The Smokin Tabacco x Cigar Family Charitable Foundation Fundraiser is an annual raffle that we hold in honor of the amazing organization that was started by the Fuente and Newman families. To date, we have raised a total of $110,840.
The Cigar Family Charitable Foundation began in 2001 when long time cigar industry business partners, the Fuente and Newman families, formalized the dream of improving people’s lives in the mountainous Bonao region of the Dominican Republic. By focusing on families, they hoped to give the children in this cigar producing region an opportunity for a better future.
Consisting of five rural communities, the region suffers from extreme poverty, an overcrowded and inadequate educational system, poor water quality which greatly affects the population’s health and little or no means of transportation for sustainable employment in the area.
The Foundation partnered with the Instituto Dominicano de Desarrollo Integral (IDDI), a Dominican-based nonprofit organization, who for the past 30 years has been fighting poverty by providing training and the skills necessary to make a positive change for those living in both urban and rural regions of the Dominican Republic.
What began as a plan to add a wing onto an existing school has grown into the 23-acre Cigar Family Complex. The Complex includes a primary and secondary school, a health center, an organic farming program as well as a sports and recreational facility.
Through the Cigar Family Complex, children and families are being provided with the education, resources and tools they need to help empower themselves to create opportunities for their future.