Heart of America Foundation

The Heart of America Foundation (also known as Heart of America or simply HOA) is a non-profit organization located in Washington, DC which has a national focus on providing students in need with the tools to read, succeed, and make a difference.

About

The Heart of America Foundation, a national nonprofit headquartered in Washington, DC, combines volunteerism and literacy with its initiatives. The organization’s focus is to "provide children in need everywhere with the tools to read, succeed, and make a difference." The Heart of America puts books into the hands of children and redesigns and revitalizes school libraries in low income communities. Since 1997, the organization has provided children living in poverty with more than 3.5 million library and take-home books, and engaged volunteers in more than 1 million hours of service to the community. The organization operates with a small staff and thousands of volunteers in communities across the country.

The Heart of America Foundation has touched the lives of more than one million people. Through national efforts, more than 1 million students have been introduced to community service and 130 national youth Ambassadors have been recruited to share motivational presentations about the value of community service.

Supporters have included: Wally Amos, Jane Goodall, and Tim Love.^[1]

A Focus on Literacy, Community, and Service

The Heart of America Foundation links community service with literacy. The organization provides literacy support and development for children, primarily in under-resourced elementary schools, where more than half of the children are from low-income families. Heart of America staff and volunteers have replenished, redecorated and revitalized more than 50 public elementary school libraries and reading corners across the United States in areas of high poverty through the Heart of America library makeover program coined "READesign." The organization has provided children living in poverty with nearly 2 million books.

READesign Library Makeovers and Reading Corners

The Heart of America Foundation's READesign library makeover program focuses on transforming school libraries, media centers, and reading spaces by redecorating, revitalizing technology, and replenishing book shelves.^[2][3][4][5] This program engages community and corporate volunteers, youth, and other members of the school community in service through library beautification and improvement activities, book distributions and one-on-one reading activities with children. Each READesign Library Makeover includes new technology, vibrant paint, artwork by a nationally recognized artist, new furniture, up to 3,000 brand new library books, and between 2 and 7 books per child to add to or start their personal home libraries.

Library Makeover partners have included Target Corporation,^[6] Capital One and the NFL. READesign projects occur in the United States including cities like New York, St. Paul, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Phoenix.

Book Distributions

The Heart of America Foundation hosts, sponsors, and organizes book drives and book distributions across the country as part of a Books from the Heart initiative. Books from the Heart has distributed more than 1.25 million books nationwide with numbers increasing constantly.

Youth Service Awards

The Heart of America “Heroes of the Heart” Awards is a recognition program that highlights “heroes”—young and old—throughout the United States for their work in the community. In 2000, a National Heroes of the Heart Award was presented to actor and activist Christopher Reeve. Since its inception, Heart of America has honored students and young people across the country with this award.

Charity in Chocolate (formerly Sweet Charity)

A signature event of the Heart of America Foundation featuring prominent chefs and a delicious fashion show with delicious fashions created by chefs. This event also hosts a live book auction to support Washington DC elementary schools.

Prior to 2012, the annual Sweet Charity "Des Alpes Chocolate Fashion Show" benefit, co-hosted by Albert Uster Imports, was held each year in Washington, DC. In 2009, more than 40 participating chefs applied Albert Uster chocolate to design fanciful chocolate fashions. The fashions were then displayed in a chocolate fashion show.^[7]

Founders

Bill Halamandaris
Bill Halamandaris is the son of an immigrant coal-miner. For 15 years, he headed a Congressional Committee to find and prosecute waste and fraud. In 1985, disheartened by the corruption he'd uncovered, he began to search for what he considered the "heart of America"—people who represent the best in society, the best instincts of man, and the best part of ourselves. That effort grew into The Heart of America Foundation. Bill serves as Chairman and full-time volunteer for the organization.

Angela Halamandaris
Before co-founding the Heart of America Foundation, Angela Halamandaris helped develop Give Kids The World Village, a 75-acre (300,000 m²) resort for terminally-ill children in Orlando, Florida. Angela has served as a volunteer with organizations such as the National Capital Area Foundation of the March of Dimes, WETA-TV, the Caring Institute, the Frederick Douglass Museum, and the Hall of Fame for Caring Americans. She is President of the Heart of America Foundation.

Past Initiatives

The Heart of America coordinated “The Day of Hope” in 2000, an event that marked the first anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in Denver, Colorado. There, Heart of America youth Ambassadors reached 10,000 students through assembly presentations focused on community and service.

A day after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001, the organization responded by creating a fund and national awareness campaign to aid affected families in the greater New York region. By the end of 2002, the fund had provided health insurance for over thirty families.

After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005, the Heart of America focused on young victims of the storm, and organized an effort to collect new backpacks, school supplies and books for those in need. In the six weeks following the storm, the Heart of America gathered and personally delivered more than 40,000 books and over 40 tons of backpacks, school supplies and toiletries to displaced children in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, engaging some 16,000 students in the process.

This endeavor led to a broader effort in 2006 that engaged over 250,000 students in restoring Gulf Coast school libraries, classrooms and home libraries destroyed by the storms by providing books for children in need. The Heart of America then solidified its focus on efforts related to literacy needs, not just in disaster plagued cities, but around the country in other areas experiencing hardship.

Official Web Site

The Heart of America Foundation

Partnership Site

The Heart of America Foundation - Partners Site

References

Video

• Sweet Charity Video Interview on MSNBC
• The District Dish Video Interview about Sweet Charity with Guest Angie Halamandaris

Publications

• The Heart of America (paperback), by Bill Halamandaris
• Be the Light, by Bill Halamandaris

Images

• Actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie and students in a library redesigned by the Heart of America Foundation, 2007
• President Barack Obama and students in a library redesigned by the Heart of America Foundation, 2007