By CHRISTIE L. CHICOINE
CS&T Staff Writer
BLOCS (Business Leadership Organized for Catholic Schools) recently
received word that it has been approved as a pre-kindergarten Educational
Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) scholarship organization.
“It’s an exciting time for BLOCS as we start to build more
programming and avenues of support for our school families,” said
Gregory Pasquale Ciminera, executive director of BLOCS.
“Although the need is not as heavy as it is in K-12, the cost
of pre-K does justify the efforts to help subsidize or support our families.
There does appear to be a strong interest for that support across our
archdiocesan schools.”
Businesses wishing to make contributions through the pre-kindergarten
program can obtain the guidelines and the one-page application from
the BLOCS’ Web site listed at the bottom of this story.
The EITC program for kindergarten through 12th grades allows area businesses
to pay their taxes through BLOCS, earning tax credits of up to 90 percent.
BLOCS then turns those contributions into scholarships for students
in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese.
Organizations eligible to receive EITC contributions must be a recognized
501(c)(3) and distribute at least 80 percent of their annual receipts
to eligible students.
Additionally, they must register with the Pennsylvania Department of
Community and Economic Development (DCED) and be placed on a list of
eligible scholarship organizations.
For contributions to pre-kindergarten scholarship organizations, a business
may receive a tax credit equal to 100 percent of the first $10,000 contributed
and up to 90 percent of the remaining amount contributed up to a maximum
credit of $100,000 annually.
According to Ciminera, in addition to making Catholic schools available
to those families who could not have otherwise afforded them, the EITC
program is making a substantial difference to families who have been
financially struggling to send their children to Catholic schools.
The main EITC program “continues to excel and experience rapid
growth,” he said.
BLOCS has several additional initiatives planned to promote an ongoing
collaboration between area businesses and Catholic education. Among
them: a mentoring program that pairs business leaders with students,
and a business “lessons in leadership” guest lecture series,
through which CEOs and other business leaders speak to students in a
general assembly at their school.
The date and place of the 2006 BLOCS’ gala have also been set
— the annual fundraiser will be held Wednesday, April 5 at the
Marriott Hotel at 1201 Market St. in Center City Philadelphia.
Now in its 25th year, BLOCS was established in 1980 to serve as the
Archdiocese’s official conduit and fund-raising arm for business
communities in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia
counties.
It connects Catholic schools to corporations and foundation communities
that wish to support Catholic education.
For a quarter of a century and counting, BLOCS has worked to gain support
for more than 100,000 children in the region who desire a value-based,
quality Catholic education to learn the life skills necessary to thrive
in their professional and personal lives.
BLOCS distributes more than 90 percent of all funds raised annually,
providing tuition assistance to children in Catholic schools, regardless
of race, religion and/or nationality.
The bottom line in all of BLOCS’ work is helping to educate students
who will help build up the Church.
“The more we expose the Gospel and preach the Word, and give access
to the Word to our greater community, the stronger our Church will become,
and the more successful our ministries will all be,” Ciminera
said.
For more information, check out the Web site www.BLOCS.org or call Gregory
Pasquale Ciminera, BLOCS’ executive director, at (215) 587-0590.
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine can be reached at: cchicoin@adphila.org
or (215) 587-2468.