Press
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL){PUBLICATION2}
Basket Brigade seeks help to get food to the needy
November 8, 2006
Section: B SECTION
Page: BS4
PATTY ALLEN-JONES patty.allen-jones@heraldtribune.com
Sarasota businessman Rod Khleif remembers the Denver home where he delivered a food basket to a single mother and her children for Thanksgiving in 2001.
It was the start of a service project that Khleif funds each year with his own money. "I went in there, brought the food, and the kids were grabbing my legs," he said. "The mom started crying, and the kids started crying. Then I decided to do this in a bigger way."
That year, Khleif and his brother distributed five baskets filled with food and toys.
This year he needs volunteers to assemble and deliver 800 baskets on Nov. 18 to low-income Sarasota County families.
"We only have 50 volunteers. We need three times that many," said Khleif, 46.
Church groups, Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota County, Sarasota Adopt-a-Family, Healthy Start of Sarasota County, Habitat for Humanity of Sarasota and the Friendship Volunteer Center are supplying some volunteers or referring families to the sixth annual Tiny Hands Foundation's Thanksgiving Basket Brigade.
Khleif is the foundation's founder and president.
"He helps us cover more of our families for Thanksgiving," said Alice Beard, Sarasota Adopt-a-Family's founder, who has worked with Khleif for two years.
Khleif buys and develops real estate through his company, Gulf Coast Holdings.
He moved to Sarasota from Denver about seven or eight years ago because of the weather.
Back in 2001, while visiting family in Denver, Khleif and his brother decided "what the heck, let's do something good; let's deliver food to a family" instead of watching football on Thanksgiving Day.
They got the names of five families from a church and shopped, and they delivered the food that day.
"We had fun going shopping," he said. "A child crying in gratitude is life-changing. It was for me. More and more I became more involved, getting excited about being charitable."
Each year he doubles the number of baskets delivered.
Next year the goal is 1,600.
Khleif does not request financial donations for the baskets. "I've been fortunate financially," he said.
He said he desperately needs volunteers. The experience will transform the giver and receiver, he said.
He hopes to build schools in Third World countries and develop health, nutrition, relationship and entrepreneurship classes for local students.
Khleif's foundation will be moving forward on these initiatives in the next year or so, he said.
INTERESTED?
To become a Basket Brigade volunteer, visit the Tiny Hands Foundation Web site, www.tinyhands foundation.org, or call Dorothy at 302-1033. Foundation founder Rod Khleif aims to deliver 800 baskets to low-income families.
Stacie Mullins
Personal Assistant to Rod Khleif
941-302-3601
