July 30, 2021

Giving Back recognizes businesses and organizations that are helping our communities. Here’s a look at who gave back for July.

Scooter’s Coffee shops in Sioux Falls are donating 100 percent of all sales Tuesday to organizations that support foster children. Organizations that will benefit from the Day of Giving include Royal Family Kids Sioux Empire, Family Visitation Center, East River Foster Parent Network, Sioux Falls CASA and the Children’s Home Society of South Dakota.

Old Skool Jersey Rippers & Balls and Average Joe’s Gaming are teaming up to help Madison Ziegler, who works on the food truck, with a fundraiser to help foster children. They’re collecting new and used backpacks and luggage so that kids don’t have stuff their belongings in a plastic garbage bag when they move, said Francisco Gajardo, who owns Old Skool Jersey. Donations can be dropped off at the food truck or Average Joe’s Gaming near Tea until Sept. 30. They’ll be given to the Children’s Home Society of South Dakota. Cash donations also are being taken.

Hy-Vee/Sanford Legends for Kids is donating a record $270,000 to local youth sports organizations following this year’s Legends events in June. This year’s total pushes the amount donated since 2005 to $2,845,000. The $270,000 will support the Legends scholarship program, the Legends Foundation for Youth Grant Program and the Folds of Honor Foundation. Youth sports organizations are encouraged to apply for upcoming grants by Sept. 3. Priority is given to projects and organizations that have substantial volunteer involvement and missions that support those of Legends. The registration form is available at legendsforkids.org.

A record 160 golfers played in the eighth annual Furniture Mart USA Charity Golf Classic in June, raising more than $100,000 to support nonprofit organizations throughout the Upper Midwest.  Five charities, including the Sioux Falls Hope Coalition and Teddy Bear Den, were featured at the evening awards dinner at Grand Falls Casino & Golf Resort. In the past month, more than 20 organizations have been awarded nearly $65,000. Over the past eight years, since the inception of the event, more than $750,000 has been distributed to nonprofits in the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Montgomery’s held Parking Lot Parties at its furniture stores in Madison and Aberdeen in July to celebrate the new Aberdeen store and helped raise money for charities in the process. The parties included a concert by Nashville recording artist Dustin Evans. In Madison, the Interlakes Area United Way collected $700 in donations. In Aberdeen, Safe Harbor handled beer sales and collected more than $8,000.

Avera’s Walking Forward program has received a $95,000 donation from the Irving A. Hansen Memorial Foundation. The donation adds to more than $150,000 in funding the foundation already provided to primarily fund low-dose computed tomography to screen patients at risk for developing lung cancer. Walking Forward, a community research program of Avera, provides tribal communities with access to a variety of cancer-related services including cancer education and screening, earlier diagnosis and access to clinical trials.

Lupulin Brewing Co. has partnered with Fish Sunflowers to dedicate a sunflower field to the JZ Cancer Fund in memory of co-owner Jeff Zierdt’s brother Jonathan who died of cancer. Johnny Fish of Fish Sunflowers has been planting sunflower fields in Minnesota to “Spread the Sunshine” and give back to the communities he grew up in. The JZ Cancer Fund field has been planted in Big Lake, Minnesota, the home of the brewery, which also has a location in Sioux Falls.

To help raise funds, Lupulin has created “Spreading the Sunshine” T-shirts, with a portion of the proceeds going to Fish Sunflowers. In addition, Lupulin and Fish brewed a sunflower seed tart wheat ale beer with honey, appropriately named Spread the Sunshine, which will be available on tap beginning Aug. 11. $1 from each pour and $2 from each crowler sale will be donated to Fish Sunflowers. The beer and T-shirts won’t be available in Sioux Falls.