Life is full for Julie Johnson Weintraub. As president and chief operations officer of Gold & Diamond Source, Julie spends her days running the family jewelry empire. With the joy of her family working by her side, this would be enough for most. But Julie felt the call to do more. To serve her community in ways she felt were missing. Over the years, she’s established herself as more than just a community philanthropist. She reflects the gold standard of what it means to give back to the community.
Hands Across the Bay was founded in 2010. She was always looking for ways to give back, but as her success grew, she wanted to do more. “I’ve been through times where we had money and didn’t have money. So, I know what it’s like,” shared Weintraub. “I lost my home to bankruptcy when I was a kid, and it was not fun leaving that house. My mom would never think about reaching out to charity. But a little bit of help would have helped us a lot.”
Helping those impacted through no fault of their own quickly became a focus for her charity. “I started looking into why there wasn’t help for a hard-working family that was in crisis,” explained Weintraub. She called the big-name charities often cited as resources for families in need to find most funds ran out early each month. Hands Across the Bay partnered with law enforcement to provide a rapid response to families in crisis.
For Julie, it’s important to dig deeper to find a solution. “One time, a family called. They needed an electric bill paid. Instead of just paying, we evaluated what’s going on. Turned out the father worked in construction, but they were struggling financially. His boots were worn out, and he didn’t have tools. I bought him a really nice pair of boots. I got him a tool belt with all the tools in it, and he never had to ask us for help again. In fact, he volunteered and did handy work for our charity,” shared Weintraub.
Hands Across the Bay also allowed Julie to empower small grass-roots organizations, offering seed money to non-profits like The Kind Mouse, Wheelchairs for Kids and Honor Flight West Central Florida. She felt these smaller organizations needed more of a voice in the community to help their fundraising efforts.
“The people in our community are always giving to big charities. Nobody’s giving money to these people because they don’t have big, fancy events. There’s not enough exposure. I’m just a business owner doing commercials, but people have made it this celebrity thing. If you’re going to give me that attention, I’ll use that to advocate for others,” said Weintraub. That’s when her Dancing with the Stars event began. “I literally had to borrow money from the organizations. I said, ‘If you give me $7,000, I’ll bring you back double’,” Julie gave them each $30,000 that first year.
Advocating for women affected by domestic violence has also become a passion project for Julie. The stories she shares of women she’s helped are heartbreaking. “I’m so frustrated by the injustice. The epidemic of violence against women in our country is insane. I make sure I advocate for those women,” shared Weintraub. “I don’t want women to merely live at the mercy of the men around them. So, I’m fighting for justice and to put people who care about women’s rights in places they need to be.”
Hands Across the Bay has worked towards bringing more awareness and prevention to the domestic violence epidemic, printing over 90,000 copies of a newspaper for schools that talks about healthy relationship skills. They also send speakers to schools when asked to talk about prevention awareness. She’s also shifting where to focus education. “I think I was going about it wrong. I’m not talking to women anymore. I’m talking to men. I’m talking to people who don’t raise their kids,” shared Weintraub.
Julie’s team also focuses on bringing random acts of kindness to the community. It’s provided a way for families helped by Hands Across the Bay give back themselves. “People would be so happy. They’d be hugging us and crying and thankful. You can usually tell someone needs a little bit of extra help. The resilience of the human spirit inspires me,” said Weintraub.
Julie and Hands Across the Bay have given more than $4.3 million dollars to the community since they began, but their work isn’t done. You can help their mission to offer a helping hand for a better tomorrow by making a donation of funds or items or supporting one of their events each year. You can learn more about Hands Across the Bay and how you can help by visiting handsacrossthebay.org.
“I don’t want women to merely live at the mercy of the men around them.”
“People would be so happy. They’d be hugging us and crying and thankful. You can usually tell someone needs a little bit of extra help. The resilience of the human spirit inspires me.”