nonprofit spotlight

The Canton Ex-Newsies nonprofit was formed in 1960 by a groups of former newspaper carriers and employees of The Repository. This was a way they could give back to the community.

Formed in 2000, the Canton Development Partnership, a department of the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce, is a coalition of area development organizations and city government that share an interest in downtown Canton’s continual improvement, revitalization, image and quality of life for its citizens.

Hammer & Nails, an ecumenical Christian nonprofit outreach organization based in Canton is dedicated to improving the quality of life for disadvantaged area homeowners through home and property improvements.

The Challenger league is a division of Holly Hills Little League that provides organized baseball for special needs children. The Canton Challengers currently have about 170 players on nine teams. The players are both boys and girls and include ages five through high school. Players come from throughout Stark County and beyond.

The mission of Kids 4 K-9s is to keep police K-9s safe by purchasing bulletproof vests for the dogs. Vests cost $725 each. The current goal of the organization is to raise more than $10,000 to outfit area police dogs with bulletproof vests, as well as to help defray cost of purchasing and training K-9s to keep them safe.

Blessings in a Backpack began in Canton with six friends who wanted to come together to touch the community in a “hands-on” way. The friends, all wives of Timken Co. executives, decided to start the program in Canton after reaching out to the founder of the national program of the same name.

Wishes have been coming true for 30 years here in Stark County. “When Linda (Lippert) and I founded the organization in 1982 we never dreamed we’d be doing this 30 years later,” exclaimed Cyndi Morrow, executive director of Wishes Can Happen, a nonprofit group that provides wishes to seriously ill children.

Each month, About selects a local nonprofit to highlight in our Nonprofit Spotlight.Our goal is to showcase the good work done in our community — and help connect these organizations to donors who may not have realized their need.Here’s who we’ve featured so far.

Girls on the Run is a national nonprofit transformational learning program for girls in third through eighth grades. The local program started in 2009 and now reaches more than 400 girls and their families.

Life lessons, responsibility and sportsmanship are only a few of the things that youngsters walk away with from a lacrosse field when they play for Lacrosse On 3, a nonprofit organization that enables underprivileged youth in Stark County to play the game.