ORANGE PARK – It was an unforgettable evening of empowerment and festive art on Sept. 25 as Challenge Enterprises hosted their annual Revealing Abilities Gala.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Thrasher-Horne Center was filled with guests dressed to the nines, celebrating and unmasking the talents and strengths of local individuals with different abilities.<\/p>\n
Challenge Enterprises, a nonprofit established in 1972, is dedicated to providing adult day training, residential services and employment to those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.<\/p>\n
The event acted as a fundraiser, seeking to raise money for the nonprofit’s community programs, which help these individuals develop work and career skills, earn income, become homeowners and achieve social independence.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Currently, the nonprofit operates two day-programs: Adult Day Training in Green Cove and Club Challenge in Orange Park.<\/p>\n
“In these programs participants pursue personalized goals such as volunteering, developing life skills, gaining job experience, advocating for themselves and enjoying social and recreational activities,” said CEO Katie Vineyard.<\/p>\n
Within the crowd sat local and state officials, including U.S. Rep. Aaron Bean and County Commissioner Jim Reninger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since 1988, the nonprofit said they’ve distributed nearly $50 million in wages to individuals with disabilities, including almost $3.6 million in 2024. The jobs are made possible through a variety of contracts with janitorial services, lawn maintenance, warehousing, document shredding and more across Northeast Florida and Southern Georgia.<\/p>\n
Special pieces of artwork created by members of the nonprofit were showcased at the event during a live auction by Bean. The final piece auctioned off was a group painting that guests had a hand in creating, courtesy of local artist Beth Haizlip, who hosted a pop-up studio during the event’s cocktail hour.<\/p>\n
To round out the night, the nonprofit also successfully raised an additional $10,000 to support its new facet of the Adult Day Training program, which is set to launch in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE PARK – It was an unforgettable evening of empowerment and festive art on Sept. 25 as Challenge…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":277213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,15024,15015,15023,15026,3188,15016,723,15021,7310,15020,15022,7648,15018,15017,15025,15019,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-277212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-argyle","10":"tag-clay-county","11":"tag-doctors-inlet","12":"tag-eagle-harbor","13":"tag-fl","14":"tag-fleming-island","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-green-cove-springs","17":"tag-jacksonville","18":"tag-keystone-heights","19":"tag-lake-asbury","20":"tag-margaret","21":"tag-middleburg","22":"tag-orange-park","23":"tag-pace-island","24":"tag-penney-farms","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-of-america","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115316113067648178","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}