GILROY
– The Gilroy Assistance League awarded more than $10,000 in
grants to eight area recipients – ranging from charities to
kindergartners – during a luncheon last week at Eagle Ridge Golf
Course.
GILROY – The Gilroy Assistance League awarded more than $10,000 in grants to eight area recipients – ranging from charities to kindergartners – during a luncheon last week at Eagle Ridge Golf Course.
Founded in the 1950s, the league is a group of 35 active members, all women, who fund raise to distribute grants to worthy causes, especially those that are youth-oriented.
The brunt of this year’s awards came from sales of a throw blanket depicting historic Gilroy scenes. Work at the Gilroy Garlic Festival helped round out the donation pool.
“It started as a group of women in the same neighborhood that just wanted to get together and do something good for the community, and now it’s turned into this,” said Paula Goldsmith, the league’s grant chairperson and next president, of the grant efforts.
All of the group’s members read grant applications and help determine who will win awards. One of this year’s top vote-getters was the Shoebox Ministry, an organization that uses community donations to pay for and distribute clothing, Easter baskets, Christmas toys and other small gifts, as well as Christian information, for disadvantaged children and their families in local neighborhoods and shelters.
“Something like that goes over really well in our group, because the women always want to give to the children that don’t get a lot,” Goldsmith said.
The league’s $1,500 donation represents a good portion of the ministry’s fund-raising goal for this year. The group aims to increase the number of gift boxes it distributes every year, and more money also means quality gifts for teens who are harder to shop for, said coordinator Juanita Alexander-Jones.
The Christmas toys – such as dolls, cards, puzzles and yo-yos – are given out in shoeboxes – hence the title Shoebox Ministry.
The local group is modeled after a program started by Billy Graham and began out of the Emmanuel Baptist Church, but welcomes members of all congregations.
“It’s for whoever has the love for children and a compassionate heart,” Alexander-Jones said. “We welcome anyone.”
Other awards included:
• $752 for basic supplies and snacks for an Eliot School kindergarten class.
• $2,000 to help pay for the Friend and Family Fun Fest held for members of the Gilroy Community Services Department’s therapeutic recreation program.
• $2,000 for scholarships to help some kids in the South Valley Suzuki String Academy attend a summer camp for violin students.
• $2,000 for new reporting and database software that’s expected to help the St. Joseph Family Center as it gets involved in new programs.
• $750 for new photo equipment at Gilroy High School’s photo department.
• $500 for new benches in an outdoor area at the Gilroy Community Youth Center.
• $500 to help some disadvantaged Rucker Elementary students attend a sixth-grade science camp.
The throws are still available for $60 each. For information contact Rosalind Farrotte at 842-2432.
Membership in the league is capped at 35, and new members are inducted based on recommendations. There is currently a waiting list for new members, but residents can also become associate members.
For information, call Goldsmith at 847-1129.
