Beaver Staff
Community Foundation for Lennox & Addington announced it would be providing $208,972 in grants, scholarships and bursaries to qualified recipients throughout the region.
This represents $125,756 in grants from the Community Foundation’s endowment funds, a one-time emergency grant created through the efforts of the Napanee District Secondary School Class of ’75, and $78,200 in grants made in partnership with Community Foundation of Canada and the Government of Canada’s Emergency Community Response Fund.
Tom da Silva, president of the Community Foundation for Lennox & Addington states, “The COVID-19 pandemic has not slowed the efforts of the Foundation in distributing community grants or Scholarships in 2020 bringing our total grants of $1,329,159 over the last 33 years. Prudent stewardship of endowment funds intrusted to the Foundation ensures we continue to meet our mandate of making Lennox & Addington a better place to live for all our residents. This year we distributed $64,281 in community grants and $61,475 in scholarships.”
Prior to selecting the recipients, the Foundation researched to ensure the grants could have a significant positive impact on the community.
“This year, our community grants align with our charitable objects plus the community priorities identified through our Vital Signs project: good health and well-being, no poverty and environmental action,” added Bob Childs, executive director of the Foundation. “Our full community grants listing can be found on our website www.cffla.ca/grant_recipients/”.
In June, responding to an urgent request, the Community Foundation for Lennox & Addington partnered with Dr. Malcolm Smith, a member of the Napanee District Secondary School class of 1975 to rapidly raise funds to create the Napanee District Secondary Class of ’75 Award (Covid-19 Response).
“COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the finances of many people in Canada, Ontario, and in the Napanee area,” said Smith. “People may have been laid off or lost their jobs due to the closure of their employer’s business. Recent graduates of NDSS may have been depending on salary from a summer or part-time job to pay for tuition, only to see that job disappear due to COVID-19. The result of this is that students who have been accepted to post-secondary institutions for the fall of 2020 may not be able to attend simply because they cannot afford the tuition. This award aims to help remove this barrier for at least one of these students”.
Taylor Thompson, NDSS Class of ’20 was the recipient of this $5,016 award and the award will support her studies at Trent University this fall.
The Community Foundation for Lennox & Addington has worked in partnership with Community Foundation of Canada and the Government of Canada to disburse $78,200 in grants to charitable organizations that are delivering valuable supports to groups in the region that have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. A complete listing of grants may be found at www.communityfoundations.ca/covid-19-granting-results-data-the-emergency-community-support-fund-ecsf/
“The Community Foundation for Lennox and Addington is proud to have been able to partner with so many organizations that are working to provide a level of stability during such extraordinary times” added Childs.