Kinecta in the Community
Kinecta proudly supports families and businesses in the communities we serve. Our volunteers donate their own time and money to provide support to worthy causes, non-profits, and households who could use a helping hand.
Congratulations to Kinecta’s Scholarship and Teaching Grant Winners
This summer, Kinecta announced the winners of our 2022 Youth Scholarships and Teaching Grants program. After receiving 106 scholarship and 21 teaching grant applications, eight $2,000 scholarships were awarded to help full-time students pursue their higher education dreams, and six $2,000 grants were given to teachers to bolster classroom instruction and projects.
Over the past 15 years, Kinecta has awarded over $260,000 to students and teachers, helping to make their higher education dreams a reality. View the scholarship recipients and more information.
Backpacks Distributed to Over 800 Students at Our 13th Annual Backpack Drive
In August, Kinecta hosted its 13th Annual Backpack Drive in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, California and Rochester, New York, helping underserved students from grades three to 12 prepare for the upcoming school year. Kinecta launched our first Backpack Drive in 2010 and have since helped nearly 6,000 students receive much needed school supplies.
Additionally, in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, Kinecta opened its campus doors to over 135 faculty and administrators, hosting seven school meetings for teachers to conduct trainings and prepare for the upcoming year. Also, as a show of appreciation, we served breakfast and lunch to more than 2,000 school employees.
September is for Miracle Jeans – Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals
During the month of September, Kinecta staff wore jeans in support of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMNH) to encourage our member-owners to donate and raise awareness. These donations, and community support, helped to ensure CMNH can provide care to every family, regardless of their ability to pay. By the end of the fundraising campaign, Kinecta raised nearly $12,000 for CMNH.
Skechers Pier to Pier Friendship Walk Presented by Kinecta for 2nd Year
This October, Kinecta was the presenting sponsor of the annual Skechers Pier to Pier Friendship Walk for the second year in a row. As the largest charity walk of its kind in California, this event rallied more than 100 companies, schools, and families to walk from Manhattan Beach Pier to Hermosa Beach Pier in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, CA (and in Rochester, NY) for one common purpose: to support children with varying abilities and public education. Team Kinecta had walkers in California and New York.
Those who attended got to meet and be entertained by celebrities such as Brooke Burke, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Dani Bowman. Since 2009, it has grown to gather more than 19,000 annual registrants and raised more than $21 million for public schools, scholarships and the Friendship Foundation, an organization that supports children with special needs and their families.
49th Annual Food Drive
In November, Kinecta provided holiday meals to more than 1,300 deserving families during our 49th annual food drive. More than $70,000 was raised through donations from vendors, employees, members, and local community members. We then partnered with over 30 community-based organizations throughout Los Angeles County and Rochester, New York to select families.
Each family received a bag of traditional Thanksgiving food items, such as rice and stuffing mix, along with a $75 store gift card to help complete their holiday meal.
The Pirate Toy Drive in Rochester
This holiday season, Kinecta will once again partner with The Pirate Toy Fund to collect toys for children in the Rochester, NY community. The Pirate Toy Fund was co-founded by local children’s entertainer Gary the Happy Pirate and Dave and Lorrie Simonetti. It has distributed almost 400,000 toys since 1995.
Starting November 25 through December 24, Kinecta will display toy collection bins at all our Rochester branches so people can drop off new, unwrapped toys. To locate a Kinecta branch, visit our Locations page.
Kinecta also invites members and other interested supporters to visit our Pirate Toy Fund online store to make a tax-deductible donation earmarked to buy a toy for a child.