Page 31 - TOB Magazine March/April 2013

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TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
MARCH/APRIL 2013
On February 7 the J.C.
Newman Cigar factory in
historic Ybor City hosted the
2013 Tampa Toast Across America to
benefit the Cigar Family Charitable
Foundation. Hosts Carlito Fuente
and Eric Newman welcomed more
than 200 guests, raising $20,000 for
the children and families of the Cigar
Family Project.
For the first time in the event’s
history, three students from the Cigar
Family School in the Dominican
Republic were able to attend and speak
one-on-one with guests. “I am very
grateful to God and all the founders
of Cigar Family,” said Nelson Suarez,
a former Cigar Family School student
who is now studying medicine at a
university in the Dominican Republic.
“Your effort is not in vain.” Anthony
Manuel Aybar De Jesus and Rossy
Esther Labron Reinoso, both juniors at
the Cigar Family School, also attended.
The Toast Across America is a series
of national events and supporting
retailers who raise almost half a
million dollars annually for the Cigar
Family Charitable Foundation, a
501(c)3 charity that uses education,
empowerment and health care to
uplift impoverished people of the
Dominican Republic. Thanks to the
generous support of the Fuente and
Newman families, all donations from
Toast Across America events go
toward funding programs at the Cigar
Family Project located in the Bonao
region of the Dominican Republic.
Founded in 2001, the Cigar Family
Project currently includes a primary
and high school serving over 400
students, a health care center serving
more than 100,000 people in 12
communities, recreational and sports
facilities, a community kitchen,
vocational classes, health and hygiene
outreach programs and college
placement initiatives. More than 100
students have graduated from the
Cigar Family School thus far, with 97
percent going on to attend college.
For more information on the project,
visitwww.cf-cf.org. TOB
$20K Raised
for
Children
of the
Dominican Republic
The historic J.C. Newman Cigar Factory hosted
2013’s Tampa Toast Across America.