits the needs of the partner. Caley, who is also director of the Health Law Partnership and co-associate director of the HeLP Legal Clinic, says the students learn the ins and outs of crafting legislation, and about the often-complex manner in which proposed bills become law.

"So much of our law and public policy is created through the legislative process and I think it's important for everyone, particularly law students, to have an understanding of how the process works," she said. "People have different impressions of what goes on under the Gold Dome, but people have to understand they are going to pass laws that affect us."

Lee Gillis and Nichole Hair, who worked on the proposal as students, say crafting the legislation played to each of their interests: Gillis' interest in the legislative process and Hair's in health and public welfare.

"It's tough because it is ultimately going to be legislation," said Hair, who now works for civil defense firm Hall, Booth, Smith & Slover in Atlanta, and has had the opportunity to review proposed legislation as a professional. "If you're going to make law, you want to make a good law," she said.

Gillis, who has also worked on legislation professionally, says the good Samaritan law, in emergencies, extends the same protection enjoyed by state agencies to business partners working on behalf of the agency.

"If you have a group of in-house lawyers, and they don't have this protection, they're more likely to advise their client to sit on their hands," said Gillis, who now practices in Macon with the firm James, Bates, Pope and Spivey. "The bill was designed to help corporations be good Samaritans without making their lead counsels nervous."

Atlanta Braves Foundation Baseball and Softball Equipment Drive Set for June 21 - 22 at Turner Field

The Atlanta Braves Foundation will collect baseball and softball equipment to benefit the Atlanta Braves Baseball Academy's YMCA Junior Braves Youth Baseball League, on June 21 - 22 at Turner Field. The first 200 fans to donate new or used baseball or softball equipment (minimum of two items) or make a $20 cash donation will receive a Braves autographed photo (maximum two photos per family, while supplies last).

Fans can drop off their new and used baseball and softball equipment donations at the Turner Field Main Gates in the Monument Grove area on Saturday, June 21 and Sunday, June 22, from the time gates open until the end of the 2nd inning.

More than 2000 youth play baseball and softball at the Atlanta Braves Baseball Academy. These facilities include four baseball fields, funded by Atlanta Braves players Chipper Jones, Brian Jordan, Mike Hampton, and John Smoltz each of whom contributed $75,000 to the Metro Atlanta YMCA, bringing an eight-acre signature youth sports complex to the heart of the redeveloped Carver community where more than 2000 youth play near Turner Field. Additionally, the Baseball Tomorrow Fund, a joint initiative of Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association, will award a $5,000 grant to The Villages of Carver Family YMCA, home to the Atlanta Braves Baseball Academy.

The Atlanta Braves Foundation is the non-profit arm of the Atlanta Braves that actively supports community organizations and their programs within the metro Atlanta area. Since its inception in 1992, the Atlanta Braves Foundation has provided support to thousands of metro Atlanta based organizations and has contributed more than 2.7 million dollars in financial assistance to the community. Through the generous support of Braves players, employees, sponsors and fans, the Atlanta Braves Foundation continuously strives to improve the quality of life for our youth.

SBA Disaster Assistance Available to Private Non-Profit Organizations in Georgia

PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Small Business Administration announces that certain Private Non-Profit Organizations (PNPs) that do not provide critical services of a governmental nature may be eligible to apply for low interest rate disaster loans. These loans are available as a result of President Bush's Disaster Declaration for Public Assistance resulting from damages caused by severe storms and flooding on May 11 - 12, 2008.

PNPs located in Bibb, Carroll, Crawford, Douglas, Emanuel, Glynn, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Laurens, McIntosh, Treutlen, Twiggs and Wilkinson counties in the State of Georgia are eligible to apply to SBA. Examples of eligible non-critical PNP organizations include, but are not limited to, food kitchens, homeless shelters, museums, libraries, community centers, schools and colleges.

"PNP organizations are urged to contact their county emergency managers to obtain information about local briefings. At the meeting, PNP representatives will provide information about their organization," said Frank Skaggs, Director of SBA Field Operations Center East.

This information will be used to submit a "Request for Public Assistance" which FEMA uses to determine if the PNP provides an essential governmental service and meets the definition of a "critical facility." Based upon that conclusion, FEMA will either refer the PNP to SBA for disaster loan assistance or possibly provide a "Public Assistance" reimbursement grant for eligible costs.

Disaster loan information and application forms may be obtained by calling the SBA's Disaster Assistance Customer Service Center at 1-800-659-2955 (for the hearing-impaired 1-800-877-8339) Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (EDT), emailing our customer service center at disastercustomerservice@sba.gov or by writing to U.S. Small Business Administration, Disaster Assistance Customer Service Center, 130 South Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14202-2463.

The deadline to apply for these loans is July 22, 2008.

For more information about the SBA's Disaster Loan Programs, visit our website at www.sba.gov.

Source: U.S. Small Business Administration