Help Larchmont's Bayside Travel Decide Which Charity Deserves $2,500 Grant

The below announcement was submitted by Kathy Shea, a travel consultant with

Bayside Travel for the $2,500 Bayside Travel 25^th Anniversary grant.  Five of these submissions were selected by a committee and are being put to a vote by the community to determine which charitable program will be the recipient of the grant.  

“It was a difficult decision to select only five.  There are so many deserving programs,” said Barbara Nichuals, who is giving the grant in celebration of her 25 years of ownership of the travel agency.

Anyone may vote for the grant winner by going to Bayside Travel’s Facebook page and clicking on the yellow checkmark to the right of the Bayside’s address, which will take you to the voting page. (www.facebook.com/baysidetravelny - don’t forget the ny at the end!) Voting will continue until Sept. 21 and the winner will be announced shortly thereafter. 

The five finalists are:  

• The Bereavement Center of Westchester/ Tree House Program – BCW provides a safe place for those grieving the death of a significant person in their lives. The Tree House program offers support groups for children who have lost a parent or sibling. The Bayside Travel grant would provide individual counseling sessions for 40 children who have had a parent or sibling die and need more intense intervention than a group. 
• The Westchester Children’s Museum/Museum Without Walls – WCM is set to open in late 2013 and will be a learning laboratory providing children, families and school groups the opportunity to nurture curiosity, enhance knowledge and ignite imagination through creative hands-on exploration. While the museum is being built, the Museum Without Walls takes the museum experience on the road to various community centers and provides activities that spark the imagination of young learners. The Bayside Travel grant would provide 7 MWW programs for approximately 140 disadvantaged children in Westchester in the hopes of inspiring a love of learning as well as helping narrow the learning gap. 
• The Pelham Art Center/Bayside Creative Seniors – The PAC provides the public with the place, the resources and the opportunity to see, study and experience art in a community setting. PAC seeks to provide access to the arts to people challenged by income, location, or physical and mental disabilities.  Often overlooked and marginalized, seniors, especially those on a fixed income, can become socially isolated, running the risk of depression, deteriorating health and loss of independence. Social, creative and stimulating projects encourage seniors to get out and socialize, maintain motor skills as well as draw from their rich experiences resulting in happier, healthier lives. The Bayside Travel grant would provide an eight-session, free art-making class for up to 15 seniors with an instructor and an exhibition at the conclusion. 
• County Harvest/Food Donation Supplies - CH ‘s mission is to rescue good, unused food from supermarkets, wholesale clubs, country clubs, caterers, restaurants, farms, bakeries and bagel shops and deliver it immediately to soup kitchens, food pantries and homeless shelters.  The Bayside Travel grant would allow CH to purchase aluminum trays and lids needed to store and transport the food.
• Songcatchers/After School Music Program – Songcatchers, Inc.  provides affordable access to high quality music education, training and enrichment for low income children and families.  The After School program engages the services of talented high school students to share their musical gifts by volunteering to teach children who could not afford what they themselves were able to have. The Bayside Travel grant would provide professional musicians plus a counselor to train and guide the teen volunteers on how to teach music to the talented student children.

Bayside Travel provides luxury travel vacations for discerning clients all over Westchester and beyond. Bayside Travel is located in Larchmont and also has an office in Bronxville (Gramatan Travel). Bayside Travel has been owned and operated by Barbara Nichuals since 1987.  For more information about Bayside Travel, call 914-833-8880, email: info@BaysideTravel.com or visit the website here.