January 23, 2025 by Samantha Bond Richman
Reproduced with permission
The glory of our waterfront parks in downtown St. Pete was on full display during Shopapalooza 2024. An extravagant feast for the senses: The sights! The smells! The deals! But what’s this? A booth with just a bowl of Hershey’s kisses, a few stacks of documents, and a woman with a very inviting smile. Oh, and a dog bowl of water for the four-legged attendees. She looked like a favorite aunt, and curious visitors soon find she represents Suncoast Voices for Children. It turns out, Kari Mainelli has been driven to help with the needs of others for as long as she has been able to make good things happen.
“Right out of college, I volunteered as a big sister for Big Brothers Big Sisters,” Mainelli shared over a cup of coffee a few days after the Shopapalooza. “My own childhood was so great, I needed to give back to kids who don’t get to just be kids.” Mainelli is a native Floridian and grew up in one of the state’s small towns to the north where most folks don’t visit unless they happen to have friends or family there. Mainelli has served on the Board of Directors for Suncoast Voices for Children for 12 years, in addition to her work with other charities. She has lived in Pinellas County for 32 years, and is currently a resident of Venetian Isles, where she resides with her husband Tom.
As her life and career developed (Mainelli is a CPA), she found a place to serve in numerous nonprofit organizations as the treasurer. In her work life, Mainelli is the Chief Financial Officer of a well-known financial trust organization.
It seemed odd that a financial executive would make the decision to rent a booth to support a nonprofit at Shopapalooza, though she is a big fan of the event. “It wasn’t all work for me that day,” she shared. “I did get a chance to shop in support of our local vendors.”
The booth was originally reserved by another Suncoast Voices for Children volunteer, Stacy Ward, who changed her mind about using it to promote her business. Instead, she chose to generously gift it to the organization, which then repurposed it for good public relations. So, without knowing the job description, Mainelli volunteered for “booth duty.” While she is energetic and enthusiastic in person, she is clearly equally capable of the diligence it takes to produce the audited financials, annual reports with spreadsheets, and attestations of accounting accuracy her duties require.
According to their website, the mission of Suncoast Voices for Children is to “provide for the unmet physical, psychological, educational, and social needs of abused, abandoned, and neglected children of Pinellas and Pasco Counties.” Further, they strive to prevent negative outcomes, and protect and provide for the children.
The circumstances and reasons for arriving under the care of Pinellas County Child Protection Investigation Division vary widely. They all reflect the overwhelming need to remove a child from abuse, neglect, or abandonment at the hands of their family or other adult entrusted with their care. Sometimes they are scooped up in the middle of the night by law enforcement. There is no suitcase, no bag lunch, no favorite toys.
One of the immediate needs of such children is a new bed. “Many have never had a new bed, or a bed of their own,” said Mainelli emotionally. This is an example of how Suncoast Voices for Children helps provide immediate relief in the lives of these children before they think the whole world is a bad place. They also have programs for free, immediate access to four clothing outfits plus toiletries at one of five locations in a program called Style Voiced. Now in their 20th year of service, Suncoast Voices for Children has implemented a financial literacy program with matching funds to eligible program participants. The dollar-for-dollar savings match called Opportunity Passport provides up to $3,000 for children in foster care to purchase assets like vehicles, or to cover rent deposits and more.
Suncoast Voices for Children is an important partner with other nonprofit organizations serving the population of Pinellas and Pasco Counties. They dovetail, tag team, and otherwise work together to fulfill the needs of children in the system. Some of these organizations are familiar, like the United Way, and an organization recently profiled in the Northeast Journal called Ready for Life, supporting young people as they turn 18 and age out of the foster care system into independent adulthood. The synergistic nature of the services they provide in conjunction with one another is by design.
Learn more about Suncoast Voices for Children, donate, or volunteer at suncoastvoices.org.
