Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Community Foundation presented more than $10,000 to six organizations last week as part of its annual Alice Blazer Community Grant cycle.
The foundation presented the awards during a ceremony April 4 at the Sweet Home Police Department. The foundation annually awards grants to local organizations for a wide variety of projects and activities that provide lasting improvements to the Sweet Home community.
– Cascades West Council of Governments received a $2,500 grant for its Meals on Wheels program.
– Cycle Forward received $562 for its School Essential Hygiene Project.
– The Sweet Home Pregnancy Care Center received $1,200 for its Baby Safety Project.
– The Holley Elementary School Parent Teacher Club received $2,500 for playground safety upgrades.
– Sweet Home Emergency Ministries received $1,020 for its emergency preparedness program.
– The Sweet Home Charter School received $2,500 for its Garden to Cafeteria greenhouse project.
“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 endowments, including the Alice Blazer Endowment, administered by SHCF,” said Bob Burford, Community Foundation president. “In addition to the above grants, an additional $30,000 was transferred to the Community Foundation’s Long Term Endowment Fund. This fund was established to provide community support for worth efforts.
“The Community Foundation’s primary mission is to improve the quality of life here in this community.”
Grants are awarded in four different categories: Children and families, education, livability and arts and culture.
Speaking for the community at large, Burford addressed grant recipients: “Thank you for your efforts. It’s noticed. People like you work hard and go so far beyond your comfort zone to make this such a great community.”
Each recipient represents a project that the community should be proud of, Burford said.
Cindy Rice, food pantry manager, accepted funds for Sweet Home Emergency Ministries’ MRE project, which will use funds to purchase six industrial shelving units to support SHEM’s plan for disaster events.
The shelves can be fixed or mobile and will store an inventory of food items with extended shelf life, including bottled water and sanitation supplies.
Through the program, SHEM will be able to distribute food and supplies to the community during the recovery from a catastrophic event, Rice said. SHEM is also developing an educational program to help families prepare for emergencies ahead of time, which is intended to help decrease the potential burden on local government during disaster and recovery.
Meals on Wheels receives Council of Governments funds to support the purchase of balanced meals served the Sweet Home Meal Site at the Sweet Home Center and for delivery to home-bound clients.
In 2017, Sweet Home program recipients received 22,937 meals. Total cost to deliver a meal is $9.54. The meals are provided free to clients. Meals are provided three days a week.
Clients may and some do contribute toward the meal, although it is not required. The current average donation is 55 cents per meal, according to the COG. Many clients are low- and fixed-income seniors who are unable to contribute at all, making support from a community funding source critical to the program.
COG Community Services Manager Jennifer Moore, Site Manager Norene Dennis and Meals on Wheels Supervisor Anita Lengacher accepted the funds.
The Meals on Wheels program is definitely a local program, Moore said. “We don’t do what we do without the support of these programs and volunteers.”
The program delivers about 200,000 meals per year to about 2,000 clients in Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties, Moore said. About 80 percent of them are delivered to residences.
“Yes, it’s a hot lunch,” Moore said, but it’s also “more than a meal.”
The service promotes safety, health and socialization, she said. Delivery drivers, for example, know the patterns of behavior for clients and can intervene in case of a major medical event. In one case, a delivery driver found a client who had fallen into a coma. The delivery functions additionally as a welfare check. The volunteer drivers are sometimes the only contact a client will have with anyone else on a regular basis.
In Sweet Home, Meals on Wheels serves some 85 persons per week, with about 15 to 20 eating in the dining room, Dennis said. That includes the volunteers.
“I just want to thank the board for your continued support,” Dennis said.
Anna Hudley accepted funds for Cycle Forward, which will use the money to provide approximately 764 hygiene items to the youths in six Sweet Home schools.
Many children go without the most basic necessities, and having the items available helps give the children confidence and takes away insecurities that come with poor hygiene, Hudley said. The items include feminine hygiene products, toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, laundry soap and more.
Hudley said she started Cycle Forward in 2016 to provide necessities to children in Linn County.
“I have a passion for kids that need items like that,” she said. “Every single dollar contributes to their hygiene,” and they can go to school every day feeling confident.
Accepting funds on behalf of the Holley PTC were Principal Todd Barrett and President Mindy Perry.
The funds will go toward new playground structures, Barrett said. The playground is open year-round to the community and is used by students during the school day. The playground was pieced together after the merger of Crawfordsville and Holley schools, and it is deteriorating.
It costs upward of $50,000 for a new playground, Barrett said.
The PTC and school are looking at replacing it next summer, he said.
Mandy Redick, an assistant at the Charter School, accepted funds for the greenhouse project.
The school uses the money to purchase materials and equipment for the greenhouse, which will allow for future growth of fruit and vegetables for the daily breakfast and lunch programs at the Charter School as well as teaching students skills they can use throughout their lifetimes.
“We have many gardeners, and we’re super excited to finish our greenhouse,” Redick said. “This will be really exciting to let the kids grow their own produce and then eat it. We’ll grow our own flowers for Mother’s Day as well.”
The greenhouse is under construction, Redick said. At this point, it still needs siding.
Karen Bostrom, executive director, accepted funds for the Pregnancy Care Center.
Funds will help pay for a mobile medical unit that provides free ultrasounds during early pregnancy, limited testing for sexually transmitted disease and prenatal vitamins. The mobile unit helps those without transportation to get early prenatal care.
Funds also will help purchase car seats and prenatal vitamins for clients who participate in the PCC’s free parent education program.
The community can support the foundation through direct tax-deductible donations, Burford said. Also, an individual, family or estate can establish a named endowment under the SHCF’s “Leave a Local Legacy” program.
These endowments can be established over a period of time and allows the donor to direct future support into any of our focus categories. This program assures that a family or loved one will be permanently remembered by the community.
The Foundation also offers partnerships with groups who may not have a tax-deductible nonprofit status, Burford said. “They can partner with us as long as it meets our goals as a foundation.”
Those wishing more information about SHCF or about establishing an endowment, can visit sweethomecommunityfoundation.org or call (541) 730-3670.