After a site visit to New Orleans in 2016, our Events Team approached PECAA with an idea… let’s find a way to leave our ‘footprint’ in the cities that welcome us each year – and PECAA Gives was officially born! Many of you were there when we ‘paraded’ through sheets of rain in the streets of New Orleans, led by our first PECAA Gives recipient, the Edna Karr Marching Band. Since that time, our Members, Vendor Partners and Staff have donated more than $185,000 to local groups and foundations in need.
The Annual Meeting is PECAA’s signature event of the year held each Spring and offers unparalleled business education and resources to strengthen Member practices. PECAA Max doctors and staff are able to attend the event at no registration cost.
To continue the tradition of creating positive change, we have selected a special non-profit organization for the 2025 PECAA Annual Meeting that truly makes a difference — Page 15.
Page 15 Founder and Executive Director Julia Young grew up in downtown Orlando, but spent a few weeks every summer at her grandparents’ farm in upstate New York. She spent her days picking vegetables, hiking, and reading.
Both Julia and her grandmother “Teddy” were enthusiastic readers. Julia, however, was also a restless reader. She struggled to stick with new books beyond the first few pages. Teddy, having lived through the hard years of World War II and the Great Depression noticed this behavior with some distress. “I give up” was not a part of her vocabulary.
One afternoon, as Julia sat beside a pile of discarded books, Teddy bestowed upon her granddaughter a personal rule of thumb, a rule that would one day inspire many more generations of young readers.
In 2008, armed with the idea that every Orlando citizen should have access to great literary programming, Julia Young, bookstore owner Bruce Harris, and developer Craig Ustler founded the Urban Think Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to enriching Central Florida’s cultural landscape by developing & growing educational & literary arts programs.
The Foundation itself is the legacy of the Urban Think! Bookstore, which served admirably as downtown Orlando’s local & independent bookstore from 2001 to 2010.
For 10 years, the Urban Think Foundation served as an umbrella organization to Page 15 & Burrow Press, an independent literacy press publishing award-winning poetry and prose, in-print and online. Burrow Press is now the literary publisher of Stetson University’s MFA of the Americas program. Page 15 now serves as the legacy of the Urban Think Foundation, continuing to bring exceptional programming to the youth of Central Florida.
Page 15 Founder and Executive Director Julia Young grew up in downtown Orlando, but spent a few weeks every summer at her grandparents’ farm in upstate New York. She spent her days picking vegetables, hiking, and reading. Both Julia and her grandmother “Teddy” were enthusiastic readers. Julia, however, was also a restless reader. She struggled to stick with new books beyond the first few pages. Teddy, having lived through the hard years of World War II and the Great Depression noticed this behavior with some distress. “I give up” was not a part of her vocabulary.
One afternoon, as Julia sat beside a pile of discarded books, Teddy bestowed upon her granddaughter a personal rule of thumb, a rule that would one day inspire many more generations of young readers, "When reading a book, you must read until page 15 before you decide whether not keep going or to choose a different story."
In 2008, armed with the idea that every Orlando citizen should have access to great literary programming, Julia Young, bookstore owner Bruce Harris, and developer Craig Ustler founded the Urban Think Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to enriching Central Florida’s cultural landscape by developing & growing educational & literary arts programs. The Foundation itself is the legacy of the Urban Think! Bookstore, which served admirably as downtown Orlando’s local & independent bookstore from 2001 to 2010.
Some of the children that the Goodie Two Shoes Foundation assists have NEVER had a new pair of shoes of their own much less been given the opportunity and empowerment to make an unrestrained, positive choice. The Goodie Two Shoes Foundation truly makes a difference to children whom don’t have a single properly fitting pair of shoes to call their own… to children whom stuff paper towels in the toes to make the over-sized pair they have wearable… to children whom take out the laces and yank out the tongue so that their growing feet can still be stuffed inside, and to children who miss school because they share a single pair of shoes with a sister AND a cousin. Sound ridiculous? It’s not, and it happens right here in Las Vegas every single day.
If something as simple as having a new pair of properly fitting shoes can brighten a child’s day, positively affect their growth and development and even keep them in school, then: Goodie Two Shoes IS building a better Foundation one foot at a time! Since its inception in 2003, Goodie Two Shoes has served more than 100,000 children in Nevada!
Total PECAA Gives donation to Goodie Two Shoes Foundation: $38,128
My Bag My Story Founder Cara Finger has dedicated her life’s work to raising awareness about the foster care and adoption system. Surprised and saddened by the frequent practice of foster children transporting their belongings in trash bags, Cara was moved to #EndTheTrashBag. Cara called on local designers and manufacturers to create a product anyone would be proud to carry.
For every bag purchased, one bag is donated to a foster child in need. My Bag My Story partners with local churches, businesses, and organizations to place the bags into the hands of 8,000+ children in the foster care system across Tennessee. Since its inception in 2019, more than 1,000 bags have been distributed.
Total PECAA Gives donation to My Bag My Story: $33,835
The Academy of Musical Performance (AMP) is a contemporary music education program whose goal is to enrich the lives of young musicians living in the Coachella Valley by fostering productivity and social responsibility through creativity, communication and collaboration in the development and enhancement of musical performance and concert production skills through participation in a 'rock band' style educational setting.
Total PECAA Gives donation to Academy Of Music Performance: $35,367
The Indiana Blind Children’s Foundation is a philanthropic foundation that financially supports the unique work of the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Over the past 175 years, the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired has developed substantial and unique expertise regarding the education of students who are blind and visually impaired. The School has established itself as a nationally-recognized educational institution and a critical state resource for Indiana’s children. Every year, the School educates hundreds of Indiana’s children and young adults ranging from ages 3 to 22 years old and living in all parts of the state.
Total PECAA Gives donation to Indiana Blind Children's Foundation: $4,000
Art from Ashes (AfA) is a Colorado nonprofit that encourages creative empowerment through artistic expression for struggling youth age 9 to 24. For more than 20 years, AfA’s art programs have encouraged marginalized youth to tell their stories and find creative empowerment through poetry and spoken word in their award-winning Phoenix Rising program. All of AfA’s programs provide a safe, non-judgmental space with caring adults and community artists for youth to share their dreams, hopes, fears and pain, as well as the opportunity to connect with their community, and transform their stories from trauma to self-empowerment.
Total PECAA Gives donation to Art From Ashes: $8,065
Anthropos Arts is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect low-income youth with professional musicians, cultivating confidence, integrity and life-skills through musical instruction and mentorship. Students get free instruction and mentoring from some of the best artists in the country, performance opportunities at Austin’s seminal venues and events and exposure to a wide range of music as both audience and performer.
Total PECAA Gives donation to Anthropos Arts: $20,760
Beads of Courage, Inc. is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to improving the quality of life for children and teens coping with serious illness, their families, and the clinicians who care for them through our Arts-in-Medicine Programs. The organization believes in creating a context for caring transactions to transpire through community and encouragement programs.
Since 2005, Beads of Courage, Inc. has established collaborative partnerships in caring with hundreds of hospitals nationally and internationally and worked with several community organizations to make healing happen through the use of beads as a historical art form.
Total PECAA Gives donation to Beads Of Courage: $21,397
Since 1984, W.O. Smith Music School has made affordable, quality music instruction available to children from low-income families. The school serves children aged 8-18. Students are provided with an instrument of their choosing, a volunteer teaching artist and any necessary musical materials for their studies.
Total PECAA Gives donation to W.O. Smith Music School: $16,750
Edna Karr High School is a public, open enrollment, coeducational charter school in New Orleans, Louisiana. Its marching band is known as "#TeamBustEmUp" and includes 100+ instrumentalists, dancers (Cougar Dolls), a flag corp and twirlers. Some notable accomplishments of the band include being highlighted in a documentary about New Orleans, photographed for ESPN's 10th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina issue, invited to perform in London, England for the city's 2016 New Years Day Parade, and a cameo appearance in Beyoncé's Lemonade visual album. It is one of the premier bands of New Orleans, often called upon to compete nationwide.
Total PECAA Gives donation to Edna Karr School Marching Band: $7,500