To our Sponsors, Friends, and Community,

   Thank you so much for the your support of the 2019 Hope Gala!  As a result of your generosity, we raised over $36,000 for scholarships and educational support this year, a 60% increase over last year. 

  In the end, though, this isn’t about money, it’s about opportunity.  Although the women we are helping today may be striving for subsistence, our goal is to ensure they and their children can strive for their dreams. 

  Thank you for your continuous efforts on behalf of Ashton’s Foundation to make that goal a reality. 

Check out the images from The Hope Gala 2019 here!

The Ashton Hope Keegan Foundation Board of Directors

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The 3rd Annual Hope Gala to benefit the Ashton Hope Keegan Foundation is already on the calendar!  Set for 6:00 PM on January 25, 2020 The Hope Gala is our flagship event, and we know it will be even bigger and better than this year’s event!

Ready to be a part of the 2020 Hope Gala?  Ticket will go on sale starting in November, 2019

Our success is directly the result of our generous donors and sponsors.  Please take time to look at those who were so generous, and remember them as you’re making buying decisions!

Additional information on updated Sponsorship Levels will be available starting around August, 2019.  As with last year’s event, the ability to sponsor a ticket for one of the women Ashton was tutoring will be available by clicking here once ticket sales open.

Our 2019 Hope Gala was presented in partnership with Athens Technical College.  Building on the initial Hope Gala, this partnership enabled multiple women to move up the economic ladder.  Please take a few minutes to read their success stories.

 

Take a breath-taking aerial tour of the Athens area in an open-cockpit biplane, donated by Barnstorm America.  “The Georgia Girl” is a 1941 Waco UPF-7 PT-14 WWII training airplane, sure to provide the thrill of a lifetime!

Relax on the coast of Maine:

Spend a week in a cottage on an island off the coast of Maine.  Choose to come up when the leaves are changing, or perhaps in the spring when the wildlife is reemerging.

Let your child’s imagination soar on this rocking airplane!  Based on a rocking airplane Ashton had as a child.  Woodwork by Ed Keegan, artwork by local artist Deborah Manoll.

Got plans for November 2nd, 2019?  How about 4 tickets to the UGA/UF game in Jacksonville?  And to make sure nobody misunderstands your fandom, you’ll get a cooler full of UGA sports items to “show your colors!

A cooler full of liquor!  Enjoy a UGA-logo branded Grizzly cooler, full of liquor and mixers to really keep the party going!

Fife Plantation Pheasant Tower Shoot (English Style): 

Wear you best Tweeds and Ties, and enjoy an afternoon pheasant shoot, followed by a Cocktail Buffet and full bar at the Plantation House following the shoot.  Located on the Fife Plantation in Jasper County, SC, within the Savannah Wildlife Refuge.  (Minimum bid: $500)

Back by popular demand – two more Richard Petty driving experience vouchers!  The “Experience of a Lifetime” for a NASCAR fan!  Can you handle 30 laps of white-knuckled, heart-pounding speed in a 600HP NASCAR?  Improve your driving line, increase your speed and consider a career change during this “Experience of a Lifetime!”   Gift certificate to drive the track in Concord, NC, can be used for the driving experience, a ride-along, or merchandise purchases.  See www.DrivePetty.com for details.  (Minimum bid: $500)

Celebrate 2019 Mother’s Day weekend with a 4-night stay (May 10 to May 14) on beautiful St. Simons Island. Relax in a 5 bedroom, 4.5 bath house, wonderfully furnished and located within walking distance to a grocery store, shopping, restaurants and bars and just a short hop to the beach or golf course.  The house is also pet friendly, so no need to celebrate without your 4-legged family members.

Included are two $50 gift certificates to the Crab Trap restaurant and a gift bag of St. Simon Island goodies.

For the cigar lover, store your prized cigars in this show-piece humidor.  A limited edition (#114/1000) Perdomo Habano humidor measuring 15” wide x 20” long x 7” deep, this humidor is sure to hold even the largest collection of cigars at the perfect humidity.  Minimum bid: $600

Matthew Stafford Detroit Lions signed jersey.

To see our sponsors, who make this event possible, click Here!

 

Last year The Hope Gala set a modest goal and we ended up far exceeding it. Raising over $20,000 for the Foundation, we have been able to give back in ways we only dreamed of.  We have been able to make huge impact on income, and overall quality of life for women that have, for whatever reason, not completed high school and did not even dare to dream of college. We have partnered with educational institutions in the community and are thrilled that we have been able to make an impact locally and continue the work that Ashton was so passionate about.  The money we raised last year enabled us to provide the following:

  • In March, we granted 6 GED vouchers to women at Athens Technical College.
  • In May, we granted 3 scholarships to women who recently completed their GEDs and entered technical certification training at Athens Tech.  These scholarships not only covered tuition, but also provided money to overcome other impediments to their education, such as transportation and child care.
  • In July, we purchased and donated 40 sets of GED textbooks and test preparation aides, as well as boxes of school supplies, to the PALS program at Women to the World.  This was a critical need for the program, as the current set of books they had is outdated, and the test prep materials were used and erased over and over again.
  • In August, we funded 6 scholarships (presented 9/26/2018) for women who completed their GEDs and are entering technical certification training.  In a noteworthy sign of the success of the programs, one of the women receiving this continuing education scholarship is one of the GED Voucher recipients from March – she completed the GED, and is building more momentum going forward!
  • We have partnered with The Classic Center and Orange Theory Fitness to host Angel Trees for the women in the PALS Program.  Studies show that the women have a tendency to withdraw further from society during the holiday season because of the shame of being unable to provide for their children.   By providing holiday gifts, we remove this impediment to the women’s continuing education, and allow them to continue to build momentum throughout the year.
  • In December, we will fund a portion of the Athens Tech Roll Out Rescue Program.  This program ensures students are unable to afford to pay all of their registration fees at the time of registration, are not disenrolled.