Medicine Hat Media

Community Foundation Announces Spring Grant Recipients

In continuing its rich history of supporting charitable organizations in the region, the Community Foundation of Medicine Hat and Southeastern Alberta today announced a grants distribution totaling $65,355.

Over half of the grant funds will go toward 11 community projects. Groups applied for these funds in March and the Foundation’s grants committee undertook the process of choosing the grant recipients. These community groups will receive $40,814 of the funds while the other $24,541 is allocated to pre-determined designated grants for charitable organizations in the region.

The Community Foundation has now awarded 619 grants in its 18-year history, worth over $2.7 million.

“We are proud to be able to help build our community into an even better place,” said executive director Mike Christie. “This spring’s grants enable our foundation to support many facets of the community and continue our long-standing efforts to be a 360-degree grant maker.”

The grants announced today include funds to support fitness and education, mental health, community services, homelessness and ill children.

Community grants this spring include:

Kidsport Medicine Hat/Redcliff: Continuing program funding, $5000.00

Alzheimer Society of Alberta/NWT: Technology hardware and software upgrade, $2300.00

Medicine Hat & District Citizen Advocacy Society: Guide At Your Side program funding, $5000.00

Habitat for Humanity: Trailer for Habitat’s ReStore, $3500.00

MHSD #76: History in the Hills event, $4966.00

MHSD #76: Medicine Hat Rotary Track/Soccer Complex Improvement Project, $4000.00

Glenview Nazarene Church: C-Can Project (allowing the collection of more donated furniture to assist the homeless), $4410.00

Children’s Wish Foundation: Granting wishes in the Medicine Hat community, $2500.00

Medicine Hat Family Services: Laptop for presentations, $850.00

SPEC Association for Children and Families: Local LINKS booklet edition #6 (guide to community services in Brooks region), $3300.00

The Champion’s Centre Inc.: Compliance Assistant (to assist Medicine Hat residence in its transition to a licensed social care facility), $4988.00

Carol Lees, regional manager of the Alzheimer Society of Alberta/NWT, said their Community Foundation grant for technology upgrades will enable them to serve the community better.

“It affects our ability to function; without it we aren’t able to do as much as we can for our clients,” she said. “It’s incredibly important, as it ensures our services are efficient.”

Lees also noted the value of a Community Foundation grant in today’s difficult financial times.

“We’re all doing more because of the economy,” she said. “With more effective technology we become better for our clients and our community. We are so grateful.”

The Foundation received applications totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, but grant giving is limited as it is based on the investment performance of its endowments. Current endowments to the Foundation total over $6.2 million.

“We look forward to the day when a larger endowment allows us to fund more charitable requests,” Christie said. “Every year we are overwhelmed with requests that average six or seven times our capacity to provide grants. So there are many organizations in the community in need of funds and we hope to do more for them in the future.”

The Community Foundation holds two grant cycles each year, one in spring and one in fall. The next grant application deadline will be September 15, 2010.

A complete list of grant recipients is available at www.mhcf.ca. For more information, please contact Mike Christie at (403) 527-9038.

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