Cummings Properties Gifts Support Salem Academy Charter School

Salem Academy Charter School became the beneficiary of three gifts of $1,000 each from Cummings Properties this week.  Through its Employee Directed Giving program, Cummings Properties invited its valued full time employees to designate a local charity of their choice to receive a $1,000 gift in the employees’ honor.  Cummings distributed $326,000 through this program to non-profits that are making a meaningful difference in the communities where the employees live.

Salem Academy Charter School received these gifts at the recommendation of Ana Pinto, Carlos Soto, and Ryan Copley.  With Cummings Properties approval to use the gifts in the area of greatest need, the school has applied them to the current fund raising effort to furnish the new Physical Education Annex.  With the Salem Boys and Girls Club suddenly moving from its nearby location, Salem Academy was left in September with no physical education facilities.  Shetland Park came to the rescue with a 9,000 square foot warehouse space, but the school now needs to furnish the new facility with all forms of athletic, fitness, physical education, and dance equipment.

This new need coordinated nicely with the purposes of the Reach the Beach fund raiser, and so the Annex effort began with $7,500 in hand toward a $20,000 goal.  The Cummings gifts brought the total to $10,500, and new gifts in response to the on-line Annex fund raising effort on the school’s web site have brought the total to $12,000 toward the goal.  The on-line Annex fund raiser offers donors the opportunity to choose a gift such a dodgeball at $6, a basketball at $7.25, a yoga mat at $61, a floor hockey goal at $65, or a ballet barre for the dance studio at $110, place it in a shopping basket, go to check out, and make the gift with a credit card.  All investment in the Physical Education Annex will be moved to the new Arts and Athletics Center when it is completed next year.

Carlos Soto presents Cummings Properties gift to Executive Director Sean O’Neil