Community Involvement
Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard P.C. recognizes a duty to support our City and region. Community involvement is not only important to the firm as a whole, but also to the individual attorneys and staff who donate their time and talents to many worthwhile legal and charitable causes. Many of our attorneys speak at legal seminars, participate in fundraisers, and serve as board members of legal and community organizations.
The firm has a standing Charitable Efforts Committee which coordinates our efforts. The firm is an annual participant in the United Way Drive and the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis’s Motion for Kids (formerly Project Angel Tree) as well as the various "walks" for causes such as the Komen Race for the Cure. Approximately every two months, the firm sponsors a "casual" day for charity. Members are asked to donate school supplies, coats, and canned goods and make monetary donations to selected charities. Once a year, firm members cook and serve dinner at the Ronald McDonald House.
In 2006, the firm established the Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard Charitable Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization that supports and contributes to those local, regional, and national charities selected by the firm's Charitable Efforts Committee each year.
On May 15, 2007, the Foundation was welcomed as a member of the Gateway Center for Giving (previously the Metropolitan Association for Philanthropy). The Gateway Center for Giving is the regional association of grantmakers serving the St. Louis region. It was founded in 1970 by St. Louis area corporations and foundations interested in increasing the effectiveness of their charitable giving. For more information on this membership, please visit www.centerforgiving.org.
The Charitable Efforts Committee organizes events throughout the year to raise money for selected charities, including an Annual Bowling Tournament, Sand Volleyball Tournament, Thanksgiving Luncheon, and Bake Auction. For 2011, the Committee selected and proudly supports:
Almost Home
This St. Louis charity provides a safe, transitional home and support for homeless teenage mothers and their children. Almost Home helps them learn to become self-sufficient through structured, individualized programs. Members prepare for successful adulthood by learning life skills and envisioning a different kind of future life than they might have lived before accepting Almost Home’s care and structure. The organization helps them stop living from crisis to crisis, and teaches them to create stability so that they can develop outlined strategies for the future - to pause, plan and proceed.
Almost Home Transitional provides a spacious, family-style living environment for 15 young mothers and up to 25 of their children at a time. Since opening in 1993, the organization has helped more than 1,500 young mothers and their children.
Visit www.almosthomestl.org for more information.
Children's Home Society of Missouri
Children's Home Society of Missouri (CHS) has been a leader in providing children with permanent, safe and loving homes since 1891. All of its programs and decisions serve to enhance the general well being of children by providing a greater degree of permanence and stability in their lives. CHS offers a full faceted program of services for children in need of a permanent home, including pregnancy counseling, infant placements, assistance for families pursuing international adoptions, intensive training and support for families able to adopt children presently in foster care, education and counseling services to further support the long term needs of families formed through adoption, and short and long term care for children with developmental disabilities and medical needs.
Visit www.chsmo.org for more information.
St. Louis Crisis Nursery
The Saint Louis Crisis Nursery (SLCN) is committed to preventing child abuse and neglect by providing short-term, emergency shelter for children through age 12 whose families are faced with emergencies or in crisis. Families may voluntarily bring their children to any of SLCN’s sites for a variety of reasons, including overwhelming parental stress, parental or sibling illness or death, lack of utilities, food, or shelter, domestic violence, or other emergency situations that jeopardize the safety and well-being of the child and necessitate temporary parent-child separation. In addition to direct care of children, the SLCN gives ongoing support and follow-up care to families and serves as a child/family advocate within the social services system.
Visit www.crisisnurserykids.org for more information.
Anderson Hospital
Anderson Hospital is an independent, not-for-profit hospital dedicated to creating a health care setting in which quality of life and service excellence are experienced by its patients, the medical staff, and the community. Established in 1977, the 151-bed, acute care facility is technology driven, offering patients cutting-edge diagnostic capabilities not often found in a community setting. Anderson Hospital offers a full range of advanced health care services, from a state-of-the-art obstetrics unit—the Pavilion for Women—to emergency services that treated over 33,000 people last year. Anderson Hospital is and will continue to be an independent, locally controlled and governed community hospital serving area residents.
Visit www.andersonhospital.org for more information.
In addition to our efforts for these four primary charities, we look forward to holding jeans days and other events to help raise money for other charities in the area. Additional charities we will support in 2011 include Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri, Community Hope Center, Mutts N Stuff, Wyman Center, and Community Women Against Hardship.
The Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard Charitable Foundation hopes to continue to create new and innovative ways to touch the lives of others. The goals of the Foundation are two-fold: (1) bring together the members of the firm and the community to unite and focus our talents for charitable purposes; and (2) assist and fund local, regional, national, or other causes with generous contributions.