The Charge
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16th September 2024
When Nonprofits Collide: Stop Cappin Entertainment and the Desire Foundation Collaborate for “Summer Time Lovin” Week
The sounds of water splashing, volunteers cheering and applauding and children shouting fill the Parramore District on a Saturday morning.
Stop Cappin Entertainment, a nonprofit organization owned by UCF student, Evence “Vintage” Eliassaint, volunteered at the Desire Foundation’s kids field day on July 27 where many activities were set up for the children of the area.
“It’s a kids field day going on,” said Victoria Phillips, vice president of Stop Cappin Entertainment. “I’m personally at the hydration station, but they have a lot of sports games, they have football, they have soccer goals set up, and then they have jump rope, corn hole… it’s like the whole nine.”
Alecia Brinson, the volunteer director at the Desire Foundation, said there were even more activities set up for Parramore’s kids to enjoy, including water slides, bounce houses and more.
“Not everyone has the funds to be able to go out to theme parks and stuff like that,” Brinson said. “So we wanted to essentially bring the theme park to them. We just wanted to give the adults a break and just show the kids a good time and have them go home with memories.”
The nonprofits missions merge during their service at the event. According to Stop Cappin Entertainment’s site, part of its mission is “to create impactful and engaging events that unite the community and provide opportunities for personal growth and development through entertainment and service.”
The Desire Foundation’s site conveys similar values in its mission statement which “focuses on enhancing lives, improving the quality of life, and addressing critical needs within the Orlando community.”
According to Kelsey Colombo, the Desire Foundation’s marketing and communication director, the foundation partners primarily with Interstruct Design and Build.
“They have been a huge factor as to why we’re able to do any of this. Foodie Catering is also a big one and I would say for this particular event, we got a lot of assistance and volunteership from Pure Rush Club.”
Members from both organizations said that collaborations between nonprofits are essential.
“If we didn’t have the collaboration with half of the community members we have, the people that just reach out like ‘hey how can I help?’, or can I get some advice from you guys cause I’m trying to do the same thing.’ If we don’t support each other, we can’t do any of this,” Colombo said.
“Even though we’re all different, in some sense, we’re all really the same,“ Eliassaint said. “We all have the same goal. All in all, I love collaboration and I think collaboration is super important because we all have different skills. So if we just bring them all together, oh yeah, we’re gonna change the world.”
Aside from learning how to work with children and doing something that’s outside of your character, Eliassaint said that teamwork is another great skill people acquire while volunteering.
“Everybody is working with each other. I met a lot of people that I’ve just met today and so I think that it’s really important to be able to work with people you’re just going to be able to meet on the spot and build a community,” Eliassaint said.
Members from both organizations shared what they wanted the children and parents of Parramore to take away from field day
“I hope that no matter what else is going on in their life or even their day today that they’re able to remember this and just remember how much fun it was and the positive energy that the people working here gave to them,” Phillips said.
“As far as the children, we’re hoping they take away fun memories. Kids are kids, they just want to have fun. As far as from the parent’s perspective, we’re hoping they take away our heart, where our heart is and what we do.”’
To get involved in either nonprofit, sign ups are available at www.thedesirefoundationinc.org/volunteer and www.stopcappinent.com/.
