The Wawa Welcome America each year honors the different non-profit organizations that serve the Philadelphia community with the Wawa Hero Award 2023.
The Wawa Foundation Hero Award is intended to recognize one of the non-profit organizations and their volunteers, who help the Philadelphia community by providing services that build stronger communities through preserving our independence, protecting of our safety and the mentoring and inspiration of our youth,” said the Wawa Foundation on its website.
This year WWA has four finalists:
Love Pray Peace Project (LP3) is dedicated to serving the needs of homeless veterans, usually elderly veterans as they are often the most vulnerable and in need of support. The goal of the Love Pray Peace Veterans Residences Project is to be able to provide a compassionate centered living community that will provide exposure to veterans and homeless services through education, empowerment and housing services. Their goal is to develop a community for our veterans and their families that is focused on strengthening services and giving a voice to veterans and their families.
Philly House, formerly the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, is the second oldest rescue mission in the country, averaging 138 men each night in 2022. More than providing food and a bed, they build relationships with their guests to give them hope and refocus their lives. lives. Their mission is for you to open your doors every day with a welcoming spirit of compassion, walking alongside the homeless, hungry, and hurting people of Philadelphia so they can experience God’s love through acts of mercy, dignity, and respect.
The focus of the Strawberry Mansion Learning Center is youth and the community in which they serve, inspire, communicate and educate. For the past 10 years, the Strawberry Mansion Learning Center has served as a free shelter and learning center for neighborhood children ages 10-18. The center is completely free and is funded entirely by donations. Its core services include tutoring with volunteers from the local university, daily meals through partnerships with the city and Reading Terminal Market, an extensive children’s library, and a small computer lab. The primary mission of the Strawberry Mansion Learning Center is to provide a safe place for students to learn and develop.
Students Run Philly Style (SRPS) transforms students’ lives through tutoring. SRPS pairs Philadelphia students, grades 6 through 12, with volunteer adult mentors to train for an incredible challenge: completing a long-distance race. SRPS youth and mentors train three times a week, for up to nine months, to reach their historic goal of running the Blue Cross Broad Street 10-mile race or the Philadelphia Marathon. The SRPS program is free, including what they need to run like shoes, equipment, race tickets, and transportation to and from all events, to enrolled students, mentors, and schools. SRPS is serving more than 1,000 students in more than 50 schools throughout the city.
The winner will receive a $50,000 grant for the winning organization and the finalists will win $10,000 for the organization. The public vote will be taking place on June 28, 2023.
The winner will be announced during the Wawa Freedom Celebration Ceremony Welcome America at Independence Hall in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia on the Fourth of July.
