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Dawn’s Heart, home

About Dawn’s Heart

Turning gratitude into practical help

Dawn’s Heart turns gratitude into practical help. Cure on Wheels provides the charitable and fiscal home; Dawn’s Heart develops and delivers programs; and What Are You Grateful For Today? invites people to share stories, volunteer, and give.

Origin

Born from one person’s gratitude

Dawn’s Heart grew from founder George S. Bernardich’s experience after his Stage 4 adenocarcinoma lung cancer diagnosis, and from the support, prayer, and kindness that surrounded him. That experience raised a simple question: what am I grateful for today, and how can that gratitude help someone else?

The work begins with the disruption caused by cancer, then extends to immediate community needs, long-term opportunity, and accessible acts of service.

Brand illustration of a Tampa Bay sunrise over still water

Our mission

Dawn’s Heart turns gratitude into action by helping people through life-changing hardship, mobilizing communities to meet immediate needs, and creating pathways toward greater stability, opportunity, and hope.

Dawn Starts in the Heart

Our governing cycle

Gratitude, then Action, then Impact, then Gratitude

The Dawn’s Heart governing cycle: Gratitude, then Action, then Impact, then Gratitude again.

  1. Gratitude. Someone is grateful.

  2. Action. They act.

  3. Impact. Someone’s life gets better.

  4. Gratitude. That person has something new to be grateful for.

And the circle continues.

Our structure

One charitable home, one program portfolio

The structure stays intentionally lean. Cure on Wheels, Inc. is the legal and fiscal home. Dawn’s Heart is the sponsored Project through which programs are developed and delivered. What Are You Grateful For Today? surrounds the portfolio as the public engagement initiative.

  1. Charitable home

    Cure on Wheels, Inc.

    501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor, legal home, financial administrator, and ultimate oversight

  2. Mission platform

    Dawn’s Heart

    Fiscally sponsored charitable Project of Cure on Wheels: mission, program development, and delivery

  3. Programs of Dawn’s Heart:

    • First 180

      Flagship Direct-Service Program

    • Fill the Truck

      Signature Community Platform

    • Skilled Trades Legacy Project

      Opportunity and Self-Sufficiency Program

    • Heart Kits

      Supporting Volunteer Activity

  4. WAYGFT: What Are You Grateful For Today?

    A Dawn’s Heart initiative for gratitude stories, engagement, and fundraising that connects people to every program. It is not a separate organization or charitable program.

Learn more

Mission

What Dawn’s Heart exists to do, and the line that guides it.

Founder

The personal journey and question behind Dawn’s Heart.

How We Work

The continuum, portfolio discipline, and decision filter.

Transparency

Fiscal sponsorship, oversight, and current program status.

Common questions

Questions people ask

Short answers for search and assistants. Program pages still carry the current status of each initiative.

What is Dawn’s Heart?

Dawn’s Heart is a fiscally sponsored charitable Project of Cure on Wheels, Inc. It turns gratitude into action for cancer patients, families, and the Tampa Bay community through practical help, volunteer service, and pathways toward stability. Dawn’s Heart is not a separate 501(c)(3) organization.

Is Dawn’s Heart a 501(c)(3) nonprofit?

No. Dawn’s Heart is a fiscally sponsored charitable Project of Cure on Wheels, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Gifts designated for Dawn’s Heart are received and administered by Cure on Wheels, Inc.

Where does Dawn’s Heart work?

Dawn’s Heart is rooted in St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, and the Tampa Bay community in Florida.

Who founded Dawn’s Heart?

George S. Bernardich founded Dawn’s Heart after his November 15, 2023 diagnosis with Stage 4 adenocarcinoma lung cancer. The work grew from the question: what am I grateful for today, and how can that gratitude help someone else?