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TAMPA (Florida Sports Wire) The Tampa Bay Lightning honored Kevin and Jeanne Milkey as the Lightning Community Heroes this evening during the first period of the game against the Vancouver Canucks.
The Milkey’s, who received a $50,000 donation from the Lightning Foundation and the Lightning Community Heroes program, presented by Jabil, will donate the money to Tampa Bay Watch.
The Milkey’s have made a significant impact to improving the quality of life in the Tampa Bay community through supporting a wide variety of local charities. The Milkey’s support a wide variety of areas, including human services, disaster relief, environmental stewardship, scholarship programs, arts and culture, and animal services.
Their support as the Presenting Sponsor of the Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center has allowed Tampa Bay Watch to establish a world-class marine educational facility on the St. Pete Pier. Additionally, their support has provided a multitude of Tampa residents food to eat, a place to live, and services needed to improve their own lives through their involvement with Feeding Tampa Bay and the Daystar Life Center. Innumerable lives have been affected by their generosity.
The grant tonight will be used to support the mission of Tampa Bay Watch. This funding will make it possible for Tampa Bay Watch to deliver outstanding, meaningful science education to students across the Tampa Bay area. Tampa Bay Watch facilitates marine educational programs by teaching students about the watershed they live in, environmental issues that are present today, and the value of the marine environments, including the Tampa Bay estuary. The programming Tampa Bay Watch is able to provide encourages the lifelong stewardship of environmentalists by inspiring knowledge and power to create positive change.
The Milkey’s became the 525th Lightning Community Heroes since Jeff and Penny Vinik introduced the Lightning Community Hero program in 2011-12 with a $10 million, five-season commitment to the Tampa Bay community. Through tonight’s game, in total, the Lightning Foundation has granted $28.62 million to more than 700 unique nonprofits in the Greater Tampa Bay area. During the summer of 2021, the Viniks announced that the community hero program will give away another $10 million over the next five seasons.