Press Release Provided by The Wonderful Company
During her May commencement address to the 2020 and 2021 graduating classes of California State University, Fresno, Lynda Resnick – philanthropist, vice-chairman and co-owner of The Wonderful Company – is unveiling a new, $1 million fund that she and her husband, Stewart Resnick, established to inspire students to do local community service.
The $1 million “Wonderful Butterfly Project” fund provides up to $500 for each of the first 2,000 graduates from the Fresno State classes of 2020 and 2021 who complete two days of service with nonprofit organizations in their own communities. In total, the fund will generate 32,000 hours of volunteer work for Central Valley organizations. Graduates can visit www.wonderfulbutterflyproject.com to match with local nonprofits and apply for funding once they’ve completed their community service hours.
“Never underestimate the powerful impact you can have in your own backyard. When you serve in the same place that you live, you build momentum, movements, and relationships that make an indelible mark on your community,” Lynda Resnick states in her commencement address. “We hope that this million-dollar gift to your classes will inspire you. Flap your wings, kick up dust, and bring a tornado of change down on anyone who tells you that it’s impossible to fix the world. You are the ones who will take to the air and inspire us all to fly higher once again!”
The Resnicks know from experience that local philanthropy has a lasting impact. Wonderful’s paradigm- changing, place-based approach to corporate social responsibility is focused on education, health and wellness, and community building in California’s Central Valley, where many of its products are grown and where most of its workforce resides. Lynda Resnick personally guides The Wonderful Company’s corporate social responsibility efforts and hopes this accessible approach to philanthropy will appeal to the graduates she addresses this weekend.
About “Wonderful Butterfly Project”
The “Wonderful Butterfly Project” is a $1 million fund established by Lynda and Stewart Resnick to inspire the 2020 and 2021 graduates of California State University, Fresno to engage in community service. The name of the fund is inspired by the butterfly effect, a phenomenon that was first discovered as part of chaos theory by Edward Lorenz, a mathematician who revealed through a computer model that the tiny flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil might start a ripple effect that ultimately caused a tornado in Texas. The Resnicks believe that small, individual actions can start a domino effect that can cascade into tremendous good. Learn more at www.wonderfulbutterflyproject.com.
