Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Community Foundation awarded its second round of grants to community projects Thursday morning.
The foundation announced the awards during Sweet Home Economic Development Group’s (SHEDG) Breakfast Club meeting Thursday morning.
SHEDG provided $20,000 to the foundation for this year’s projects, John Wittwer, a board member for the foundation and SHEDG said. The foundation also received several donations of $500 to $1,000. With the donations, the foundation has an endowment of just under $15,000, and “I expect that to grow remarkably in coming years.”
It awarded $16,215 to eight projects this year, up from six last year.
“When people give of themselves,” Wittwer said. “Then things begin to happen in the community.”
The projects receiving grants included the following:
— Start Making a Reader Today (SMART) received a grant for $1,800.
This grant will expand the existing SMART program in Sweet Home to serve 35 students.
SMART works at improving reading skills and life prospects for children who need assistance with reading.
Objectives of SMART include creating enthusiastic readers, increasing the number of graduating high school seniors and providing Oregon with a more literate and productive workforce.
— The Ames Creek Restoration Project received $2,080 to be used to create interpretive signs.
The project will include five 24-inch by 36-inch signs to be designed, created and installed by Sweet Home Junior High and Sweet Home High School students.
The signs will highlight the history of the area, the project and the local riparian and stream ecosystems.
The project complements all other phases of the Ames Creek Restoration Project, local outdoor education efforts in Sweet Home and School District 55 curriculum.
— Samaritan Pacific Health Services received $2,000 for its Senior Companion Program.
This grant will augment an existing program in Sweet Home.
The program is designed to provide extra non-taxed financial support to low-income seniors over the age of 60 by way of a small hourly stipend, mileage and meal reimbursement.
These seniors apply their life experiences to meeting the needs of more frail elderly or disabled persons. With the help those elderly and disabled persons are able to remain in their homes and more familiar surroundings much longer.
— School District 55 received $2,500 for its Safety Town project.
This grant will supply start-up funds to create a Safety Town open to Sweet Home children entering kindergarten in the fall.
Safety Town is a two-week safety awareness program featuring a child-sized town equipped with houses, police and fire stations, crosswalks, sidewalks, a working traffic light, railroad crossing and miniature pedal cars. The sessions are two hours per day during the program.
Children will learn a broad spectrum of safety lessons taught by local professionals.
The program has been in existence since 1964.
— Kidco Head Start’s Sweet Home Family Literacy Project received $2,500.
The goal of the project is to get Head Start children and their families to use the Sweet Home Library and built a foundation of literacy for Head Start children.
Grant funds will be used to buy age-appropriate books and magazines for the library, offer activities to increase library usage, encourage and support parents’ reading to their children and purchase books to give to families enrolled in Head Start.
— The Sweet Home Beautification Committee received $2,500 for its Main Street beautification efforts.
The grant will help fund the second phase of the Main Street project, which extends the existing median planters, trees and lights from 15th Avenue to 18th Avenue.
— The Boys and Girls Club of Sweet Home received $835 to complete security and safety upgrades.
Funding will be used to upgrade the Boys and Girls Club’s safety and security system to ensure the safety and quality care of the children, including a finger-printing procedure and background check on potential volunteers.
— Cascades West Senior Services Foundation received $2,000 for its Senior Meals Program.
The Senior Meals Program serves nutritious meals in the Sweet Home Senior Center three days a week, delivers meals to those in need and provides frozen meals for those who cannot get out of their home for days when the site is not serving meals.
The grant will be used as a one-to-one match for Medicaid funds, creating an opportunity to serve an additional 833 meals in the Sweet Home community.
The Sweet Home Community Foundation is a tax-exempt public benefit foundation organized to create a self-perpetuating fund to help make Sweet Home a self-sufficient, economical and socially prosperous community.
The goal of the foundation is to provide funding to a wide variety of projects and activities that provide lasting improvements to the community.
Funding for grants comes primarily from individuals, organizations and agencies.
SHEDG allocates some 10 percent of the proceeds from the Oregon Jamboree to the foundation.
For more information about the foundation, persons may contact Tracii Hickman at 367-2249.