Fuse Project is on a mission to enact transformational, generational change in our community through concentrated investments in mixed-income housing, cradle-to-college and career education, and community wellness. Fuse Project’s annual fundraising campaign, Light the Fuse, seeks to engage the community and raise awareness of our mission through a series of public and private events throughout the year and a fundraising challenge which takes place in November of each year. 

All proceeds during our 2023 Light the Fuse campaign will work to further holistic community revitalization in the Avenue community through The Historic Avenue Foundation. One part of that holistic approach is making investments in cradle-to-college and career education. In our focus on education, we have developed and launched the Avenue Bridge Collaboration (ABC) Program in direct response to needs identified by local educators. The goal of the ABC Program is to advance equity in education, and we believe that all children have a right to transformational and equitable learning opportunities. We aim to enhance and expand the current education pipeline in the Avenue community through accessible programming that impacts each child’s unique abilities and experiences. We exist to bridge the educational gap while ensuring every child has the tools they need to succeed in all areas of their life.

During our Light the Fuse campaign, we focused on raising funds to help address some of the key challenges faced by our community:

CHALLENGE: Currently, only 2% of children in the Avenue community are enrolled in a preschool program. This is due to limited resources and very limited access to early childhood programs serving the community. 

WHY IT MATTERS: Ninety percent of brain development happens by the age of five. This critical period sets the foundation for a child's future. Problems that emerge during the early years are more difficult to address later on.

OUR SOLUTION: High-quality pre-k programs provide opportunities to address gaps in early child development and to improve school readiness. Our solution to help remedy this and advance equity in education is the launch of our ABC Early Learning Program and our SPARK Summer Camp. We believe that all children have a right to transformational and equitable learning opportunities. It is our goal to provide learning opportunities to enhance the current education pipeline in the Avenue community.

CHALLENGE: Alabama is ranked 44th in the country for literacy. 

WHY IT MATTERS: Fifty-one percent of 4th-grade public school students in Mobile County scored less than proficient on the reading portion of the ACAP Summative Test and are considered not on target for college readiness by the time they reach the 11th grade.  Students who received high-quality Pre-K demonstrated a higher likelihood of proficiency in reading and math compared to those who did not. 

OUR SOLUTION: Studies show a positive correlation between student incentives and academic performance. Our ABC Program bridges the literacy gap by funding and organizing student incentive programs, high-quality early learning opportunities, summer academic programs, and literacy camps. We believe in celebrating students’ accomplishments, growth in their diagnostic testing scores and their report cards, as well as in the importance of summer learning loss prevention. Click here to read about our recent incentives and literacy and summer camps on our blog.

CHALLENGE: One in four children in Mobile County experience food insecurity. Additionally, one in six children suffer from childhood obesity. Together these stats show us there is a great need for nutrition education among our youth. 

WHY IT MATTERS: The USDA defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life. Food insecurity effects can include serious health issues when people must choose between food and medicine and healthcare or rent, bills, transportation, etc. Food insecurity also makes it more difficult for a child to grow and learn. Furthermore, 24.1% of youth from families in the lowest-income group have obesity, compared to 9.7% of those in families from the highest-income group.

OUR SOLUTION: Equip our youth with knowledge to break the cycle of childhood obesity and experience healthier outcomes as adults. We’re currently doing this through our Cooking Club Academic Support Program in partnership with The Cookery Project. This Cooking Club works to instill healthier eating habits through food literacy as well as engage and empower children and adolescents through food sourcing, nutrition education, and culinary experiences.

To continue funding and raise awareness for these efforts and expand our outreach to address more challenges, we initiated our annual Light the Fuse campaign. Our key focus in the month of November was on the Light the Fuse fundraising challenge. We encouraged our board of directors, Order of Fuse members, community supporters, and the general public to 1) donate, 2) fundraise, 3) share. Several of our supporters stepped up and chose to help crowd-fund by joining the campaign and becoming an Igniter. Participants created a personalized fundraising page to track the donations made to their campaigns to climb the leaderboards and compete to win fun prizes. 

Prizes ranged from swag bags and gift cards to a luxurious beach getaway. Order of Fuse members Kristin Odom, Maggie Shreve, and Maddie Wright (not pictured) joined our Light the Fuse fundraising challenge and won prizes for sharing their Igniter pages on social media. These fabulous ladies won some Fuse Project swag, Taco Mama gift cards, and a Mobile Bay Firewood package. 

Board member, Spencer Tuell, was our Top Fundraiser in Light the Fuse 2023. We’d like to thank Spencer for his dedication and passion for our mission as well as send a huge thank you to Perdido Beach Resort, Flora-Bama, and CoastAL for sponsoring an awesome resort prize package for our annual fundraising campaign. This beach getaway includes a 2-night stay at Perdido Beach Resort accompanied by gift cards from Flora-Bama Marina and Watersports and CoastAL Orange Beach! Partnerships like these are vital to our operations and go a long way to support our efforts.

 We are incredibly grateful for all our supporters - our amazing board of directors and staff, dedicated volunteers, generous sponsors and donors, community partners, and passionate Order of Fuse members. Because of your help with Light the Fuse, we are able to ignite the spark for innovation, funding, and implementation of projects benefiting children along Alabama’s Gulf Coast. 

At Fuse Project, no donation is too small. Every dollar makes a difference when it comes to igniting the spark for innovation, funding, and implementation of projects benefiting children in our community. All proceeds from our Light the Fuse campaign further holistic community revitalization in the Avenue as we bring together investments in excellent mixed-income housing, cradle-to-college and career education, and community wellness. Here is a look at how funds raised during this campaign will be used.

We fundamentally believe in the importance of building authentic relationships while working with everyone in our community. This approach to holistic community revitalization is inspired by the Purpose Built Communities model and nationally proven to help end generational poverty in a neighborhood. Working together with community members, our goal is to catalyze transformational change, innovatively meet the needs of the community, and close the opportunity gap. Not only does this improve well-being and quality of life for neighborhood residents, it also impacts far beyond the property lines to provide upward economic mobility for the neighborhood.

To cap off our year and a successful Light the Fuse campaign, we hosted two December Light the Fuse partner events, one with PJ’s Coffee and one with Lush Home Garden Event. On Saturday, December 2, we celebrated the holiday season with PJ’s Coffee in Tillman's Crossing. PJ’s Coffee is your pastry destination offering freshly baked pastries, muffins, scones, cinnamon rolls, and croissants - including our personal favorite, the spinach and feta! We spent the afternoon at PJ’s hanging with none other than Santa himself. The event included free photos with the big man and other activities such as ornament making and coffee stations. PJ’s also very generously donated a portion of sales for the day to us. We are also grateful to our friends at iHeart Radio for introducing us to PJ’s Coffee and setting up the event. 

We are also grateful to our wonderful friends at Lush Florist and Gifts who hosted a Light the Fuse Floral Design Class for us on December 6. Lush is a full-service floral design firm and event specialist. With unique one-of-a-kind floral arrangements, stylish gifts and elegant event decorations, they are your one-stop-shop for classy southern living amenities. They are a full-service boutique florist that specializes in weddings, events, and everyday celebrations, helping their clients celebrate all of the special times in their lives. The experts at Lush taught us all sorts of cool tips and tricks about floral arranging during the class, like where to trim stems and how to make blooms look fuller or last longer. They also very generously donated to us a portion of sales and registration fees for the evening. We had a great time playing with flowers, socializing, and shopping in their beautiful new store downtown on Government Street. Be sure to check out the new downtown location as well as their new west Mobile store (located by Pour Baby), and their arrangements available inside Piggly Wiggly (Airport and University location).

The Light the Fuse fun didn’t end with 2023! To celebrate the New Year and our new resolutions, we partnered with 2023 Lip Sync Battle team, Bay City Boot Camp, on Sunday, January 7 at 4 pm for a 30-minute bodyweight workout class. Bay City Boot Camp provides a holistic nutritional and fitness approach in a safe, fun, and welcoming environment where you'll feel like you belong. They take pride in delivering excellent customer service, value, and resources to ensure you get the best experience possible. Their passion is transforming lives and that's exactly what they are committed to doing for you through not just fat loss but helping you transform mentally as well, having a ripple effect on those close to you in life. The class they hosted for Light the Fuse was no different. It was a great sweat session with a super fun dance/hip hop heart rate challenge at the end. We had a jaw-dropping 40 people register for this class and pack Bay City Boot Camp to maximum capacity. 

We also had Ginger and Spice on site donating 10% of sales from their delicious, nutritious cold-pressed juice to reinvigorate us after class. Ginger and Spice is a small Black-owned business in downtown Mobile with a clear-cut vision to improve access to healthy food options and aid in building an equitable, sustainable food system in our city. Their goal is to bring affordable, nutritious, high-quality, cold-pressed juice to neighborhoods across Mobile. They offer a thoroughly crafted menu of raw, science-based juice programs that are ideal for maximum physical and mental performance. Ginger and Spice seeks to transform the way you engage with fruits and vegetables through offerings that have no preservatives or additives and are simply raw and natural. We are so appreciative of their support and likeminded mission. 

We are incredibly lucky to have such supportive community partners like PJ’s, Lush, Bay City Boot Camp, and Ginger and Spice, but our Light the Fuse partner events don’t end there. Our goal is to have one event per month in 2024 for our annual calendar of events. This not only helps Fuse Project raise awareness (and funds) for our mission, but also highlights your business and invests back into the community. If you want to help Light the Fuse by partnering with us to host a public fundraising event like these incredible community-minded businesses did, fill out our interest form below, and we will be in touch. 

Don’t miss out on any of these fun events in the future! Be sure to subscribe to News from Fuse, follow us on social media, and check out our Events tab for upcoming event listings.