42 projects receive $363 Kin Community Foundation grants
Lethbridge Soup Kitchen awarded $25,000
Non-profit organizations are excited to start and continue their projects after receiving Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta funding grants for 42 projects within southern Alberta.
The foundation awarded $363,155 to the organizations through their Communities Priorities Fund and the Henry S. Varley Fund for Rural Life.
Steve Miles, treasurer, executive and grant chair for the Community Foundation, said they are always honoured to provide funding but find it difficult to decide which projects will be supported.
“It is a big challenge to decide who gets the money but what we look for is the impact in the community,” said Miles. “We are looking for feasibility for the project and we are looking to see how well our money can be utilized in that project and anything that is going to benefit the community.”
Selecting candidates may be difficult, but Miles said the end reward of granting the projects funding is well worth the difficult decisions.
“It really is a joy, because when do you really get to give money away?” chuckled Miles. “When we make the phone calls to tell people that we are going to make their day because they have received their grant, it is a happy day and a happy celebration.”
Lethbridge Soup Kitchen was one of the recipients of the Community Priority Fund grant and Bill Ginther, executive director, was ecstatic to find out they doubled the amount of money they applied for to improve their new breakfast program.
“We applied for $14,700 but they saw and liked what we were doing and decided to grant us with $25,000 which is really great,” said Ginther. “This will allow us to buy some new additional equipment and things that we need to make our breakfast program more efficient to make sure that we are still serving those in need.”
Don Wentz, president of the Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation, was happy to hear their initiative to enhance the facility to accommodate visitors with reduced mobility would be funded with an $11,000 grant.
“We really appreciate Community Foundation for giving us the grant because the Alberta Birds of Prey is a charitable organization and we get little to no funding from the government to support our facility,” said Wentz.
Some other major recipients included a $25,000 grant to STARS Foundation for training on new technology in medicine and clinical training; more than $10,000 for the Chinook High School media centre; and the Richlands Victim Services Society of Picture Butte received $8,000 to purchase a certified service dog for the victims of crime and trauma.
For over 50 years, Community Foundation has been motivated to build stronger communities and organizations with their funds. Over the next year they will be granting over $800,000 to community projects to support organizations that are contributing and improving the lives of southwestern Albertans.