The Chilkat Valley Community Foundation last week awarded $15,500 to 14 local nonprofits, doubling the number of groups that received funding last year.
The foundation awarded $10,500 to seven nonprofits in 2013.
This year marked the foundation’s sixth grant cycle and saw several new applicants, including the Hammer Museum, Haines Hot Shots and Becky’s Place Haven of Hope.
“We were really glad to see organizations that hadn’t applied to us before apply, and we were glad to see such a great group of projects,” said foundation board chair Ann Myren.
The Chilkat Valley Preschool received $3,500, the maximum amount available, for a new facility.
Myren said the foundation is considering changing the rules for next year so applicants could receive up to 25 percent of the foundation’s available funds.
Jackie Mazeikas, president of Becky’s Place Haven of Hope, said she was surprised by the $2,000 her nonprofit received. The goal of Becky’s Place is to open a “safe house” for abused women and children.
Becky’s Place received $1,000 outright, and was also presented with a $1,000 “challenge.” If Mazeikas can raise $1,000 in the next year, the community foundation will match that and write the nonprofit a check for another $1,000.
“Our short term goal is to raise enough funds to lease a house on a yearly basis. The budget for leasing the house is $55,000, which covers rent, insurance, food, utilities, clothing and medical assistance. This also includes salary for one individual who will live on the premises,” Mazeikas said.
Southeast Alaska Independent Living received $1,500 this year for “Learn to Adapt: Winter Snow Sports Clinic.”
SAIL’s Haines program director Sierra Jimenez said the grant will help bring adaptive ski instructors, equipment and a 15-passenger, wheelchair-accessible bus to Haines for a one-day ski clinic on the Fort Seward Parade Grounds.
There will be a bunny hill as well as a Nordic trail, set and groomed by the Haines Ski Club. The bus will act as a chairlift for anyone who needs it, and Marnie Hartman’s Body IQ office in the tower at the base of the parade grounds will serve as a warming hut.
“We maintain anybody, no matter what their ability level, can ski with the right equipment,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez is aiming to hold the event Jan. 24.
Other grants awarded at the reception included $1,001 for Big Brothers Big Sisters for an advertising campaign; $999 for the Children’s Reading Foundation of Haines’ “Play with Purpose” program; $500 for new lobby tables for the Foundation for the Chilkat Center for the Arts; $1,250 for the Haines Animal Rescue Kennel’s spay and neuter assistance program; $1,000 in operating support for the Haines Dolphins Swim Team; $500 for new arena lighting for Haines Hockey; $500 to Haines Hot Shots for skeet field supplies; $700 to the Hammer Museum for an introduction to blacksmithing workshop; $1,000 to Lynn Canal Broadcasting for its news expansion project; $600 to Lynn Canal Conservation for “LCC Presents Sustainable Wild Salmon;” and $500 to the Southeast Alaska State Fair for its carousel restoration project.
Fourteen people sat on the foundation’s grantmaking committee. The group used a structured review process and read, scored, discussed and prioritized the applications.