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A Generous Helping
Horne doesn’t so much have a job
as a series of passions, only one of
which is restaurant ownership. Others
include the welfare of children in Manatee
County, particularly those who are
underprivileged, the school district, and
education in general, including for adults.
He believes in sharing the wealth
of business knowledge that he has
accumulated over almost four decades
(including, for example, treating your staff
and customers like family), as a guest
lecturer at USF Sarasota-Manatee and
Hillsborough Community College.
John and Amanda have won awards,
chaired committees, sat on boards and
hosted events for local organizations and
charities that are too numerous to list here
(you can see them all on the website www.
oysterbar.net.)
They raise and give away not only
money - hundreds of thousands each
year - to causes close to their hearts,
but they also donate time and hands-on
effort. For example, for a recent road
race, they not only donated the food,
but cooked and served it themselves.
They are warm, gregarious and have big
hearts, according to many who know
them well.
“They are involved everywhere,” said
Amy C. Wick Mavis, Executive Director
of PACE Manatee Center for irls, an
organization the Hornes have supported
for 15 years. She noted that while the
couple already does so much for PACE
and numerous other organizations, the
Hornes are always looking for new and
innovative ways to help. They are positive
and determined and when they get a new
idea, they make it happen, she said.
“The scope and magnitude of the
responsibility they feel toward our
community is really unparalleled,” Wick
Mavis said, and joked, “They are going
to a part of heaven I’ll never see.”
Rewarded fo
Reading Initiative
The Hornes were recently recognized
for their charitable ways. In April, they
won the ational Restaurant Association
Educat ional Foundat ion’s annual
Restaurant eighbor Award for their
“Dive into Reading” program. The national
award recognizes outstanding community
service and involvement.
The couples’ innovation, love of their
community, and ability to get things done,
is why they won, said Beth Duda, Director
of the Suncoast Campaign for rade
Level Reading, which is the umbrella
organization for the Hornes’ project.
“They live in a world of possibilities,”
Duda said, noting that when the Hornes
learned that 50 percent of students in
Manatee County weren’t meeting reading
benchmarks for their grade levels, they
decided to do something about it.
“And they changed the trajectory for more
than 70 kids,” Duda said.
“Dive into Reading” was Amanda’s
brainchild. As part of the pilot program
last June, the 70-plus kids Duda mentions
- from Blackburn, Tillman and Palm View
elementary schools - came to the Ellenton
oyster bar location for a free breakfast, a
group reading session and time with a
mentor for one-on-one reading help.
The children were given books to take,
and keep, and were taught table manners
and restaurant etiquette, too. It turned
out that by the end of the program, the
students showed an increase in reading
prociency.
The Hornes will put their $10,000
Restaurant eighbor Award right back
into the program, which this summer
will be expanded to include all 15 Title
I elementary schools - more than 325
kids. The program will be offered at
multiple restaurant locations, including
the Ellenton and Bradenton oyster bars.
“At every turn, the Hornes are number
one, celebrating the community we live
in, and trying to make it an even better
place to live,” Duda said. “I admire them
so much.”
/oysterbar.net