Christmas came a few weeks early for a number of Altona area organizations.
The Altona Community Foundation last week announced the recipients of its fall granting period, totalling nearly $73,000 to 12 community projects and non-profits.
Foundation board president Haydon Friesen says they’re especially excited to announce a $50,000 commitment spread out over the next three years to Altona Minor Soccer’s soccer park project.
“The construction of the new soccer complex north of the MEC in Altona, that project checked a lot of the boxes as far as community impact, usability, and accessibility for the broader community and area,” he said.
Larger grants like that are always very gratifying for the foundation, Friesen noted.
“Over the last five years, there’s been some pretty significant investments in capital projects here in Altona that we’ve been able to make more significant dollar value contributions to, which we’re very happy to have the capacity to do.”
Other fall grant recipients include:
• Altona & Area Family Resource Centre for its Healthy Family program.
• South Central Regional Library Altona branch for a service area desk.
• Altona Minor Baseball for a pitching machine and line chalker.
• Altona Minor Hockey for U15 female jerseys.
• Gardens on Tenth for Roam Alert/Wander Guard software.
• Kiddie Sunshine Centre for furniture and kitchen equipment.
• Pembina Valley Pregnancy Care Centre for educational sessions.
• Rhineland Area Food Bank toward upgrading its new location.
• Rosenfeld Good Neighbor Centre for facility upgrades
• Town of Altona toward the Van Gogh painting restoration.
• Youth for Christ for Makerspace technology.
It’s always a difficult decision for the granting committee to choose from the many applications they receive, Friesen said, noting they were pleased to see such a variety of organizations reach out for support this fall.
“We received a few new organizations that had never applied before, and some that haven’t applied in a long time,” he shared. “As well as some repeat donors that have some pretty significant projects on the horizon for them that we’re pleased to be able to support.”
The foundation looks for projects that have a broad reach in the communities it serves: Altona, Gretna, Rosenfeld and the Municipality of Rhineland.
“We try to give to as many organizations as we can … to broaden the scope of our granting dollars to impact as many varied demographics of the community as we can,” Friesen explained.
This fall’s grants are the second batch for the foundation, who gave out $70,000 to 11 recipients last spring for a total of over $140,000 for the year.
“It’s certainly up from previous years,” Friesen noted. “The significant contribution from the Thomas Sill Foundation winding down their operations and the milestone contribution that was made to the Altona Community Foundation as a result is now making an impact.”
But it’s also the everyday donors who allow the foundation to do what it does each year. A donation to the Altona Community Foundation is truly a gift that keeps on giving, Friesen said.
“It’s something that lasts forever,” he said of the endowment funds the agency oversees, the interest from which allow them to issue grants. “Those dollars are going to keep earning more and more and we’re going to be able to keep giving out more money every year.”
You can learn more or make a donation to the foundation online at altonacommunityfoundation.com.
