Naples Winter Wine Festival

So Rare, So Valuable: This Year’s Wine Selections
Moments We’ll Never Forget
2011 Trend-setters: Chef Lee Hefter, Vintner Tim Mondavi
Touching Tales of Kids Who’ve Been Helped

The Heart of the Matter

Meet some of the kids helped by NCEF funding. BY SPENCER CAMPBELL

People know the naples Winter Wine Festival for its exclusive wine lots, glamorous jaunts to international locales and appearances by some of the most famous chefs and vintners in the world.

But at the heart of it all—the true incentive, really—is the drive to help disadvantaged kids in Collier County.

A recent University of Florida Lastinger Center for Learning study found that Collier County is home to thousands of children lacking essential care and education. The festival has raised a total of $82.5 million since 2001, enabling its charitable arm, the Naples Children & Education Foundation (NCEF), to address those needs.

So before dollars start exchanging hands at this year’s festival, we examine a few of the true beneficiaries of all those millions.  

H.U.G.S.

In 2009, a NCEF study on mental illness returned disturbing results: Nearly 20 percent of Collier’s children may be suffering from undiagnosed and untreated behavioral health issues.

But treating mental health is not as simple as it sounds. “The key word is access,” says David Lawrence Center CEO David Schimmel. “There are lots of obstacles keeping parents from accessing care. There’s a stigma. We need to attack those kinds of things.”

The foundation led that assault by forming a web of local organizations including National Alliance on Mental Illness, David Lawrence Center, Collier Health Services and Youth Haven. The super-group was called Health Under Guided Systems, or H.U.G.S.

“By bringing different organizations together, we’re hoping to provide comprehensive treatment,” festival trustee Anne Welsh McNulty says.

And without this web of service, Riley Norcross, a child of divorce, would have been ignored. Her father, Robert Norcross, noticed after the divorce that Riley fell into a deep depression. He asked the state Department of Children & Families to evaluate her, but their counseling sessions came back without a diagnosis. Finally, an evaluation by H.U.G.S. determined she has severe separation anxiety. Although Robert isn’t happy about his daughter’s affliction, they can now begin the process of healing.

“It’s a great relief for me. I’ve been fighting the state for two years, and [DCF] did nothing,” Robert says. “NAMI and H.U.G.S. brought Riley to the forefront.”  

The program achieved this due to a $603,350 grant provided by NCEF. This allows the program to conduct screenings across the area—using a 32-foot H.U.G.S.-mobile and a furry mascot named Huggy Bear—and directing those who require treatment to participating agencies.

“There’s not much funding out there for children’s mental health. The Florida government is going backward in terms of funding,” says Schimmel.

In five months, H.U.G.S. has screened more than 600 children younger than five for emotional and behavioral problems, according to Kathryn Leib Hunter, executive director of NAMI of Collier County, identifying 135 who would have missed treatment. Another 500 children will be screened by June.

“It brought focus to children’s mental health,” Schimmel says. “It brought people together and identified kids to get them the help they need.”

ABLE Academy

On the Sunday following Thanksgiving, Marcia David’s youngest son, Drew, 10, came down with a stomach virus. It may seem strange that she was proud when Drew said, “Tummy hurt. Tummy hurt.”

But it wasn’t so long ago that Drew, who’s autistic, wouldn’t speak at all, in addition to unexpectedly wandering off and avoiding any kind of social interaction.

But thanks to ABLE Academy, a center for therapeutic treatment of children and adults with developmental delays, and the funding it received from NCEF, Drew learned sign language, began speaking and is now even reading.

“That’s amazing to my husband and me. This was the first Thanksgiving where he wanted to be in the room,” David says. “I can’t express how grateful I am in words.”

Colleen Cornwall opened ABLE Academy in 1996 as a roving mission, bringing her staff and her devotion to the principles of applied behavior analysis into the homes of her students.

Cornwall and her staff attack their students’ learning and social disorders by building new behaviors through one-on-one instruction, speech therapy and small groups. Eventually, Cornwall expanded ABLE to a brick-and-mortar campus, but by 2009 that location was too small for the burgeoning school’s enrollment and 12 employees.

As luck would have it, a larger, 13,000-square-foot facility became available that same year; a facility that would enable ABLE to treat more than 60 students.

Enter NCEF.

Not only did the foundation assist ABLE in acquiring the building, when Cornwall found the facility infested with mold, a bad air-conditioning unit, a failing roof, etc., the foundation vested a $66,500 grant to ABLE so Cornwall could refurbish the building. ABLE moved into its new surroundings earlier this year.

“It’s so much more equipped for these kids,” David says. “It’s
no comparison.”

The foundation also gave the center a $125,000 grant for 10 scholarships and a speech therapist. (It’s only fair to also give credit to the more than 1,000 volunteer hours the school’s staff and parents provided to make the place habitable.) 

“The Naples Children & Education Foundation has been instrumental in the growth of ABLE Academy. The financial support has allowed more children to access programming, but [the foundation’s] reach goes far beyond financing programs,” Cornwall says.