Fundraising for Bradenton mission continues in Lakewood Ranch

When Lakewood Ranch's Bob Smith calls you to donate to the Stillpoint Mission in Bradenton, he isn't offering a chance to win a Mercedes, an elegant dinner or a day trip on a yacht.

Smith just wants your money.

"Feeding people has to be the most fundamental thing to do," Smith said.

In today's world of inventive fundraisers, Smith admits he thought it was somewhat crazy when he first started asking his friends for donations in 2012. He expected some of his six golfing buddies to be rather offended.

They weren't. The first year he had $1,500 and it snowballed from there. Going into this, the effort's 10th year, Smith has collected $131,833 through the years. Last year's total was a record $32,705 from another record 83 donors.

Smith knows the challenge this year with many of his donors being effected by the pandemic. Still, he says he is chasing $32,706.

He wants his donors to know how important the donations are to the poor who use Stillpoint Mission. Last year's donation by Smith and friends was 13% of Stillpoint's total annual income. The mission gets no government or corporate support and no help from the Patterson Foundation.

'We are feeding people who can't speak English," Smith said. "They have no job. What do see when I go there? The poorest of the poor. Haitian refugees."

He noted the mission needs more help than ever. The mission served an all-time high of 28,250 families last year. Besides giving away food, diapers and essentials, the mission's cinderblock building needs major capital improvements, such as a new roof, flooring and replacement of exterior doors. The mission has no paid staff and its a 501c3 nonprofit so donations are tax deductible.

Each year Smith tries to expand his list of donors and he said very seldom has he had someone tell him to get lost.

"I've gotten less than 10 negative comments over the years," he said.

His effort amazes Stillpoint CEO and President Gene Tischer.

"It's been tremendous," Tischer said. It's every other year now for the Giving Challenge, so Bob helps us carry through."

The pandemic has increased demand on the mission and made resources harder to find.

"We've been luck we've been able to survive," Tischer said. 

Tischer does reason that some residents might not have gone out to restaurants the past year like they normally would, so perhaps they have a few more dollars to give to the poor. He said Smith acts as the mission's advocate, cheerleader and booster.

"We don't have any professional funding effort Tischer said.

Tischer, who is 77, said the mission passes out everything it gets and now with the COVID-19 pandemic, it is doing it through windows because the mission is too small to open to the public with safety protocols in place. The mission has had to shut down the clothing part of the effort, although on St. Patrick's Day it had a special "shopping" day for clothes in the mission parking lot.

He noted the mission is the only place in the area where the poor can go to get a week's worth of diapers. 

Tischer wanted to mention Meals on Wheels Plus Manatee, the Food Bank of Manatee County and Lakewood Ranch grant writer Karen Allen as being Godsends during a difficult time.

Stillpoint has had a hard time using its 80 volunteers with the new streamlined system through the windows. Smith is a 72-year-old diabetic so he hasn't been able to volunteer as he has in previous years.

"We are blessed with more volunteers than we can use," Tischer said. "We have volunteers wanting to come back."