Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Community Foundation awarded $8,875 to nine local charitable groups Thursday evening as part of its annual grant cycle.
The 2015 grants were awarded in four categories: children and families, education, livability and arts and culture.
The awards included the following:
– East Linn Museum Society, $1,000 to upgrade old computers.
The museum’s computer is old, and volunteer staff members worry that it will crash, said Gail Gregory on behalf of ELMS. The computer contains many photos that staff members share with people from far and wide.
– Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments, Sweet Home Area Meals on Wheels, $2,000 to help pay for food.
“Funding has been really, really tight, so this is very helpful,” said Norene Dennis, site manager.
– Sweet Home Charter School, $157 for playground equipment, such as jump ropes and balls.
– Sweet Home Public Library, $2,500 to pay for an early literacy station.
– Oak Heights Elementary School, $982 for a Real World Reading Room. The room will provide a library of nonfiction books, said teacher Tim Swanson. Many children don’t care for the fiction that dominates the school library.
“We need to engage our kids who are not readers,” Swanson said. Nonfiction engages them more than fiction.
– Sweet Home Parks, $536 to provide tools for regular work parties in the parks system as part of the city’s adopt-a-park program. Those who adopt parks are required to run six work parties per year to remove blackberries, pick up trash and keep an eye on the parks.
– Sunshine Industries, $300 for the presentation of a planned Understanding Disabilities Seminar.
Big changes are coming from the federal and state governments for organizations like Sunshine, said Brittany Donnell. Sunshine’s funding will look different.
Sunshine wants to hold a “conversation” with the public to help explain disabilities and the program, Donnell said. That event is scheduled for 3 p.m. on May 13.
Sunshine Industries provides a variety of services to developmentally disabled adults, including employment and education opportunities.
– Sweet Home Emergency Ministries, $400 for a hand sanitizer station. The grant will provide hand sanitizer stations at the Manna meal site and at the food bank to help stop the spread of illnesses, which can compromise the health of volunteers, staff and residents.
n Sweet Home Police Department, $1,000 for the Shop With a Cop program.
Sweet Home has participated in the program, where needy children are given cash and paired with a police officer to go shopping at Christmas time, for many years in partnership with Lebanon Police Department at Walmart. This year, Sweet Home will host its own Shop With a Cop program, providing 50 children with $50 each to shop at Bi-Mart. They typically shop for gifts for their families.
“Funding for these grants is primarily through the generous donations of those who live and work in the East Linn County area as well as the Alice Blazer Endowment Fund, a community of neighbors helping neighbors,” said foundation President Bob Burford.
The Sweet Home Community Foundation was conceived in 1994, Burford said, and in 1997 it received tax-exempt nonprofit status. Since then, it has awarded nearly $200,000 in grant funds.
Since the creation of the foundation, Burford said, it has striven to build a long-term endowment to create a “community of neighbors helping neighbors.”
A few years ago, a man whose wife taught in Sweet Home from 1957 to 1965 stepped up and donated a sizable amount of cash to help build the foundation’s endowment, Burford said. That donation was dubbed the Alice Blazer Endowment Fund.
“In 2013 the SHCF moved into a new program where we are partnering with local groups who have a project that can fall under the overall SHCF mission umbrella of “Improving the Quality of Life in Our Community,” Burford said. “Under this program, SHCF may enter into a fiscal sponsorship agreement for the project and be able to accept tax-deductible contributions dedicated for the project, including allowing donors to contribute by credit card. In addition, this program allows SHCF to provide a partnering tax exempt entity, which is required by many outside grant funding sources.”
The Fiscal Sponsorship Program opens up a wide variety of funding sources for community projects that may not otherwise be in a position to seek adequate funding, Burford said. The foundation is currently working with a grassroots committee to raise funds for “A Field For All Seasons,” the community football field artificial turf project.