OUR "Grupo PUNTACANA with the Community " PROJECT: THANKING THE PEOPLE OF LA ALTAGRACIA!

A couple of months ago Grupo PUNTACANA issued a press release about our "Grupo PUNTACANA With The Community" Project, which is something we also alluded to in last week’s blog post and wanted to take the time to discuss in a little more detail today.

As you know from reading this blog, Grupo PUNTACANA is all about making a difference in people’s lives and engaging in local philanthropy. Given that, it only made sense for us to celebrate our 45th anniversary by giving back to the local communities. That is why we are pleased to spend today giving you a brief overview of the "Grupo PUNTACANA With The Community" Project, why it matters to us, and why it will matter for the entire La Altagracia province.

The name itself - Grupo PUNTACANA con la Comunidad -  is something you have probably already figured out: RD $45 million for 45 years. This RD$45 million is going to be spent developing social and community programs in the town of Veron as well as other areas in La Altagracia province. Mr. Frank Ranieri, president of Grupo PUNTACANA, announced that instead of throwing lavish parties in honor of the 45th anniversary of the resort, we are going to invest that money into local programs to benefit the community and improve the quality of life for the people of La Altagracia. If you’ve been following our blog posts regularly, this probably doesn’t come as much of a shock.

Best of all, the projects that the Puntacana Foundation are going to fund will come directly from the community. As Mr. Ranieri explained on La Revuelta de la Mañana, the Puntacana Foundationis looking to fund projects costing between $500,000 and $2 million that come from community leaders and community groups to build infrastructure and invest money to enrich the community. He further explained that the projects themselves need to provide a tangible benefit to the community or to the group that is submitting the proposal. Some of the examples he offered included recreational fields for sports, community centers, parks, and solutions to improve infrastructure. The other condition is that
there has to be another group willing to also put in money and effort to accomplish these goals so that there is an equal investment on the part of the community. The deadline for these proposals passed in August, and the proposals are currently in the process of being reviewed by a committee. We are very excited to see some of the things that the "Grupo PUNTACANA con la comunidad" Project will help to create.

And that’s it! Now that the proposals have been submitted and are being reviewed by a committee, we get to wait and see what wonderful ideas community groups have come up with to enrich their towns. While we are still early in the process of this wonderful program, we know that some of these projects will make a huge difference in the lives of residents in La Altagracia province. If everything proceeds according to schedule, the chosen projects will be finished by the end of June 2015 and we will have helped bring a lot of exciting new projects into the world in a very short amount of time.